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A Jewish youth on an agricultural training farm that prepared Jewish refugees for life in Palestine, sponsored by the Joint Distribution Committee. Fuerth, Germany, June 13, 1946. See more photographs |
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AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE AND REFUGEE AID |
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Founded in 1914 by prominent American Jews, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC or "Joint") became the primary communal agency for overseas relief and rehabilitation. During the 1930s, the American Jewish community aided European Jews primarily through relief aid funded by the JDC. The JDC's European headquarters in Berlin was ransacked in 1933, three months after Hitler assumed power; the office was relocated to Paris. Throughout the decade, the JDC painted a realistic picture of the plight of Jews overseas and managed to obtain sizeable contributions for overseas relief. Despite the Depression, contributions to the JDC actually increased as American Jews became increasingly aware of the dangers and hardships facing their European brethren. The German advance forced the closing of the Paris office in 1940. |
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Between 1929 and 1939 the JDC raised and spent almost 25 million dollars on relief; between 1939 and 1945, it raised more than 70 million dollars; and between 1945 and 1948, it raised almost 200 million dollars for refugee aid. Until the United States entered the war in December 1941, the JDC sent food and money by various means to Poland, Lithuania, and other German-occupied countries. JDC officials also helped central European Jews to find asylum through emigration to various parts of the world. The JDC supplied money to support imperiled Jews throughout Europe--including those trapped in ghettos in Poland. It funded orphanages, children's centers, schools, hospitals, housing committees, public kitchens, and various cultural institutions. |
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After America entered the war against Germany, the JDC was no longer permitted to operate inside German-controlled territory. Even so, the JDC helped rescue Jews in Hungary in 1944 by providing funds to support children's shelters under international protection and helping to fund the rescue operations of neutral diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz. The JDC also sent thousands of relief packages to Jewish refugees in the Soviet Union. |
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The JDC provided material support and facilitated the emigration of refugees who had escaped to neutral countries including Portugal and Turkey or who had found refuge in other Axis countries, including Vichy France and Japan. Following the liberation of Paris in 1944, the JDC office reopened there. After the war, the JDC--working together with the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), and other organizations--became the central Jewish agency supporting survivors in the displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, as well as other Jewish survivors throughout Europe. The JDC provided food to augment official rations; supplied clothing, books, and school supplies for children; supported cultural amenities; and bought religious supplies for the community. After Israel was established in May 1948, the JDC facilitated Jewish immigration to the new state. |
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