"Jewish Nobel" Laureate Anish Kapoor Pledges $1m Genesis Prize to Refugee Causes

London (ots/PRNewswire) -

David Miliband's International Rescue Committee Major Beneficiary
of Kapoor's Gift

The Genesis Prize Foundation (GPF) and 2017 Genesis Prize Laureate
and world-renowned artist and human rights activist Anish Kapoor
today announced grants to five prominent NGOs engaged in alleviating
the global refugee crisis.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/629297/Anish_Kapoor.jpg )

The recipient organizations assist refugees globally and include
the International Rescue Committee (IRC), led by its president David
Miliband, as well as the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees
(MFA), HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Help
Refugees, and Hillel International.

The grants are funded by the $1 million Genesis Prize, dubbed the
"Jewish Nobel" by TIME Magazine. Anish Kapoor has chosen to focus on
refugees as an expression both of his lifelong commitment to
supporting excluded people and as an expression of core Jewish
values.

The Genesis Prize honors extraordinary individuals who serve as an
inspiration to the next generation of Jews through their outstanding
professional achievement, and commitment to the Jewish people and
Jewish values, such as social justice, tolerance and charity.
Laureates of the Genesis Prize include Michael R. Bloomberg (2014),
Michael Douglas (2015), Itzhak Perlman (2016), and Natalie Portman
(2018). In November 2017, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Genesis
Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kapoor and The Genesis Prize Foundation have teamed up with the
IRC to improve community health services for refugees in northern
Uganda and to provide life-saving access to safe water for the
Rohingya ethnic minority group in the Rakhine state in Myanmar.
Genesis funds will also support the expansion into Italy of
Refugee.Info, a digital platform, which harnesses social media and
other digital tools to ensure that refugees have access to the
critical information they need to make informed decisions about their
lives.

Additionally, Kapoor's $1 million Genesis Prize will fund the
following activities:

- Providing life-saving winterization to five refugee camps in Greece
and a refugee camp in Calais, France, including the funding of food
and the most essential winter equipment (through Help Refugees)
- Shipping 36 containers of aid to Syrian refugees (through
Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees); the contents of the first
two containers that MFA will ship under the Genesis Prize program
will have a combined value of $20.7 million in medicines and
medical equipment
- Strengthening the capacity of local leaders in communities across
America to advocate in support of immigrants and refugees to the
U.S. (through HIAS); the amount of the grant was doubled as a
result of recent policy debate in Washington aimed at curtailing
the number of immigrants and refugees from certain countries that
the U.S. would accept in the future
- Bringing thousands of Jewish students and young adult volunteers
together to assemble aid packages for 5,000 Syrian refugees
(through Hillel International, in collaboration with the Joint
Distribution Committee)

These grants come on the heels of an earlier announcement of a
major grant from GPF to Ziv hospital in northern Israel to fund
hearing restoration for Syrian children brought from the neighbouring
conflict zone. The Ziv grant was made in partnership with Israeli
philanthropist Morris Kahn.

Anish Kapoor said: "Like many Jews, I do not have to go far back
in my family history to find people who were refugees. Directing
Genesis Prize funds to this cause is a way of helping people who,
like my forebears not too long before them, are fleeing persecution.

"In recent months, awareness of the plight faced by tens of
millions of refugees and displaced persons worldwide has fallen
significantly while the refugee crisis continues unabated. I believe
in a world of compassion, and am fortunate to be able to work with
The Genesis Prize Foundation and the terrific NGOs receiving our
grants to bring more compassion into the world."

Michael Fridman, co-founder of The Genesis Prize Foundation, said:
"I believe it is a moral obligation of every Jew to do whatever he or
she can to help refugees, displaced people, and those seeking asylum.
There was a time not too long ago when the world turned its back on
Jewish refugees, with calamitous results. We, Jews, should not allow
history to repeat itself when it comes to other persecuted peoples
and religious and ethnic minorities. Otherwise, we have learned
nothing from history." In addition to co-founding The Genesis Prize
Foundation, Fridman is a major contributor to many other Jewish and
Israel-focused philanthropic initiatives, including the recently
announced renovation of the Israeli Lounge at the Kennedy Center in
Washington, DC.

President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, David
Miliband, himself a son of Jewish refugees, said: "Grants like the
one from The Genesis Prize Foundation are vital to supporting our
work as we grapple with the largest displacement crisis since the
Second World War, affecting a staggering 65 million people.

"We are grateful to The Genesis Prize Foundation, which is leading
the way in raising awareness of the refugee issue in the Jewish
community. It is more important than ever for people to help those
who have been forced to flee their homes. With these funds, the IRC
will have the ability to provide much-needed resources and support to
displaced people in areas across Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia."

ots Originaltext: The Genesis Prize
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Contact:
James Rollinson
Edelman
Tel:+44(0)20-3047-2194
Email: james.rollinson@edelman.com

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