Author: Dan Alssid

Distinguished Finalists are GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II and Who Will Write Our History FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York, New York, May 18, 2017 – The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) announced today that Forgotten Jewels, A Haven in Havana, directed by Judy Kreith and Robin Truesdale, was awarded its inaugural JDC Archives Documentary Film Grant. The film recounts the story of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe for a safe haven in Cuba and ultimately, creating a diamond polishing industry in Havana that enabled thousands of Cubans and refugees to survive during World War II....

  A lengthy report, “Covering Tyranny, the AP and Nazi Germany,” released by the Associated Press provides an in-depth review of the news outlet’s operations in Nazi Germany and JDC Archives was a critical source for revealing information on Willi Jacobson, an AP senior photographer, who also worked for JDC after World War II. The report was produced by Larry Heinzerling, adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and retired AP deputy international editor, AP investigative researcher Randy Herschaft, and AP Vice President and Editor at Large for Standards John Daniszewski. The AP’s internal investigation was...

The JDC Archives is honored to have 15 archival works on display in a new exhibit, “1917: How One Year Changed the World” at the National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) in Philadelphia. The exhibit explores three pivotal events that took place in 1917— America’s entry into World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the issuing of the Balfour Declaration—and the impact of these developments on America’s global standing and, more specifically, on American Jewry. Through archival objects, including uniforms, posters, and films, the exhibit explores the landscape of World War I, geopolitical shifts in Eastern Europe, and...

The JDC Archives is pleased to announce five fellowship recipients for 2017: Joseph Benatov, Lecturer in Foreign Languages in the Modern Hebrew Language Program at the University of Pennsylvania, is the recipient of the Fred and Ellen Lewis / JDC Archives Fellowship. Dr. Benatov’s project explores JDC activities in Bulgaria in 1944-1949, including JDC’s support for the country’s Jewish community and the organization’s role in the immigration of Bulgarian Jews to Israel. Naida Mihal Brandl, Chair of Judaic Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, was awarded the Fred and...