History & Media Archive

The Jerusalem Interest-Free Microfinance Fund was founded in 2008 by Jewish and Muslim Londoners, out of a shared conviction that economic need in Jerusalem could be answered with a shared economic response.

Jewish economist Donald Franklin and Muslim interfaith campaigner Fiyaz Mughal, drawing on the common root of tzedakah and zakat in the Jewish and Islamic traditions, wanted to build something both halacha and sharia compliant: a fund that could extend contact between the two communities in a way that was constructive rather than merely symbolic. Mughal, founder of the UK interfaith organisation “Faith Matters”, brought a parallel commitment to reducing inter-communal suspicion through practical cooperation rather than dialogue alone.

Seeded by UK charitable trusts, JIMF ran its first two pilot programmes in 2009 and 2010. Over this period, more than 55 women received intensive business training and over 30 received interest-free loans to launch or expand businesses, including nurseries, graphic designers studios, apparel makers, pastry businesses, jewellers, and therapists, at an average loan size of 18,000 shekels. Every participant received structured support delivered through MATI Jerusalem, typically comprising 56 hours of group workshops, five hours of pre-loan one-to-one mentoring, direct help writing a business plan, and ten hours of post-loan follow-up. This pairing of capital with close guidance at the critical post-disbursement stage was, from the outset, what distinguished JIMF's model.

The pilot programs were oversubscribed, and the results affirmed the founders' original premise. In April 2010, Arab and Charedi participants from the first cohort came together for a joint workshop — nine women exchanging stories, debating marketing techniques, and demonstrating in practice what JIMF had set out to prove: that economic cooperation across communal lines was not only possible, but powerful.

Building on the pilots, JIMF has gradually grown to a point where it is lending to 40 to 50 women each year, distributing around 650,000 shekels p.a.  Most of these loans are for 18,000 shekels, but about a quarter are for 10,000 shekels to support vocational training courses, and a small but growing proportion are for larger loans, typically required in West Jerusalem businesses, of up to 40,000 shekels.

In its second decade, JIMF partnered with the global microfinance platform Kiva, through which it raised over $215,000 in loans across a ten-year collaboration before the partnership concluded. 

A six-year evaluation conducted by EDU Station, surveying women who received loans between 2015 and 2019, examined the fund's impact on business development, family wellbeing, and the effectiveness of MATI's training — confirming the model's continued relevance well beyond the original pilots.

What has not changed across more than fifteen years is the JIMF founding principle: that financial support, paired with rigorous business guidance, is a gateway to self-sufficiency that, when multiplied across communities, is a foundation for a more cohesive city.

JIMF in the Media

Light in the Israel-Palestine darkness

In December 2009, Seth Freedman wrote: "JIMF has undoubtedly changed lives, both of the women who borrowed the money as well as their dependents who benefit from the fruit of their labour. However, an even greater achievement is the collective impact the project has had on both the Jewish and Arab communities, who have put aside sectarian splits and suspicions to work together to better their futures. At a time when there seems little about which to be hopeful in the region at political level, ground-breaking initiatives such as this are worth their weight in gold."
The Guardian, Comment is Free, 7 December 2009: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/dec/07/israel-palestine-jerusalem-microfinance-fund

Israeli Jews and Arabs find hope in microfinance fund

In October 2008, Karin Kloosterman profiled the fund's founders and rationale in a feature on how shared economic opportunity could ease inter-communal suspicion in Jerusalem: https://archive.israel21c.org/israeli-jews-and-arabs-find-hope-in-microfinance-fund/ 

Micro-Loans In Israel

A Jewish Telegraphic Agency article from 11 May 2010 covers JIMF's founding and pilot programme alongside other Israeli microfinance initiatives. The piece quotes Franklin describing the dynamic between the two communities: "There's a mutual sense of victimhood," says Franklin, adding that "there's surprise within the Muslim community that there is poverty on the other side." https://www.jta.org/2010/05/11/ny/micro-loans-in-israel