Laura Hendy

In 2022, World Jewish Relief realised that it needed to do more on the climate crisis. We had already been implementing emergency response programmes through our network of local partner NGOs, but we needed to be more proactive on this crucial issue. This article will outline how we have begun to do so, including the approach we took to programme design, the challenges we have faced and the lessons we are taking forward.

This report makes the case for why faith-based, humanitarian charities should be adjusting their work to ensure they are building long-term climate resilience, rather than only focusing on short-term, emergency responses. To do so, it explains the basics of climate science for a non-expert audience, summarises the expected impacts of the climate crisis and the humanitarian imperative to address them, and explains how key Jewish values are being threatened by the climate crisis. It then sets out how World Jewish Relief is structuring its own work on resilience building, mitigation, adaptation and preparedness, to set an example for how their own organisation could begin to enter such a huge sphere of work.