Author: JDC Archives

“Rescue, Relief, and Renewal: 100 Years of ’the Joint’ in Poland” will open on October 30 at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow. The exhibit features almost 100 images from the JDC Archives image collection which portray JDC’s extensive social welfare and humanitarian activities in Poland through the decades to the present day. A collaboration of the Galicia Jewish Museum, the JDC Archives, and JDC Poland, the exhibit is co-curated by Tomasz Strug, Chief Curator of the Galicia Jewish Museum and Dr. Anna Sommer Schneider, a Polish scholar and historian who recently published a book about JDC’s relief work...

Thirty scholars from across the globe gathered in New York on September 7-8, 2014 for a two-day conference, “The Joint Distribution Committee: 100 Years of Jewish History.”  The event, organized by a Steering Committee including Atina Grossman of The Cooper Union, Linda Levi, Director of JDC’s Global Archives, Maud Mandel of Brown University, Avinoam Patt of the University of Hartford, and Judy Seigel of the Center for Jewish History, was a forum for scholars from a variety of disciplines to share their research on JDC’s legacy from its first 100 years. Reflecting on the conference’s objectives, Professor Patt said:...

The JDC Archives photo collection constitutes one of the most valuable sources in the world for a pictorial study of Jewish life in the 20th century. Over JDC’s first 100 years, from the outbreak of World War I to the present, JDC commissioned professional photographers to inform the public about its relief initiatives for vulnerable individuals and communities around the world. Its significance has been noted by photographic experts and by researchers. JDC’s centennial activities, including the I Live. Send Help. book and museum exhibit, required extensive photographer research for legal as well as credit purposes. Crisis conditions, the...