A new organisation to promote Jewish volunteering abroad and international development has been launched with the backing of the Pears Foundation.

Olam will strengthen the work of some 40 Jewish agencies in Israel and diaspora that are currently involved in the fight against disease, poverty and hunger across the world.

Its Israel-based director, Dyonna Ginsburg, who was the Jewish Agency's director of education and service learning, said that "today's global Jewish community is blessed with unprecedented wealth and influence. Israel, which was a developing country less than 60 years ago, has a strong economy and is a world leader in many realms.

"Yet, with resources comes responsibility - a responsibility to be true to our own tradition of tikkun olam, repairing a fractured world, and to do our part to address some of the world's most complex issues, which no single organisation or funder can solve alone."

British Ambassador Matthew Gould said that global Jewish service enabled young Jews "to engage with the world in a way which emphasises, brings out and sits in the context of their Jewish identity".

We have responsibility to our own tradition of tikkun olam

A member of Olam will be based at JHub, the London centre supported by the Pears Foundation.

Olam is also backed by the Alliance for Global Good and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation.