Charities and Social Welfare Organizations in Jordan: Negotiating the Islamic Modern

Abstract

Jordanian charities and social welfare organizations have—as previously indicated—a long history, even preceding the foundation of the modern Jordanian state. While most of the earliest charities limited their activities to serving specific ethnic or religious communities, the first organizations with a broader reach emerged during the interwar period. The Jordanian Youth League, for instance, was established in 1937 and the Women’s Social Solidarity Society in 1944 (Harmsen 2008, 155). Following the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and the influx of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, the country witnessed a pronounced increase in voluntary activism and the foundation of numerous new social welfare organizations, among others the Jordanian Red Crescent, which was established in 1951. Since then the number of charities has grown steadily, reaching an estimated figure of more than 800 organizations in 2006 (Kassim 2006).