Created in 2001 to educate, advocate and preserve the history and heritage of the 850,000 Sephardi and Mizrachi Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, JIMENA is the primary North American organization working to advance the interests of Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews in communal and public spaces. Plays a key role in international initiatives to document, advance and preserve their heritage and history and include it in public discourse involving Middle Eastern refugees.

Strengthens Jewish cultural continuity with Israel and the larger Middle East, enriches the Jewish identities, experiences and knowledge of students and young adults, builds inclusive communities and engagement opportunities for Jewish Americans and creates balance in attitudes, narratives and discourse about the Middle East.

Programs fall into two main categories:

1. Advocacy: This work primarily encompasses efforts to safeguard and restitute confiscated Jewish cultural property in and from the Middle East and North Africa. JIMENA also leverages its unique intersectional position in campaigns to combat antisemitism.
2. Education and Engagement: Core to this work is sharing personal stories of Mizrachi and Sephardi Jews and using these stories to educate the public. These broad, expansive initiatives reach hundreds of thousands of individuals around the world on a weekly basis.