Moving Forward: A Constructive Approach

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

Moving Forward: A Constructive Approach

JDC set a formal deadline (July 1921) for ending ''palliative relief.'' Much earlier, an August 1919 report summarized new objectives: "(1) to help develop and renew Jewish morale and the spirit of self-help...; (2) to help build up cultural, benevolent and technical institutions;" and "(3)...to help integrate the various divergent groups, organizations and institutions to a common purpose." During those two years, groundbreaking initiatives were tried whenever possible. AR 19-21, File 4.

Through 1919 and 1920, repeated incursions by warring armies tore down first attempts at rebuilding. Still, a prevailing belief in self support is clearly expressed in this telegram from Poland. <em>AR 19-21, File 189</em>.

To initiate discussion at a conference in August 1919, a JDC report noted hopefully: The Jewish capacity for an orderly communal existence, for mutual cooperation, has not been destroyed by its terrific trials. <em>AR 19-21, File 22.2</em>. Jacques Rieur, JDC Director for the Congress Poland region in 1920, met with the Lublin Children's Committee to plan a million mark fund for a summer colony. Poland, c. 1920, <em>NY_01690</em>.

A report on loans in Poland prior to May 1921 listed the amounts given in each town by JDC, local sources, and Landsmanschaften. <em>AR 19-21, File 213.1</em>.

A Fully Realized Future

After the war, JDC staff and lay leaders began discussing the right next steps. Looking for ways to spark Jewish self-sufficiency and rebuild healthy communities, they redirected their support to loan services, vocational training, and reconstruction. Funding for charitable relief would increasingly depend on local sources and other interested parties.

Through the war years, attempts to reach loved ones in the midst of closed borders, warfare, imprisonment, and forced evacuations often failed. In 1919, JDC sought to increase the Transmission Bureau's ''usefulness and sphere of action'' as it established new conduits for relief throughout Europe. Seekers petitioned from both sides of the world. <em>AR 19-21, File 266.1</em>.

JDCs Personal Service Department brought the first word of missing family or friends in years to European and American Jews alike. In the New York office, people pored over lists of refugees recently reached by American Jewish relief agents in Poland. Poland, c. 1920, <em>NY_03503</em>.

''Landsmanschaften'' aided immigrants from the same Eastern European locality settling in America. After the war, as needs back home became known, each small group set up its own relief project. Some sent delegates abroad. In August 1920, JDC established a department to coordinate these efforts, understanding the valuable role the societies played in linking contributors to their home towns. Horodyszcze Relief Society's questionnaire noted that most of the town had been destroyed. <em>AR 19-21, File 79.3</em>.

Local committees, such as this one in Krynki, near Grodno, received their town's remittances through JDC's Landsmannschaft Department. Loan funds and co-operatives also received some funding in this way. Poland (now Belarus), c. 1921, <em>NY_04355</em>.

Handle with Care!

Peace enabled JDC to expand its more personal services. The Transmission Department now included packages for loved ones and friends. A Location/Personal Service Department helped connect families torn apart by war. A Landsmanschaften Department helped immigrant groups provide for their former towns. When JDCs budgets were lean, these programs became even more crucial.

Beginning in 1920, the branches of the cooperative Jewish Volksbank served as JDC's agents in Lithuanian cities like Kedainai, and for nearby towns that had no bank of their own. These in turn could loan money to cooperatives, which provided food, clothing, fuel, and raw materials for free or very low prices. Lithuania, c. 1923, <em>NY_07381</em>.

As hundreds of thousands of refugees returned to their former homes, they often found an empty shell or bare ground. By May 1920, $100,000 had been apportioned to repair partially ruined houses in Bukovina, Bessarabia, and Romania. In some towns, like Suczawa (Bukovina), destruction was too great for repairs. This man was one of the homeowners seeking loans to completely rebuild. Romania, c. 1920-1921, <em>NY_04612</em>.

Grodno was one of the cities pulled back and forth in the tug of war for domain between Soviet Russia and Poland. Amid the ruins of this outlying area, repairs and reconstruction begun with JDC loans were the start of new hope and tangible recovery. Poland (now Belarus), c. 1921, <em>NY_03091</em>.

Among the ruined buildings JDC purchased, this one in Brest was turned into a home for orphans. Poland (now Belarus), c. 1921, <em>NY_05043</em>.

Laying Foundations

Beginning in 1920, JDC began laying the groundwork for a major rebuilding program in Eastern Europe. It helped found a central bank in Poland and local building and loan associations everywhere to provide loans to homeowners. To make best use of available funds, the first projects undertaken were repairs.

These shopwomen from Brest had their businesses decimated in the war. With JDC-funded loans, they started over by selling their wares on the street. Poland (now Belarus), c. 1920, International News Photos, <em>NY_01727</em>.

JDC advanced funds to these loan societies in one district of Poland in May 1921. <em>AR 19-21, File 213.1</em>.

A Leg Up

JDC helped tradespeople start new businesses; established free loan associations to back artisans and working-folks cooperatives; provided tools and materials for carpenters, locksmiths, shoemakers, and other skilled workers; and supported programs for them to develop and hone their skills.

Urban industry in Palestine had been limited largely to souvenirs and religious articles. This workshop for unskilled labor in Jerusalem, established before the war by the Nathan Straus Foundation, made buttons and curios from locally-found shells and stones. With JDC funding, the workshop expanded to employ more workers, including older orphans. Palestine, c. 1921, <em>Lavan Dov Studios, NY_00131</em>.

The Shoshana Lace and Embroidery School in Jerusalem was one of many JDC-supported ateliers and schools operating after the war, to provide employable skills to previously uneducated young women. Palestine, c. 1921, <em>NY_00112</em>.

This successful workshop in basket and mat-weaving gave employment to elderly men and drew government contracts. JDC helped obtain other types of government work projects in road building, stone cutting, and drainage improvement for the 1200 - 1500 refugees arriving each month in Palestine. Palestine, c. 1920, <em>NY_00091</em>.

The Jewish Blind Institute (Beth Chinuch Ivrim) in Jerusalem was one of the existing institutions revived by JDC's subsidies. Classes for students 6-16 included weaving, writing, and music. Girls played piano and string instruments, and boys played wind instruments. Palestine, c. 1921, <em>NY_00089</em>.

JDC and the Emerging Yishuv

In the post-war years, the Jewish community in Palestine transitioned from dependency on outside contributions towards self-sufficiency. JDC played a major role in making this possible through its training programs and loan associations.

Education opportunities were developed for the more employable trades. In this carpentry workshop in Kracow, boys were taught building skills. Poland, c. 1920, <em>NY_03917</em>.

JDC revived and initiated hundreds of trade workshops in the immediate post-war years to expand work opportunities for Jews, especially youth. A report on such industrial development for the Krakow district listed schools and courses supported by JDC in November 1920. <em>AR 19-21, File 213.1</em>.

This loan applicant from Storozynetz (Bukovina) sought support to apprentice his three sons, one of whom suffered from shell shock. Ukraine, c. 1920-1921, <em>NY_04630</em>.

Building Livelihoods in Eastern Europe

JDC helped reestablish or create new options for borrowing money. In Bessarabia, JDC loaned funds to establish a network of 37 cooperatives. In turn, each of these lent money to thousands of members. Repaid loans could then be used to enable more people to start afresh.

After the war's end, JDC expanded funding for agricultural training in Palestine. Students learned everything from barley planting to bee-keeping. <em>AR 19-21, File 183.1</em>.

These men and women trained in Patatsnege for the day when they could settle in Palestine. Lithuania, c. 1920, <em>NY_00355</em>.

At war's end, Bessarabia became part of Romania. The number of Jewish farmers there was second only to Palestine. JDC helped support agricultural colonies administered through the Jewish Colonization Association. Sheep grazed peacefully at the Jewish Colony of Menzia (Manzia). Romania (now Moldova), c. 1920, <em>NY_00948</em>.

JDC also funded agricultural programs for school children. Students in boarding schools and orphan asylums learned to grow vegetable gardens under the guidance of trained instructors, provided by ORT. These children tended the garden at Mendele's Kindergarten and Community School at the Bialystok Jewish Youth Union. Poland, c. 1918, <em>NY_01436</em>.

Growing Opportunities

Opportunities to pursue agriculture and even to own land now opened up for Jews. Farming provided a viable income and a source of sufficient food. Many also saw it as preparation for a move to Palestine. JDC supported agricultural training for interested city dwellers and helped spur the formation of Jewish agricultural colonies.

Even after shifting its focus to reconstruction and rehabilitation, JDC would continue to provide emergency relief whenever a new crisis occurred. In late 1921, JDC partnered again with ARA in Ukraine and Crimea, sending food, clothing, and medicines to devastated communities, with a particular focus on children's needs. A poster in Russian advertised an ARA food kitchen run with JDC's cooperation. Ukraine, c. 1921-1922, <em>NY_00394</em>.

This Unit House dinner for Dr. Bogen was held July 15, 1921, on the cusp of JDC's new era of reconstructive work. In his next report, Bogen wrote: ''There can be no question but that the relief rendered by the J.D.C. to Poland saved thousands and thousands from starvation, sustained the life of institutions, stimulated social organization and served as a moral power, protecting the Jews from their enemies and developing their own spirit which would otherwise have been crushed.'' <em>AR 19-21, File 66</em>. Poland, c. 1921, <em>NY_05143</em>.

A New Era

After less than seven years of activity, JDC had transformed beyond all original expectations, from the spending arm of a loose-knit coalition of committees into an innovative, adaptable international agency. Its rescue, relief, and reconstruction work would continue through untold crises ahead.

Moving Forward: A Constructive Approach

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

Moving Forward: A Constructive Approach

A Fully Realized Future

Handle with Care!

Laying Foundations

A Leg Up

JDC and the Emerging Yishuv

Building Livelihoods in Eastern Europe

Growing Opportunities

A New Era

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