For over two decades, The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development has adapted to ever-changing circumstances on the ground and has sought to provide desperately needed direct humanitarian aid to those who need it most. Founded in 1977 as the American Palestine Educational Foundation, The Jerusalem Fund originally provided scholarships to Palestinian university students for study in Israel, the West Bank, and abroad. In the years between 1978 and 1992, nearly 8,000 scholarships were awarded totaling over $4 million in aid.

In 1981, our name was changed in order to communicate our expanded focus on direct assistance for educational, cultural, health, and community service institutions of Palestinian society.

When Israeli measures to suppress the first intifada in the Occupied Territories led to new suffering by the Palestinian people, The Jerusalem Fund initiated its Emergency Relief Assistance Program to provide Palestinian victims with emergency relief, medical care, rehabilitation, food, and shelter. Hospitals, clinics, schools, orphanages, charitable societies, human rights groups, and numerous other organizations have received Jerusalem Fund Emergency Relief grants.

Our funds originate from private individual donors in the United States and abroad. The funds raised go directly to grassroots-level community services. Through close monitoring of funded projects, strict reporting requirements, and direct visits by Jerusalem Fund staff, every effort is made to ensure that funds are used for direct assistance rather than administrative support.

In 1991, the Palestine Center was established. The Center is dedicated to the study and analysis of the relationship between the United States and the Middle East, with particular emphasis on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Center focuses on the implications of specific U.S. policies with regard to Palestine, providing a much-needed Palestinian/Arab perspective to political, academic, and media establishments in Washington, DC and the Arab world. In pursuing these goals, the Center sponsors symposia, conferences, seminars, a luncheon speaker series, and other events. The Center also maintains an ambitious publishing schedule producing works by recognized experts in their fields.

In 1998, the offices of The Jerusalem Fund and the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine were expanded and extensively renovated. A large conference facility, with seating for 150 people and featuring state-of-the-art multimedia equipment, was inaugurated in September 1998. In addition, a 3,000-volume library is available for scholars and researchers by appointment.

With the new space came the ability to host a wide variety of cultural events. In 1999, we completed our first full season of events aimed at bringing the best of Palestinian and Arab culture to the United States capital. Events included an exhibition of new paintings by internationally acclaimed Arab-American artist Leila Kubba Kawash, the premier of "Palestine: Story of a Land" by the Moroccan-Israeli film producer Simone Bittone, and a talk and book-signing by Helen Thomas, then the leading White House correspondent. We intend to expand these offerings each year and continue with outreach efforts in order to introduce more people to the diverse cultural mosaic of Palestine.

After more than two decades, The Jerusalem Fund continues to work in the areas of emergency relief assistance, education, and development even as money for these activities is drying up. Now is not the time to turn away; it takes more than media events and promises to feed a child, put a roof on a school, or buy medical equipment for a clinic. We remain committed to improving the daily lives of Palestinians living throughout the West Bank and Gaza so that they can have a peaceful and productive future.