Rescue
Yemenite Jewish refugees wait on the airstrip to board a plane to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet.
Aden, c.1949. Photograph: Al Taylor.
JDC has come to be known as the 911 of the Jewish people. At times of crisis and devastation, overseas Jewish communities have an address for assistance, be it in circumstances of war, revolution, or persecution. Highlights of JDC’s rescue efforts include work during and in the aftermath of World Wars I and II and funding and carrying out major rescue operations such as Operation Magic Carpet from Yemen and Operation Ezra and Nehemiah from Iraq, assisting Jewish refugees fleeing the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, playing a role in Operation Solomon, and rescue during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Jewish World War I refugees in Yokohama
After the 1917 Russian Revolution, thousands of Jews fled through Vladivostok to Manchuria, China, and Japan. Yokohama became an important rest stop for refugees in transit. In an early collaboration with HIAS, JDC funded their housing and other needs as they awaited more permanent resettlement opportunities.
Yokohama, Japan, c.1918.
A group of children from Vienna, Austria, aboard the S.S. President Harding passing the Statue of Liberty
Fifty children, 25 boys and 25 girls, were brought to the United States by Brith Shalom of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
New York, United States, 1930s.
Map of Shanghai with hand-drawn guide to JDC facilities
By the end of 1941, more than 20,000 Jewish refugees had fled to Shanghai. In cooperation with a local organization, JDC built an emergency relief program that sustained the refugees for the duration of the war.
Shanghai, China, c.1940.
Jewish refugees in Kobe, Japan
During 1940–1941, thousands of Polish Jewish refugees in Lithuania, among them the rabbis and student bodies of entire yeshivas, fled eastward to Japan.
Kobe, Japan, 1941.
French Jewish children wait to sail aboard the S.S. Mouzinho, which will take them from Lisbon to New York
This was a joint effort of JDC and HICEM, the JDC-funded Jewish overseas emigration association.
Lisbon, Portugal, June 10, 1941.
Three men and a young girl on horseback in the Sosua refugee settlement
In the summer of 1938, 32 countries participated in the Evian Conference on Jewish Refugees from Nazi Germany, but only the Dominican Republic offered to ease its immigration quotas. Through the Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA), JDC established and funded a thriving agricultural settlement for 700 refugees in the coastal town of Sosua.
Sosua, Dominican Republic, 1940s. Photograph: Dr. Kurt Schnitzer, Photo Conrado.
A group of Romanian children arrives in Palestine on a special transport from Istanbul as part of a Balkan rescue effort coordinated under the aegus of the U.S. War Refugee Board
Palestine, 1944. Photograph: Charles J. Handler.
Dockside scene of Jewish refugees bound for Palestine boarding the S.S. Nyassa on a special run arranged and paid for by JDC
Lisbon, Portugal, January 1944.
Polish Jewish children who fled after the 1946 pogrom in Kielce, Poland, arrive in Nachod before they are transported to the Western zone of Germany
Nachod, Czechoslovakia, c.1946.
Jewish internees leaving the British detention camp on Cyprus for emigration to Israel
In the years prior to the establishment of the State of Israel, the British diverted illegal immigrants who tried to enter Palestine to detention camps on Cyprus. JDC arranged with the British to work in the camps, providing supplementary food, education, and activities for the detainees.
Xylotymbou, Cyprus, 1949. Photograph: Fred Csasznik.
Yemenite Jewish refugees wait on the airstrip to board a plane to Israel during Operation Magic Carpet
Also known as Operation On Wings of Eagles, Operation Magic Carpet airlifted almost the entire Yemenite Jewish community to Israel.
Aden, c.1949. Photograph: Al Taylor.
Hungarian Jewish refugees on a bus supplied by JDC to take them to Salzburg
The 1956 Hungarian Revolution compelled some 18,000 Hungarian Jews to cross into Austria, where more than 11,000 of them sought JDC assistance while they waited to emigrate. JDC provided housing and food, eventually helping them to emigrate
Austria, 1956.
Ethiopian Jewish familes preparing to depart for Israel on Operation Solomon
JDC coordinated this operation with the Israeli military, the Jewish Agency, and the Government of Israel to airlift more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 36 hours.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1991.
A young boy leaves home on a bus, part of a JDC rescue convoy from Sarajevo during the Balkan Wars
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1994. Photograph: Edward Serotta.
Exhibit
Everything Possible:
JDC and the Children of the DP Camps
Featuring historic photographs from the JDC Archives, focuses on JDC’s significant efforts on behalf of children in the displaced persons camps established by the Allied Armed Forces after World War II. JDC was permitted to enter the camps to supplement minimal provisions with critical nutritional, medical, educational, and religious services for survivors.
