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'''HIAS''' (founded as the '''Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society'''<ref name="HIAS-history">{{cite web |title=History |publisher=HIAS |url=https://www.hias.org/history |access-date=October 31, 2018}}</ref>) is a [[American Jews|Jewish American]] nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees. It was originally established in 1881 to aid [[Jewish refugee]]s. In 1975, the [[State Department]] asked HIAS to aid in resettling 3,600 [[Vietnam]] refugees.{{r|HIAS-history}} Since that time, the organization continues to provide support for [[refugee]]s of all nationalities, religions, and ethnic origins. The organization works with people whose lives and freedom are believed to be at risk due to war, persecution, or violence. HIAS has offices in the United States and across Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Since its inception, HIAS has helped resettle more than 4.5 million people.
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The agreement between the three organizations stipulated that all local branches outside the U.S. would merge into HICEM, while HIAS would still deal with Jewish immigration to the U.S. However, Emigdirect was forced to withdraw from the merger in 1934, and British wartime regulations later restricted the JCA from using its funds outside [[United Kingdom|Britain]]. Thus, for a while, HICEM was funded exclusively by HIAS and could be considered as its European extension.{{r|HICEM}}
In 1923, HIAS established the HIAS Immigrant Bank at 425 Lafayette Street in the [[East Village, Manhattan|East Village]] neighborhood of [[Manhattan]]. The bank was licensed by the [[State of New York]].<ref>{{cite news |date=January 12, 1968 |title=Israel Discount Bank Buys Hias Immigrant Bank; Fiscal Statement Gives Details |url=https://www.jta.org/1968/01/12/archive/israel-discount-bank-buys-hias-immigrant-bank-fiscal-statement-gives-details|newspaper=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] |access-date=December 16, 2019}}</ref> Its sole purpose was to facilitate [[remittance]] or money transfers to and from
=== World War II and the Holocaust ===
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HICEM's European headquarters were in Paris.<ref name="findingaids">{{cite web |title=Guide to the Records of the HIAS-HICEM Offices in Europe 1924–1953 |work=[[YIVO]] Institute for Jewish Research |url=http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1309366 |access-date=December 17, 2013}}</ref> After Germany invaded and conquered France in mid-1940, HICEM closed its Paris offices. On June 26, 1940, two days after France capitulation the main HIAS-HICEM Paris Office was authorized by Portuguese ruler [[António de Oliveira Salazar]] to be transferred from Paris to Lisbon.
{{sfn|Gallagher|2020|p=122}}{{sfn|Lochery|2011|p=53}} Initially this action by Salazar was done against the will of the British Embassy in Lisbon. The British feared that this would make the Portuguese people less sympathetic with the allied cause.{{sfn|Lochery|2011|p=53}} According to the Lisbon Jewish community, Salazar held [[Moisés Bensabat Amzalak]], the leader of the [[Lisbon Jewish community]]
The French office reopened in October 1940, first in Bordeaux, for a week, and finally in Marseilles in the so-called "free zone" of [[Vichy France]].{{r|findingaids}} Until November 11, 1942, when the Germans [[Case Anton|occupied]] all of France, HICEM employees were at work in [[Internment camp|French internment camps]], such as the infamous [[Gurs internment camp|Gurs]]. HIAS looked for Jews who met [[US State Department|U.S. State Department]] immigration requirements, and were ready to leave France. At the time of the German invasion of France, there were approximately 300,000 native and foreign Jews living in France; however, the State Department's policies curbing immigration meant that the number of applicants to America far exceeded the number allowed to leave.{{Citation needed|date=December 2013}}
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On December 3, 1966, Premier [[Alexei Kosygin]] said in Paris that "if there are some families divided by the war who want to meet their relatives outside of the USSR, or even to leave the USSR, we shall do all in our power to help them, and there is no problem." In stark contrast to the premier's words, the Soviet authorities did everything in their power to prevent Jews from leaving the country, implementing [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitic]], anti-emigration campaigns that included harassment, economic pressure, and an increasingly bureaucratic visa-application process. These methods deterred many would-be applicants, who abandoned the process once their initial applications were denied.
During the early years of exodus, the number of departures depended largely on the status of the United States-Soviet relationship and on financial pragmatism. In hopes of achieving economic benefits from the US, the Soviet government sporadically opened its emigration gates, sometimes even in contradiction of its own legislation. Thus, despite the "Diploma Tax" that was instituted in December 1972 and required exiting Jews to pay for the higher education they received in the USSR, the government allowed two groups of 900 persons each to leave shortly thereafter without paying. By March 1973, the tax was revoked in the face of extreme pressure from the international public community and the Soviets' fear of not being awarded [[Most favoured nation|Most Favored Nation]] status by the U.S. In December 1973, the [[
HIAS was involved from the beginning of the Jewish exodus from the USSR. In December 1966, HIAS organized a campaign to encourage American Jews to invite their Soviet relatives to join them in the U.S. The Soviet Union initially allowed limited [[Exit visa#Exit visas|exit visas]] to the U.S., though eventually, regardless of their final destination, Soviet Jews who received permission to emigrate were granted exit visas only to Israel.
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In Washington, then-Attorney General [[Richard Thornburgh]] announced a new policy of unilateral review of all previously denied cases, using "the most generous standards for that review." The effect was immediate: INS began its review of the denied caseload in October, resulting in the overturning of more than 95 percent of the previous denials. As a result, the percentage of denials dropped from 40 to 2, eliminating the backlog.
Parallel activity was taking place in Congress, as this issue was brought to members' attention by HIAS and the Council of Jewish Federations (the precursor to the [[United Jewish Communities]]). In November 1989, President [[George H. W. Bush]] signed into law the Morrison-Lautenberg Amendment, which established that a member of a category group "may establish a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion [
In late September 1989, the State Department announced a major change in processing refugee admission for Soviet applicants. With a decreasingly hostile environment inside the USSR, the U.S. instituted a system that allowed Soviet Jews to apply and remain in country while waiting for notification of status. From autumn 1989, those seeking family reunification in the U.S. applied for immigration processing at the U.S. Consulate in Moscow.
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* Sanders, Ronald. Shores of Refuge: Hundred Years of Jewish Emigration. New York: Henry Holt & Co.: 1988.
* Schulze, Kristen. The Jews of Lebanon: Between Coexistence and Conflict. Second revised and expanded edition. Portland, Oregon: Sussex Academic Press: 2009.
* Spiegel, Philip. Triumph Over Tyranny. New
* Szulc, Tad. The Secret Alliance: The Extraordinary Story of the Rescue of the Jews Since World War II. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 1991.
* Wischnitzer, Mark. To Dwell in Safety: The Story of Jewish Migration Since 1800. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America: 1948.
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== External links ==
* [
* [http://www.hiashelp.com/ HIAS Help web site]
* [http://ajhs.org/hias-home American Jewish Historical Society HIAS institutional records archival processing project]
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