United Israel Appeal, a subsidiary of The Jewish Federations of North America allocates and oversees the funds distributed to the Jewish Agency from the Jewish Federations’ Annual Campaign. For more than five decades, United Israel Appeal has been the recipient of a U.S. Government grant, which is sub-granted to the Jewish Agency, to bring humanitarian migrants from distressed countries to Israel.

A considerable portion of the funds is used to bring Ethiopian Jews and humanitarian migrants from the FSU to Israel and to settle them in temporary housing. The grant was initiated by Congress during the early 1970s in response to the first large influx of Soviet Jews to Israel. The State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration supervises grant programs. Key members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have provided the leadership to assure continued support. Over the years, members of Congress have recognized the continuing responsibility to help bring Jews to Israel from distressed countries based on the principle that free emigration is a hallmark of a democratic society, and therefore a priority of the U.S. Congress. They look upon this grant as a concrete expression of these values.