Created in 2001 to educate, advocate and preserve the history and heritage of the 850,000 Sephardi and Mizrahi Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa, JIMENA is the primary North American organization that is actively working to advance the interests of Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in communal and public spaces. Takes 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.

JIMENA strengthens Jewish cultural continuity with Israel and the larger Middle East; enriches the Jewish identities, experiences and knowledge of students and young adults;. It provides and 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 uses its unique intersectional position on campaigns to combat antisemitism.

2. Education and Engagement: Core to this work has been sharing personal stories of Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, and using these stories to educate the public. These are broad, expansive initiatives that are reaching hundreds of thousands of individuals around the world on a weekly basis.