Tumultuous Times - Great Needs

Russian crops had been seized during periods of war and civil strife; farmers cut back production in response. Revolutionary shifts in land ownership worsened conditions, and finally, drought brought famine. Beyond the threat of starvation, Jews suffered further ravages from pogroms. The Soviet Union accepted outside aid from the American Relief Administration (ARA) in August 1921 until June 1923. JDC partnered with ARA to bring food and medical relief to the region. In late 1922, JDC also initiated its own programs.

Over 2,000 pogroms took place in the Ukraine in the years after the Russian Revolution; an estimated 150,000 Jews were murdered. Hundreds of thousands of children were left without parents, or homes. In Uman, Kiev District, a JDC-funded program fed 850 children and clothed 700. Ukraine, 1923, <em>NY_00472</em>.

A soup kitchen in Aleksandrovsk (later Zaporozhye) subsidized by JDC. Ukraine, 1922, <em>NY_00396.</em>

In October 1921, postal connections between Russia and the US were reestablished. ARA cleared the way for $10 food packages to be purchased in America and sent to individuals in famine-struck areas of the Soviet Union. JDC quickly began gathering subscriptions from American Jews for their needy relatives and friends. By December 1922, around $8 million worth of sugar, rice, vegetable oil, tea, flour, and canned milk had been shipped. As ARA required, half the packages went to non-Jews. Clients lined up to receive their packages in JDC’s warehouse Kremenchug. Ukraine, c. 1922, <em>NY_00446</em>.

Averting Starvation

As the largest single donor to ARA programs in the Soviet Union, JDC spent about 8 million for nonsectarian relief through 1922. Although Soviet authorities denied famine in the Ukraine, JDC persuaded ARA to investigate conditions there. By August, 2 million Ukrainians survived thanks to soup kitchens, food packages, clothing, fuel, and orphan care.

Boris Bogen, JDC’s Director for Russian Relief, wrote in 1923 that Ekaterinoslav (later Dnepropetrovsk), center of the South Russian coal industry before the Revolution, was “absolutely at a standstill.” In the first four months alone, JDC provided over 300 carloads of coal to the general population and local social service institutions. Ukraine, c. 1923, <em>NY_00416</em>.

Feeding under ARA was limited to one meal a day, enough to prevent starvation, but not provide sufficient nutrition. JDC saw to it that Jewish children’s institutions had the supplementary amounts needed. JDC paid for the care of these orphans, through support of children’s homes. This orphanage in Zhabokrich, Vinnitsa District, consisted of two rooms in a private house. Ukraine, c. 1923, <em>NY_00473</em>.

Soviet era constraints on religious observance limited JDC’s role. Where possible however, assistance was given to support rabbis and religious groups. JDC subsidized the purchase of flour for the baking of matzah so that needy Jews in the Ukraine could celebrate Passover in the midst of great hardship. Distributing matzah from a Kharkov warehouse, Ukraine, c. 1923, <em>NY_00419</em>.

A Freer Hand

In late 1922, JDC obtained Soviet permission to operate on its own in Russia independently from ARA. This enabled JDC to supplement existing levels of food, clothing, shoes, medicine, and fuel provisions. To make relief work more constructive, local Jewish welfare institutions were revived or created: homes for orphans, the disabled, and the elderly.

JDC gave priority to children and mothers. It organized and subsidized baby health and milk stations in the ten cities and towns most impacted by pogroms. Community-based organizations, like this children’s polyclinic in Vinnitsa, were enlisted to operate facilities. Ukraine, c.1923,<em>NY_00465</em>.

Before World War I, the Jewish Community of Ekaterinoslav independently operated a hospital, home for the elderly, two orphanages and 21 schools. After the devastation of the war and the Revolution, JDC helped re-establish and expand these services. A Jewish polyclinic, Ekaterinoslav District. Ukraine, 1923, <em>NY_00410</em>.

Prescription for Health

The Russian Revolution left large masses of Jews labeled as “unproductive citizens” by the State. Those who made their living in trade, along with the elderly, disabled, and unemployed, were deemed ineligible for medical attention and other government services. JDC organized or reequipped 54 local medical institutions, to serve this population.

One of JDC’s first approaches towards reconstruction in the Ukraine was establishing cooperative savings and loan societies for Jews living in cities and towns. This work was done in cooperation with the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA). Attending the first national conference of these associations in Kharkov, were Boris Bogen, JDC’s Supervisor for Russian Relief, and Dr. Joseph Rosen, its Reconstruction Supervisor (front, respectively fourth and fifth from left). Ukraine, 1923, <em>NY_00544</em>.

Soviet government policies discouraged work in trade, and permitted Jews (previously blocked from owning land) to take up farming. A portion of JDC’s Russian reconstruction funds helped restore existing agricultural colonies (affecting 10,000 families) and assisted thousands of would-be settlers. JDC’s early colony work involved collaboration with ORT (Society for the Promotion of Handicraft and Agricultural Work among Russian Jews) and the Russian-based EKOPO (Yidezkom). In spring 1923, these Jewish colonists met with representatives of the three supporting organizations. Crimea, 1923, <em>NY_00864</em>.

A Leg Up

By late 1922, JDC's efforts for Russia’s Jews expanded beyond relief to reconstruction programs geared at making them economically self-sufficient, respected members of the new Soviet society. Industrial development was still quite limited. JDC supported handcraft training, artisan cooperatives, interest-free loans, and an expanding agricultural program.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

Archives

Beyond Relief: JDC's Work in the Ukraine and Crimea between the Wars

Tumultuous Times - Great Needs

Averting Starvation

A Freer Hand

Prescription for Health

A Leg Up