Wrestling with Chaos

Chaotic wartime conditions made relief work slow and unpredictable. Through trial and error, JDC administrators learned whom they could trust, and how best to ship goods to their intended beneficiaries. A series of durable relationships were gradually established with government officials, diplomatic envoys, and regional groups. In the midst of these large endeavors, JDC helped individuals divided by war to maintain contact.

Through the entire war, JDC fed Jerusalem’s hungry through existing facilities, such as the Teresa Dreyfus and Nathan Straus Soup Kitchens, and through newly created kitchens and distribution centers. In 1921, 1,800 poor from all backgrounds were still receiving at least one meal a day at the Dreyfus Soup Kitchen. Palestine, c. 1921, <em>NY_00047</em>.

In February 1916, JDC shipped a consignment of medicine and matzoh on the U.S.S. Sterling for Palestine by way of Alexandria. <em>AR 14-18, File 123</em>.
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In May, 1918, the Zionist Commission and Jewish community of Jerusalem held a reception for General Sir Edmund Allenby, leader of the British military campaign. With him were the commission head, Chaim Weizmann, fellow commissioners and British liaison officers, Major Ormsby-Gore and Major de Rothschild, and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. Another commissioner, David de Sola Pool, became JDC’s Palestine representative. Palestine, 1918, <em>NY_00174</em>.

Providing for Palestine

A majority of Palestine’s 82,000 Jews required some relief during the war. Besides blockading European shipments, the Turkish military commandeered all transport. The U.S. Consul first supervised JDC aid. Later, JDC appointed its own representative.

The Joint Distribution Committee met regularly to resolve a shifting array of challenges. This meeting took place in the office of JDC’s Chairman Felix Warburg (front center). One of its major supporters, Jacob Schiff, was seated to his right. U.S., 1918, Underwood and Underwood, <em>NY_03405</em>.

Wartime conditions made it impossible for American Jews to send money to relatives overseas. JDC opened a Transmission Bureau on January 1, 1915, with additional branches later in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and San Francisco. At the Educational Alliance, a haven for Jewish immigrants on New York's Lower East Side, a branch operated only on Saturday evenings. People lined up to make deposits, generally $5 or $10. By August 1918, the Bureau had handled close to $608,000 in remittances. U.S., c. 1918, <em>NY_03488</em>.

Early on, JDC partnered in Europe with the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA or JCA), transmitting funds for Russia and its vast territories through the U.S. State Department. The Jewish Committee to Aid Victims of War (EKOPO) in Petrograd then dispensed the aid to relief committees throughout Russia, Poland, Romania, and Lithuania. In coordination with other Jewish agencies, these emergency provisions reached schools, hospitals, orphan homes, medical institutions, and the ever growing tide of refugees. <em>AR 14-18, File 143.1</em>. <a href="http://archives.jdc.org/assets/documents/ar1418_-f143_1.pdf" target="_blank">View this document as a PDF</a>

Facing Upheaval in Europe

By the end of 1915, JDC was providing food and other necessities to starving Jews in Eastern Europe. As long as the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires controlled vast territories and America remained neutral, this was done through established European philanthropic organizations.

Among the refugees fleeing Palestine during the war, were thousands of American citizens. This first group of refugees had a slow and arduous journey across Turkey and many other countries to Switzerland, arriving many months later in New York. A second group followed. JDC advanced funds for trip expenses on behalf of their waiting families. U.S., 1917, <em>NY_04924</em>.

An urgent letter from the rabbi of Stockholm to the American Jewish Relief Committee described the upheaval facing Jews expelled from the Russian territories of Poland in May 1915. <em>AR 14-18, File 113</em>.
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Elderly refugees, like this 75-year-old woman arriving in Bucharest, had the hardest time surviving the rigorous journey to safety. Romania, c. 1917, <em>NY_14405</em>.

Dislocated Lives

Entire Jewish shtetls and towns fell apart as homes and the civic institutions supporting community life were destroyed. Civilian populations treated like enemies were forced or frightened into flight to whichever places had not yet been caught up in the turmoil.

One of the desperately poor institutions in Jerusalem receiving help from JDC during the war was Beth Zekenim Hasephardi (the Sephardic Home for the Aged). Palestine, c. 1921, <em>NY_00050</em>.

Food from Hadassah's Central Kitchen was distributed to JDC-supported centers throughout Jerusalem. Additionally, bread was provided daily for thousands of school children and orphans. Palestine, c. 1920, <em>NY_00002</em>.

A daily meal at JDC-funded food centers kept many Jews from starving. These children waited in a soup line in Lvov. Poland (now Ukraine), c. 1919, <em>NY_01951</em>.

Throughout the war, JDC provided meals for children at schools and nurseries. At Mendele’s Kindergarten and Community School in Bialystok, a hot lunch was much appreciated. Poland, 1918, <em>NY_01435</em>.

Relief Arrives

JDC subsidized locally-run soup kitchens and food distribution centers in Palestine and Eastern Europe. Eventually, it opened additional facilities. In one month in 1917, JDC served meals to over 600,000 people in Warsaw alone.

In August 1917, the new Holland Branch began its work. JDC sent Boris Bogen (sixth from left) and Max Senior (sixth from right) to supervise. With the help of Dutch diplomatic personnel all over the world, nearly $2 million was channeled to local committees in war-torn Jewish communities of Palestine and Europe. Holland, c. 1917, <em>Central News Photo Service, NYC, NY_36298.</em> Note: Among those crucial to JDC’s early development, Boris Bogen has been singled out for this exhibit. His involvement in events of that time reflected JDC’s evolving role.

Money was sent from New York to Washington, D.C. to Holland. Following JDC instructions, the new Branch then distributed funds. Eventually, needed supplies reached the waiting communities. Armed conflict and other regional conditions made this difficult. <em>New York Times, July 2, 1917</em>.
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Jewish prisoners of war received JDC food packages through Holland and the Red Shield of David Society in Switzerland. For Passover 1917 and 1918, JDC obtained special War Trade Board licenses to send matzoh to POW's, chiefly from Russia and Romania, in German camps. A Passover meal at Skalmiershutz, five miles from the Polish frontier. Germany, 1917, <em>NY_36363</em>.

A Branch in Holland

Once America entered the war (April 2, 1917), it was no longer possible to distribute aid through German or Austrian organizations. Backed by the U.S. and Dutch Governments, JDC established its first overseas branch in neutral Holland to work closely with a relief committee of Dutch Jews.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee