Informed Function - An Outstretched Arm

A Joint Effort: JDC's Beginnings, 1914-1921

Informed Function [An Outstretched Arm]

While JDC field reports revealed a growing number of pressing needs abroad, contributions in America were shrinking. Every dollar needed to be spent as judiciously as possible. A successful outcome required functionally-run departments that were broadly coordinated yet flexible enough to address locally specific needs. These were launched in the fall of 1920.

Cities and towns could be reached by trains (where they were still operating), but JDC staff depended on cars and trucks to reach hundreds of more isolated villages and to move quickly from one place to another. Still, most motor vehicles of that time were open to the elements, required hand-cranking to start the engine, and reached a top speed of 40-45 mph. Roads could not be counted on, either. Poland, c. 1920, <em>NY_05102</em>.

When no other means of transportation was available, JDC representatives made do with horse-drawn wagons. On this trip between Dubno and Rovno, one horse collapsed from exhaustion. Poland (now Ukraine), c. 1921, <em>NY_01705</em>.

Many hands were needed to get this JDC vehicle across a river on a crude wooden bridge during a field trip to Rovno, Dubno, and Polonnoye. By November 1920, the Poland Branch had 20 cars and 40 trucks for such trips. Poland (now Ukraine), c. 1920, <em>NY_01703</em>.

The sight of JDC workers bringing food drew attention from hungry villagers in Dachowa. Where 500 Jewish homes stood before the war, fewer than ten remained. JDC would soon provide reconstruction help as well as immediate aid. Poland, c. 1920-1921, <em>NY_01725</em>.

Getting Around

Getting food, packages, remittances, and correspondence to individuals was critical. A new Shipping Department based in Poland purchased warehouses, cars and trucks to serve close to 4,000 communities. JDC field workers could now reach the most isolated towns. But it was still no small task to deliver the goods.

Shoes and clothing -- from underwear to overcoats -- became treasures beyond reach due to sky-rocketing prices, devalued currency, and curtailed production. These desperate people in Moscow received shoes from JDC. Russia, c. 1920, <em>NY_00589</em>.

JDC provided $500,000 in clothing to children in Poland through ARA's European Children's Fund. Shoes, hats, and stockings were furnished to these orphans in Grodno, but other items were still in short supply. To bridge the gap, JDC workers converted the sacks which had carried flour for the poor. Poland (now Belarus), c. 1920, <em>International News Photos, NY_01952</em>.

As prices climbed and supplies dwindled, thousands ended up shoeless and in rags. Itemized lists of goods in JDC warehouses made designated shipping possible with short notice. This one from the central warehouse in Warsaw appeared in the JDC <em>Information Service Letter, September 1920</em>. <em>AR 19-21, File 45</em>.

One Step Ahead of Winter

A London Purchasing Department coordinated purchases, working with agents in other countries to secure the best prices. In the first seven months of 1920, it distributed $900,000 in clothing to Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, and Austria and sent $500,000 in supplies for local clothing manufacture by Jews in Eastern Europe.

Because currency during war was unstable, JDC sometimes sent supplies, sometimes cash. Local committees dispersed these funds. Once JDC opened distribution offices in cities like Sighet, money was transmitted through them. Romania, 1919, <em>NY_00936</em>.

The ongoing war between Poland and Russia made travel to precarious border towns especially dangerous. On a trip to Brest, Kovel, Kobryn, Domoczowe, Kamianitz Lit, Luck, Vilna, Brody, Lvov, Lublin, and Warsaw, JDC staffer Abraham Zucker and his Polish guards ran into vehicle trouble only 8 miles from the front line. Poland (now Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland), c. 1920, <em>NY_04637</em>.

The dangers faced by members of the Overseas Unit became tragically apparent when two JDC workers were murdered. Professor Israel Friedlander and Dr. Bernard Cantor (front center and right) were killed in July 1920, while bringing aid to war and pogrom victims in Ukraine. <em>NY_01698</em>.

In the summer of 1920, Soviet troops brought their battle with Polish forces to the very gates of Warsaw. On Franciszkanska Street, whatever Jewish properties withstood the battle were looted and damaged in its aftermath. Poland, c. 1920, <em>NY_01660</em>.

Staying the Course in Volatile Times

Wartime conditions greatly impeded relief efforts. JDC continued on in the face of chaos: battleground dangers, military blockades, transportation breakdowns, supply shortages, and steeply fluctuating currencies. Delays, sometimes months long, were common. The murder of two JDC representatives saddened all, but did not impede further operations.

Soldiers from many nations were imprisoned during the war. Around 160,000 POWs from the German and Austro-Hungarian armies languished in Siberian camps, including 10,000 Jews. In Spring 1919, Dr. Frank Rosenblatt arrived with JDC funds and clothes and, later that year, opened a Far East Branch in Vladivostok to aid the displaced. A Prisoner of War ID card. Russia, c. 1920, <em>POW Vladivostok ID</em>.

JDC's Far East Branch in Vladivostok assisted POWs, transmitting mail to relatives abroad, providing information on passports and visas, organizing camp welfare committees, and arranging hospital care for the seriously ill. In April 1920, the Fund for Repatriation of Siberian War Prisoners was established, financed chiefly by JDC and the American Red Cross. Thousands of stranded men were sent home by years end. This excerpted passenger list included details about the men's ages, professions, and home towns. <em>AR 19-21, File 272</em>.

In early 1915, the Russian Government had forcibly expelled Jews with only twelve hours notice from Lithuania and parts of Latvia and Romania. Old men, sick women, and young children alike had to leave with only the possessions they could carry and move to the Russian interior. Refugees could not go home until hostilities ended in 1920. These returning refugees shared a one-room shelter in Jaunjelgava. Latvia, c. 1921, <em>NY_08663</em>.

Helping The Displaced

The Refugees and Repatriates Department opened in Poland, Romania, the new Baltic States, and Central Europe. In each region, it funneled aid, stimulated self-help projects, and interceded with local authorities on behalf of the displaced.

Bringing what meager household goods could be rescued amid the terror of war and political upheavals, caravans of homeless, starving, and sometimes ill Jews arrived without money or a place to sleep in the towns along the Polish border. Refugees shared a makeshift house on the road between Kovel and Rovno. Poland (now Ukraine), c. 1920, <em>NY_05059</em>.

A constant stream of refugees passed through the border towns of Eastern Europe. A Fall 1920 report for Bessarabia noted: ''Every border town has its share…persons without funds, clothes, strength, courage, and full of fear, despair, and fertility for the ravages of illnesses which follow closely and some times accompany the winter snows and frosts. What can be done?''<em>AR 19-21, File 236.2</em>. In Rovno, some 6,000 children whose parents had been massacred arrived on their own. c. 1920-1921, Poland (now Ukraine), <em>NY_05076</em>.

JDC field workers needed ingenuity as well as courage while aiding Polish Jews in towns under attack. Overseas Unit member Abraham Shohan brought relief to the most dangerous district of Poland (now Ukraine). His June 1920 field report detailing supply shifts between Luck (Lutsk) and nearby Kovel vividly conveyed the challenges involved. <em>AR 19-21, File 225.2 </em>.

Once it was possible to return home, many Jews tried to return from Russia. By the time this woman and her children reached the town of Luck, they had spent four months on the road. Poland (now Ukraine), c. 1920-1921, <em>NY_01674</em>.

Moving with the Battlefield

In the push and pull of the Soviet-Polish conflict, JDC workers provided beleaguered Jews whatever help they could. As Soviet armies advanced and Polish forces evacuated, JDC offered relief, remaining as long as possible "to lend moral support." When Polish armies again advanced, JDC followed in their wake, administering emergency aid.

The Palestine Orphan Committee sent out a network of social workers to visit more than 4,000 orphans supported in institutions and in private homes in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Tiberias, Safed, Hebron, and elsewhere in Palestine. Unified record-keeping made it possible to keep track of each child. Infants slept peacefully at the Aliza Maon Infants Orphanage. Palestine, c. 1920, <em>NY_00017</em>.

By March 1915, some 12,000 refugees from Palestine had been expelled by the Turkish government to Alexandria, Egypt. They lived there mostly in camps, with emergency relief provided by JDC. This little girl, born in one of the camps, lost her father there to typhus. Once back in Jerusalem, she received aid from JDC's newly created Palestine Orphan Committee. The amount allotted for each child was generally based on whether one parent or none remained. Palestine, c. 1924, <em>NY_00213</em>.

JDC's increased allotments made it possible to provide children better care, including supplemented nourishment, new winter and summer clothing, and where needed, more sanitary quarters. In a Yemenite kindergarten in Neve Sha'anan, Jerusalem, wholesome lunches helped restore these youngsters to good health. Palestine, c. 1920, <em>NY_00005</em>.

Child care assistance expanded to instruct new mothers in infant care at Hadassah child welfare centers. Palestine, c. 1920, <em>NY_00011</em>.

Child Care in Palestine

In summer 1918, all orphans in Jerusalem were registered; those not housed in orphanages were placed with private families. A year later, JDC appointed a Palestine Orphan Committee to conduct child care. This program evolved over time into a broad system of children's services, including summer camps, workshops, and trade schools.

Through the European Children's Fund, JDC assisted needy orphans on a non-sectarian basis. During 1919-1920, it contributed $200,000 to the Fund for orphans in Hungary. At the largest feeding station, a former leather goods factory in Ujpest, 5,000 received a hearty meal daily. <em>AR 19-21, File 150.1.</em>

Children & teachers in a JDC-supported orphanage kindergarten in Brest. Poland (now Belarus), c. 1921, <em>NY_01444</em>.

JDC launched Financial Adoption, a program for individual orphan support, at the end of 1919. American and Canadian Jewish women's organizations participated. Where possible, orphans were linked to family members in America with the hope of their being adopted. <em>AR 19-21, File 48</em>.

For many children, soup and bread at a JDC-subsidized soup kitchen had been the only meal of the day. But as funds and conditions in Eastern Euopean countries allowed, JDC's child care work continually expanded. A functionally structured Child Care Department was launched in Fall 1920. Eastern Europe, c. 1920, <em>Underwood and Underwood, NY_07225</em>.

Attention to Details: Child Care in Eastern Europe

Beginning in April 1919, ARA's European Children's Fund provided basic provisions to some 300,000 Jewish children. Bogen anticipated that program's end and knew of some 200,000 more children needing help. The ongoing Soviet-Polish War and pogroms would only increase that number. JDC initiated child care services focusing on the needs of orphans.

Where possible, JDC subsidized Jewish schools during the war. Many schools were forcibly abandoned, and refugee children had little opportunity for education. In the post-war years, the number of institutions receiving support increased. The Central Committee's funds supported talmud torahs and yeshivot. The melamed of a JDC-supported cheder instructed his pupils. Poland, c. 1918, <em>NY_01412</em>.

The Jewish People's Relief Committee supported ''Workingmen's'' institutions such as the Jewish Community School of the ''Workman's Home''. A group photo proudly featured a Star of David flag. Poland, c. 1919-1920, <em>NY_01410</em>.

The American Jewish Relief Committee supported Hebrew, Yiddish and ''non-partisan'' schools not supported by the other two Committees. A group from the Vizhenka Jewish Educational Children's Colony near Czernovitz (Bukovina). Romania (now Ukraine), 1920, <em>NY_00909</em>.

Protected Values: Culture, Religion and Education

JDC subsidized synagogues, schools, student groups, and cultural institutions of all kinds in Europe, Palestine, and elsewhere. The three constituent Committees provided discretionary funds based on an agreed-upon percentage of contributions independently raised.