Image by Getty Images

French Jewish groups, including Western Europe’s largest charity for Jews, signed a declaration of principles for coordinated efforts to provide relief for Syrian refugees.

The declaration, initiated by French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia and published Thursday, states each of the six co-signatory groups will “act to accompany the refugees, each according to its competences and abilities and with its traditional partners,” but “especially in administrative and medical matters.”

In recent weeks, tens of thousands of migrants, including refugees, have entered the European Union, where a strong public reaction developed to the publication of images of the migrants’ plight and the loss of life among refugees who drowned or suffocated while trying to make it across the border.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Many are refugees from the civil war in Syria. Others come from failed or impoverished countries in the Middle East and Africa.

The signatories to Korsia’s declaration — including the Fonds Social Juif Unifie, which has an annual budget of roughly $10 million and the Union of Jewish Students of France, or UEJF — wrote that their initiative was “guided by the notion of tikkun olam – repairing the world – in Jewish philosophy and out of awareness of a moral struggle occurring in a society too characterized, at times, by individualism.”

CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, did not sign Korsia’s declaration but has none the less given it its blessing, according to Korsia’s office.

The coalition of organizations will soon begin collecting and distributing clothes for young children among the migrants, read the statement, which also praised France’s decision to take in 24,000 refugees.

In neighboring Belgium, the left-leaning CCLJ Jewish cultural group last month also called on European governments to act “generously,” but warned against a possible increase in anti-Semitic violence because of the arrival of migrants from the Middle East, who today across Western Europe are believed to be behind most anti-Semitic violence.

The Central Jewish Organization of Dutch Jews made a similar statement.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount