HAIS.ORG
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Once a proud cornerstone of Jewish humanitarian relief, HIAS—the organization originally known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society—has undergone a dramatic transformation, departing from its foundational purpose of aiding Jewish immigrants in search of refuge and freedom. According to a report by the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS), HIAS, which began its operations in 1903 but traces its roots to the Jewish immigrant experience of the 1880s, now finds itself unmoored from the values and priorities that once defined it.
Once a sanctuary for Jews fleeing persecution in Europe and across the globe, HIAS now primarily devotes its efforts to resettling immigrants from Muslim-majority countries and regions in Central and South America—populations far removed from the Jewish communities the organization was originally created to assist. This stark mission shift has drawn growing concern among critics who argue that HIAS has not only abandoned its Jewish-centric identity but has also aligned itself with controversial partners and political causes.
JNS reported that HIAS President Mark Hetfield acknowledged that the organization had been forced to furlough or terminate more than 100 employees—roughly 40% of its entire global workforce—as a direct result of funding cuts to refugee services enacted under the Trump administration. “We never, ever thought, in our worst-case scenario planning, that they would literally rip up all of our contracts and grant agreements,” Hetfield told eJewishPhilanthropy.
The crisis prompted HIAS to shutter several of its overseas offices and significantly reduce its operational footprint. Hetfield admitted that by the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, the organization would become “a very different agency with a much smaller footprint.”
Yet even before the Trump funding cuts, HIAS was already grappling with internal mismanagement. According to Hetfield, the organization was previously forced to lay off over 20% of its staff due to what he called a “financial error” that left the nonprofit more than $20 million over budget.
Ex-employees are “competing for employment with massive numbers of other people who were laid off at the same time,” Hetfield said. “These are people that are completely dedicated to humanitarian work, and they’re gonna have to find something else to do.”
Rather than recalibrate its operations or reorient toward its original Jewish mission, HIAS opted instead to take a litigious and politically combative approach. As reported by JNS, the organization “launched and joined a series of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s executive orders” concerning immigration policy. Critics argue that this shift further illustrates HIAS’s prioritization of political advocacy over community service—pushing the organization further into ideological territory rather than humanitarian work grounded in its historic mission.
Perhaps most troubling is HIAS’s association with organizations that have drawn intense scrutiny for their radical affiliations and disturbing rhetoric. As JNS detailed in a September 20202 report, HIAS maintains partnerships with groups such as Islamic Relief USA and Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)— organizations that have faced credible allegations of ties to terrorist entities and have made inflammatory statements about Jews.
JNS reported that leadership figures within IRW have publicly referred to Jews as “the grandchildren of monkeys and pigs,” echoing deeply antisemitic slurs. Even more chillingly, IRW officials have lauded Hamas—a U.S.-designated terrorist organization—as “the purest resistance movement in modern history.” That HIAS would maintain affiliations with such groups has alarmed many in the Jewish community who see this not merely as a betrayal of mission, but a moral failure.
What was once a pillar of Jewish communal responsibility has now, in the eyes of many observers, morphed into a politically driven organization unmoored from its roots. The growing concern is not simply that HIAS has expanded its purview—but that it has fundamentally reshaped its identity in ways that undermine its legitimacy within the Jewish communal sphere.
While the world’s refugee crises are complex and worthy of concern, the decision by HIAS to abandon its focus on Jewish resettlement and partner with entities hostile to Jewish interests marks a troubling turn. The consequences of this ideological shift are already apparent—both in the organization’s financial instability and in the erosion of trust among segments of the Jewish community.
Whether HIAS can—or should—reclaim its original mission remains an open question. But what is increasingly clear is that the organization no longer resembles the institution it once was. For many, this transformation represents not progress, but a profound loss.
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This organization needs to be disbanded. It has changed from a laudable organization to an EVIL antisemitic leftist enemy. This is part of the American Democrat war on Israel and the Jewish people.