Author: JDC Archives

“We appeal to your conscience and extend our hands to request aid. Please save us!” This plea for help from Polish Jewish expellees reached the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) office in Warsaw in June 1940. The words of these helpless Jews, who were expelled from their homes and hometowns, and forced to flee from one location to another within German-occupied Poland, present the desperate situation of displaced Jews during the Holocaust, and highlight the key role that JDC played for them. Thus, Dr. Lea Prais, a historian at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem,...

When Linda Levi, Director of JDC Global Archives, invited a documentary filmmaker to screen a clip from her upcoming film at the JDC Archives Committee meeting in September 2016, Levi’s aim was to demonstrate to Committee members some of the creative ways in which researchers utilize our historical records. The lively discussion that ensued, and the enthusiastic response from the audience, led JDC Board and Archives Committee member Jane Swergold to spearhead an effort to create a funding opportunity for such filmmakers. This is how the JDC Archives Documentary Film Grant came to fruition. The grant has garnered the...

“Truly, if we are worthy of the communion of Jewish fellowship, we shall with resolute heart and hand take upon ourselves at least a small portion of that heavy burden which is grinding down our fellow Jews to desperation and despair, and give again to these men and women of our faith and common blood and heritage the warm clasp of sympathy and understanding and helpfulness, symbolized and made articulate by the work of this Joint Distribution Committee.” Thus ends the Summary of the JDC Annual Report for 1932, penned by Joseph C. Hyman, the organization’s Secretary. Hyman’s emotional...

The JDC Archives provides detailed finding aids for all of our digitized collections. These resources provide detailed descriptive and contextual information for our full-text digitized historic records, dating from JDC’s founding in 1914. The finding aids are vital for researchers across disciplines searching among JDC’s 2.8 million digitized original records for primary source material pertinent to their topic. When the finding aids were originally developed, for various technical reasons they did not include direct links to the digitized materials. We included specific language on our website to help users understand how to locate the title of the the folders they...