c1945 Holocaust DP CAMP HAGGADAH Jewish JOINT JDC Greece TRIKALA Judaica HEBREW
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c1945 Holocaust DP CAMP HAGGADAH Jewish JOINT JDC Greece TRIKALA Judaica HEBREW:
$175.00
DESCRIPTION : Herefor sale is an original 75 years old MOST INTERESTING Jewish - Hebrew HOLOCAUST HAGGADAH which was published and distributed in ca 1944-6 , Right after theHOLOCAUST and the end of WW2 by the \"American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee\" ( Also known as the \"JOINT\" or \"JDC\" ) to be usedin the DP CAMPS all over Europe and to remnant surviving communities. To bedistributedto the HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS in CAMPS for DISPLACED JEWISH PERSONS , emnants ofruined Jewishcommunities and Jewish refugees , The Holocaust survivors weregathered in DP camps all over Europe and efforts were made by various Jewish institutions to provide HAGGADOT and other PRAYER BOOKS . This specific Haggadah was stamped in TRIKALA GEECE where it very definitely used for the Passover Sedder by the surviving local Jewry as is testified by the old wine stains. The stamp with the Magen David in its center carries the text in Hebew letters \" COMMUNITA ISRAELITICA TRIKALA\" and the same text in Greek. The stamp is dated 1904 which is propably the year when the stamp was created.Original illustrated SC.6 x 4.5 \" . 32 pp. Extremely rare. Good used condition. Wear. Age tanning of leaves. Wine stains. (Pls look at scan for accurate AS IS images ) .Will be sent inside a protectiverigid envelope .
PAYMENTS : Payment method accepted : Paypal .SHIPPMENT : Shipp worldwide via registered airmail is $ 18 . Haggadah will be sent inside a protective rigid envelope . Handling within 3-5 days after payment. Estimated duration 14 days.TheAmerican Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,also known as theJointor theJDC,is a Jewish relief organization based inNew York City.[1]Contents[hide]1 History1.1 Founding1.2 Mission2 Projects2.1 Agro-Joint2.2 The Holocaust2.3 Post-War Rescue of Holocaust Survivors2.4 Resettlement in Israel2.5 Social welfare2.6 Diaspora work3 JDC today3.1 Operations3.2 JDC Entwine3.3 Partners3.4 Programs and priorities4 JDC Israel4.1 ASHALIM -Youth at Risk4.2 ELKA -Institute for Leadership and Governance4.3 ESHEL -Older Adults4.4 Israel Unlimited -People with Disabilities4.5 TEVET -Employment Services5 JDC institutions5.1 Public policy making5.2 Training5.3 Disaster relief6 See also7 References8 Further reading9 External linksHistory[edit]The JDC was founded in 1914, initially to provide assistance to Jews living 1914, approximately 59,000 Jews were living inPalestineunder Ottoman rule. The settlement—theYishuv—was largely made up of Jews that had emigrated from Europe and were largely dependent on sources outside of Palestine for their income. The outbreak ofWorld War Idestroyed those channels, leaving the community isolated and destitute. With disaster looming, theYishuv’s leaders appealed toHenry Morgenthau, Sr., then the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. Morgenthau was moved and appalled by the misery he witnessed. Soon after seeing what he did, Morgenthau sent an urgent cable to New York-based Jewish philanthropistJacob Schiff, requesting $50,000 of aid to keep the Jews of Palestine from starvation and death. The cable wrote: Dated August 31, 1914, the telegram read, in part:The 1914 telegram that prompted the establishment of the Joint Distribution Committee.PALESTINIAN JEWS FACING TERRIBLE CRISIS … BELLIGERENT COUNTRIES STOPPING THEIR ASSISTANCE … SERIOUS DESTRUCTION THREATENS THRIVING COLONIES … FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS NEEDED.The plea found concerned ears in the U.S. In a month, $50,000 (the equivalent of $1 million in the year 2000) was raised through the efforts of what was intended to be an ad hoc and temporary collective of three existing religious and secular Jewish organizations: the American Jewish Relief Committee, the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War, and People’s Relief Committee.In 1915 a greater crisis arose with the Jewish communities of thePale of Settlementcaught up in the fighting along theEastern Front. Under the leadership ofJudah Magnesthe committee was able to raise another five million dollars by the end of the year. In 1921, following the post-revolutionarycivil warof Russia, the committee was one of only two organizations left in America sending aid to combat thefamine.[4]Mission[edit]The organization is active in more than 70 countries and in Israel.The JDC main purpose is to offer aid to the many Jewish populations in central and Eastern Europe as well as the Middle East through a network of social and community assistance programs. In addition, the JDC contributes millions of dollars in disaster relief and development assistance to non-Jewish communities.JDC fulfills its mission on four fronts:Rescueof Jews at risk. JDC’s expertise is crisis response. JDC works with local partner agencies to address immediate needs.Relieffor Jews in need. In addition to emergency aid, JDC support builds the capacity of local agencies to sustain and enhance quality of life for struggling communities.Renewalof Jewish community life.Israel. JDC works in partnership with the Israeli government and other local organizations to improve the lives of the elderly, immigrants, children at risk, the disabled, and the chronically unemployed. In 2007, the JDC was awarded theIsrael Prizefor its lifetime achievements and special contribution to society and the State of Israel.[5][6]Projects[edit]The Jewish Distribution Committee finances programs to assist impoverished Jews in the formerSoviet UnionandCentral and Eastern Europe, providing food, medicine, home care, and other critical aid to elderly Jews and children in need. The JDC also enables small Jewish populations inLatin American,African, andAsiancountries to maintain essential social services and help ensure a Jewish future for their youth and youth to come. InIsrael, JDC responds to crisis-related needs while helping to improve services to the elderly, children and youth, new immigrants, the disabled, and other vulnerable populations.In the spirit oftikkun olam, a Hebrew phrase referring to the moral responsibility to repair the world and alleviate suffering, the JDC has contributed funding and expertise in humanitarian crises such as the2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, theMyanmar cycloneof 2008, thegenocide in Darfur, the escalating violence in Georgia and the2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.When millions of Jews in Eastern Europe and Palestine faced starvation in the wake of theFirst World War, JDC fed the hungry, provided medical care to the ailing, and supported programs to help stabilize the region’s fragile economy.With the rise of Hitler’s Nazi regime, JDC supported efforts that enabled 110,000 Jews to leave Germany prior to 1939.After the establishment of the state of Israel, JDC supported tens of thousands of Jews as they made the difficult transition from refugee status to citizenship.JDC played a central role inOperation Solomon, which airlifted more than 14,000Ethiopian Jewsto Israel in the span of 36 hours.Agro-Joint[edit]World War I plunged Eastern Europe into chaos and subjected Jewish communities across the region to intense poverty, famine, and inflamed anti-Semitism. TheRussian Revolutionand other subsequent conflicts fanned the flames further, and pleas for JDC’s humanitarian intervention increased. JDC responded, always looking for opportunities to go beyond emergency food and medical relief to help establish self-sustainable Jewish life.One innovation was the establishment of loankassas, cooperative credit institutions that issued low interest loans to Jewish craftsmen and small business owners. From 1924 until 1938, thecapitalfromkassaloans help revitalize villages and towns throughout Eastern Europe.Not in the newSoviet Union, however. The communist leadership outlawed businesses upon which Jews were largely dependent, forcing families into poverty. In 1924, the JDC had helped devise a promising program response to the situation in the Soviet Union. It was called the Agro-Joint.With the support of the Soviet government, JDC pushed forward with this bold initiative to settle so-called “nonproductive” Jews as farmers on vast agricultural settlements inUkraine,Belarus, and theCrimea. A special public organization, theSociety for Settling Toiling Jews on the Land, orOZET, was established in the Soviet Union for this purpose; it functioned from 1925 to 1938. There was also a special government committee set up, calledKomzet. Its function was to contribute and distribute the land for the Jewish collective farms, and to work jointly with OZET. By 1938, some 70,000 Jews had been resettled.The success of the Agro-Joint initiative would turn tragic just two years later.Joseph Stalin\'s government, having grown increasingly hostile to foreign organizations, arrested and subsequently executed 17 Agro-Joint staff members. By 1941, all the settlers who had not already fled were killed by theNazis.The Holocaust[edit]European Jewrywas pushed to the brink of annihilation byNazi Germany. The severity of the crisis put new, unprecedented demands on theAmerican Jewish communityand JDC to respond. The weight of the task was compounded by the wartime reality that JDC could no longer operate legally in those nations where Jews were in the greatest peril. From the outbreak ofWorld War IIthrough 1944, JDC made it possible for more than 81,000 Jews to emigrate out of Nazi-occupied Europe to safety.JDC also smuggled aid to Jewish prisoners in labor camps and helped finance the Polish Jewish underground in preparations for the 1943Warsaw Ghettorevolt.In addition, JDC was a major channel keeping American Jewish leaders informed—often in detail—about the holocaust.Before the War. Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 was followed closely by passage of Germany’sNuremberg Laws, a set of onerous restrictions that stripped Jews of their basic human rights and livelihoods. JDC’s support became critical to the survival of the Jews. Channeling funds through local Jewish relief organizations, JDC subsidized medical care, schools, vocational training, welfare programs, and early emigration efforts. JDC support would eventually be extended to Jewish communities in Nazi-annexedAustriaand occupiedCzechoslovakia. It wasn’t long before the escalation of Hitler’s persecution of the Jews made emigration aid from the JDC a priority. JDC provided emergency aid for stranded refugees; covered travel expenses and landing fees; and secured travel accommodations and all-important visas for countries of refuge. By the end of 1939, JDC-supported organizations had helped some 110,000 Jews emigrate from Germany—30,000 in 1939 alone.Securing Safe Havens.By 1940, JDC was still able to help refugees in transit in more than 40 countries. The Joint opened shelters and soup kitchens for thousands of Jewish refugees inPoland, aiding some 600,000 in 1940. It also subsidized hospitals, child care centers, and educational and cultural programs. EvenPassoversupplies were shipped in.The goal of this was to provide refugees life-sustaining aid while trying to secure permanent refuge for them in the United States, Palestine, and Latin America. A Jewish agricultural settlement was founded with JDC funding inSosua, located in theDominican Republic.The Outbreak of War in Dec 1941: JDC Becomes a Clandestine Organization.With U.S. entry into the war followingPearl Harborin Dec. 1941, JDC had to drastically shift gears. No longer permitted to operate legally in enemy countries, JDC representatives exploited a variety of international connections to channel aid to Jews living in desperate conditions under the shroud of Nazism. Wartime headquarters were set up in neutralLisbon, Portugal.From Lisbon, JDC chartered ships and funded rescue missions that successfully moved thousands of refugees out of harm’s way. Some made it toShanghai,China, where JDC sponsored a relief program for 15,000 refugees from Central and Eastern Europe. In Europe, JDC directed funds to support 7,000 Jewish children in hiding. The Joint also worked withŒuvre de secours aux enfants(OSE) to support and rescue children. For instance, it helped more than 1,000 children emigrate toSwitzerlandandSpain. Other children fled to America, with help from the Joint and other organizations, such asHIAS.Many of those children who were able to make it to America came without parents making them part of the \"One Thousand Children(OTC).Post-War Rescue of Holocaust Survivors[edit]Alliedvictory offered no guarantee that the tens of thousands of newly liberated Jews (Sh\'erit ha-Pletah) would survive to enjoy the fruits of freedom. To stave off mass starvation, JDC marshaled its resources, instituting an ambitious purchasing and shipping program to provide urgent necessities for Holocaust survivors facing critical local shortages. More than 227 million pounds of food, medicine, clothing, and other supplies were shipped to Europe from U.S. ports.By late 1945, 75,000 Jewish survivors of the Nazi horrors had crowded into hastily set updisplaced person campsthroughout Germany, Austria, andItaly. Conditions were abominable.Earl Harrison, dean of theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School, asked Joseph Schwartz, JDC’s European director, to accompany him on his official tour of the camps. His landmark report called for separate Jewish camps and forUnited Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration(UNRRA) participation in administering them—with JDC’s help. In response, Schwartz virtually re-created JDC, putting together a field organization that covered Europe and later North Africa and designing a more proactive operational strategy.Supplementing the relief supplied by the army, by UNRRA, and by UNRRA’s successor agency—theInternational Refugee Organization—JDC distributed emergency aid, but also fed the educational and cultural needs of the displaced, providingtypewriters, books,Torahscrolls, ritual articles, and holiday provisions. JDC funds were directed at restoring a sense of community and normalcy in the camps with new medical facilities, schools,synagogues, and cultural activities.Over the next two years, the influx of refugees from all over Central and Eastern Europe would more than triple the number of Jews in the DP camps. Their number included Polish Jews who had returned from their wartime refuge in the Soviet Union only to flee once again (westward, this time) from renewed anti-Semitism and the July 1946Kielce pogrom.During the immediate post-war period, the JDC also worked closely with organizations focused on Jewish cultural property (much of it heirless), such as theJewish Cultural Reconstructionand theJewish Restitution Successor Organization.[7]At the same time, JDC was helping sustain tens of thousands of Jews who remained in Eastern Europe, as well as thousands of others living in the West outside the DP camps in Jewish communities also receiving reconstruction assistance from JDC. In 1946, an estimated 120,000 Jews inHungary, 65,000 inPoland, and more than half ofRomania’s 380,000 Jews, depended on JDC for food and other basic needs. By 1947, JDC was supporting 380 medical facilities across the continent, and some 137,000 Jewish children were receiving some form of JDC aid.Falling victim toCold Wartensions, JDC was expelled from Romania, Poland, andBulgariain 1949, from Czechoslovakia in 1950, and from Hungary in 1953.Resettlement in Israel[edit]The time came for JDC to shift its focus in Europe from emergency relief to long-term rehabilitation. A large part of its evolving mission involved preparing the Jewish refugee population for new lives in Palestine, soon to be the Jewish state of Israel. Vocational training andhachsharot(agricultural training) centers were established for this purpose.The goal of resettlement carried its own hurdles. Since before the war, Palestine had been under control ofGreat Britain, which severely restricted the immigration of Europe’s Jewish refugees. Clandestine immigration went on in spite of the blockades, largely because of the work ofBrichaandAliyah Bet, two organized movements partially financed and supplied by JDC. When the British began interning illegal Jewish immigrants in detention camps onCyprus, JDC furnished medical, educational, and social services for the detainees.Britain’s eventual withdrawal from Palestine set the stage for the May 15, 1948, birth of the State of Israel, which quickly drew waves of Jews not only from Europe, but from across the Arab world. North Africa became an especially dangerous place for Jews following World War II. Jews inLibyasuffered a devastating pogrom in 1945.The1948 War of Independencein Palestine set off a wave of nationalist fervor in the region, leading to anti-Jewish riots inAden,Morocco, andTripoli. Nearly the entire Jewish population of Libya, 31,000 persons, immigrated to Israel within a few years. The JDC and Israel organizedOperation Magic Carpet, the June 1948 airlift of 50,000YemeniteJews to Israel. In all, more than 300,000 Jews left North Africa for Israel. Thousands moreIraqiandKurdishJews were transported throughOperation Ezra, also funded by JDC.The influx was so massive—and the capacity of the newborn nation to provide for its burgeoning citizenry so limited—that the dream of statehood could have died before it had taken root. Among the new arrivals were 100,000 veterans of Europe’s DP camps, less than half able-bodied adults. The remainder included the aged, sick, or disabled survivors of concentration camps.Tuberculosiswas rampant.The Israeli government in late 1949 invited JDC to join with theJewish Agency for Israelto confront these challenges. The outcome wasMALBEN—a Hebrew acronym for Organization for the Care of Handicapped Immigrants. Over the next few years, MALBEN rushed to convert former British Army barracks and any other available building into hundreds of hospitals, homes for the aged, TB sanitariums, sheltered workshops, and rehabilitation centers. MALBEN also funded the training of nurses and rehabilitation workers.By 1951, JDC assumed full responsibility for MALBEN. Its many rehabilitation programs opened new worlds to the disadvantaged, enabling them to contribute to the building of the new country. At the same time, Israel’s local and national government agencies were building capacity. With the need for emergency aid receding, by the end of the decade, JDC developed more long-term community-based programs aimed at Israel’s most vulnerable citizens. In the coming years, JDC would become a social catalyst by encouraging and guiding collaborations between the Israeli government and private agencies to identify, evaluate, and address unmet needs in Israeli society.Social welfare[edit]As its record of accomplishment in Israel makes clear, JDC helped Israel develop social welfare methods and policy, with many of its programs having served as models for government and non-governmental agencies around the world. In the 1950s, institutional care for the aged was replaced whenever practicable with JDC initiatives that enabled older people to live at home in their communities. The Ministry of Health was established in collaboration with the Psychiatric Trust Fund to develop modern, integrated mental health services and to train qualified staff. The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work, first created by JDC in France to train professionals working with refugees from many diverse cultures, was reestablished at theHebrew University of Jerusalemto professionalize social services.JDC’s social work innovations continued into the 1960s with the founding of Israel’s first Child Development and Assessment Center, which put into practice the then-emerging idea that early detection and treatment optimize outcomes for children with disabilities. A success, Child Development Centers soon spread across the country.JDC during this period also worked closely with Israeli voluntary agencies that served children with physical and mental disabilities, helping them set up therapy programs, kindergartens, day centers, counseling services for parents, and summer camps. It also advised these organizations on fundraising strategies to help them become financially independent.In 1969, JDC and the government of Israel inaugurated ESHEL—the Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Aged—to extend a network of coordinated local, regional, and national services to underserved elderly. Still active today, ESHEL is credited with improving the quality of life of Israel’s seniors.With these and other like-minded projects, JDC underwent an important transition with regard to its role in Israel. Initially engaged by the government to provide emergency aid to a traumatized and impoverished population of former refugees, JDC had redirected its efforts toward advising and subsidizing a broad spectrum of community based public and volunteer service providers. The evolution was a reflection of a new reality: Israel had come into its own as a nation and had successfully achieved an infrastructure with the capacity to address the needs of its most vulnerable citizens.By the end of 1975, JDC had transferred its MALBEN facilities to the government and divested itself of all direct services.Diaspora work[edit]The 1980s and 1990s saw JDC expand both its reach and the scope of its mission. Under the banner of “Rescue, Relief, and Renewal,” the organization responded to the challenges that faced Jewish communities around the world, its emphasis on building the capacity of local partners to be self-sustaining.The thawing of the Cold War and subsequent break up of the Soviet Union yielded a formal invitation fromMikhail Gorbachevfor JDC’s return to the region in 1989; 50 years afterJoseph Stalinbrutally expelled the organization, killing several JDC members in the process. The former Soviet Union and its largely isolated and destitute community of elderly Jewish populations quickly became—and remain—the organization’s priority. A growing network ofHeseds, or welfare centers, that JDC helped establish in local communities provided welfare assistance to a peak caseload of 250,000 elderly Jews. Today that network is still serving 168,000 of the world’s poorest Jews in the former Soviet Union (December 2008).JDC has also been instrumental in the rescue of Jews fleeing famine, violence, and other dangers around the world. The saga ofEthiopia’s Jews was perhaps the most dramatic, culminating inOperation Solomon, the massive 36-hour airlift of 14,000 Jews fromAddis Ababato Israel on May 24 and 25, 1991, just as the city was about to come under rebel attack. JDC assisted in the negotiation and planning of that rescue effort, which came on the heels of the comprehensive health and welfare program it had been operating for the thousands of Jews who had gathered in Addis Ababa in preparation for the departure.Equally compelling were the 11 rescue convoys that JDC operated from war-ravagedSarajevoduring the 1992-95 war inBosnia and Herzegovina. The convoys succeeded in transporting 2,300Serbs,Croats,Muslims, and Jews to safety in other parts of the formerYugoslaviaand beyond. JDC also supported the Sarajevo Jewish community’s non-sectarian relief efforts in that besieged city, and helped the Belgrade community assist the many Jews affected by Serbia’s economic difficulties as UN-mandated trade sanctions took a growing toll.Wherever JDC has become active, emergency aid has gone hand-in-hand with local institution-building for the long term. InIndia, home to an indigenousBene Israelcommunity, JDC in the 1960s channeled funding to the rehabilitation of local schools and included support for food programs and capital upgrades. It also helped underwrite tuition for teachers and student leaders to study in Israel. In Latin America, where Jews fleeing the Nazis had settled decades earlier (with JDC’s assistance), the organization in the late ’80s created Leatid, a program that trains local lay and professional Jewish leaders to ensure that communities are self-sustaining.The formalization of JDC’s non-sectarian work under its International Development Program in 1986 marked another milestone. While JDC had always offered assistance to non-Jews in crisis since the organization’s founding in 1914, the formation of the new program was done to ensure a unified Jewish response to global disasters—both natural and manmade—on behalf of U.S. and foreign Jewish agencies. Since then, JDC relief and recovery efforts have assisted tens of thousands of people left vulnerable in the wake of the mid-90s civil war inRwanda, theKosovorefugee crisis, the devastating 1999 earthquake in Turkey, and the 2004 tsunami in South Asia. As in its Jewish-specific projects, JDC’s non-sectarian work includes bothemergency disaster reliefand the building of local institutional capacity to ensure that people at risk continue to be served long after the disaster has passed.JDC today[edit]Operations[edit]JDC has operated in 85 countries at one time or another in the course of its 100-year history. As of early 2009, JDC is conducting projects in 71 countries, including Argentina, Croatia, Ethiopia, Poland, Morocco, Cuba, and throughout the former Soviet Union. JDC also maintains a focus on Israel and has been a humanitarian presence in theMiddle Eastsince its founding in 1914.JDC Entwine[edit]JDC Entwine, the young adult leadership platform of JDC, was launched in 2007 under the name JDC Next Gen, with the goal of empowering young Jewish leaders to continue JDC\'s legacy. According to their website, \"Entwine is a one-of-a-kind movement for young Jewish leaders, influencers, and advocates who seek to make a meaningful impact on global Jewish needs and international humanitarian issues.\"[8]The name, Entwine, comes from a quote by JDC leader and Honorary Executive Vice PresidentRalph I. Goldman: \"There is a single Jewish world: intertwined, interconnected”.[9]Entwine engages Jewish young professionals and college students through its annual series of overseas immersive experiences (Insider Trips), Multi-Week Services Corps, and year-long Jewish Service Corps Fellowship (JSC).[10]Partners[edit]In its mission to support communities in developing their own resources in ways that are both culturally sensitive and organic, JDC partners with local organizations in creating and implementing all JDC projects worldwide. These partnerships enable JDC to most effectively address the unique needs of the communities where it operates and to build the capacity of all of the institutions, professionals, and volunteers so they become equipped with the skills needed to serve their own communities.Programs and priorities[edit]Relief, Rescue, Renewal –Aiding Jewry Worldwideis JDC’s mission to alleviate suffering and enhance the lives of Jews has taken it across geographic, cultural, and political borders on five continents. Currently, the regions drawing the greatest amount of JDC effort include the following:The Former Soviet Union.The upheaval caused by the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought both crisis and opportunity to Jews living there. All religions and minorities suffered under communism, and so fractured communities of Jews were suddenly confronted with a collapsed infrastructure and an uncertain future, but also the hope that it might now be possible to assert and reclaim a heritage long denied them. JDC, which had only recently begun to reestablish a presence in the region after being violently expelled by Stalin in 1938, poured its resources into the relief, rescue, and restoration of Jewish populations fighting for survival. Today, JDC provides food, medical care, home care, and winter relief to 168,000 elderly Jews, largely through 175Hesedwelfare centers throughout the region. JDC also provides nutritional, medical, and other assistance to 25,000 children at risk and their families. In addition to life-sustaining aid, JDC helps Jews reclaim their heritage and build vibrant self-sustaining Jewish communities throughJewish Community Centers, libraries,Hillelyouth centers, family retreats, Jewish education, and local leadership development.Central and Eastern Europe.As in the former Soviet Union, social and economic shifts threaten the stability of the many diverse Jewish communities throughout Central and Eastern Europe and theBaltic countries. JDC’s social welfare and community development approaches are as varied as the communities they assist. JDC relief programs for Holocaust survivors reach 26,000 elderly, while the organization works with local partners to ensure that impoverished children’s basic needs are met. The overarching goal is self-sustainability and shifting welfare responsibilities to local entities. To achieve this, JDC provides consultation to communities in the areas of leadership training, strategic planning, fundraising, property management, and networking, helping local professionals to develop the skills to serve the larger community.Africa and Asia.It terms of sheer numbers, Jewish communities in Africa and theFar Eastrange from sizable (upwards of 25,000 inTurkey) to small (as of this writing,Algeriais home to only a handful of Jews, because of the Islamist governments of the 1990s). Jewish populations on both continents are diminishing, either through emigration or because the elderly are all that remain. But wherever there is a Jew and a desire to maintain the trappings and traditions of Jewish life, JDC strives to ensure that basic needs are met and Jewish institutions continue. JDC supports local Jewish education and training efforts and puts special emphasis on international programs that bridge isolated Jewish populations with Jews all over the world.The Americas.There are nearly a quarter million Jews inArgentina, more than in any other nation in the Western hemisphere after the United States. That number included a vibrant, emerging middle class. But much of that progress was thrown in turmoil by a nationwide financial crisis in 2001 that plunged thousands into economic despair and entrenched the pull of poverty for those already living in it. JDC responded, providing critical assistance to 36,000 Argentine Jews. Since then, JDC has begun to cede its assistance role to its local partners while continuing to ensure that basic food and medical needs of the most vulnerable citizens are met.Israel.JDC’s relationship with Israel is unique. While the organization works with the cooperation of the governments of other nations where it has a presence, with Israel the relationship is more of a direct partnership. Working together, JDC and the Israeli government strengthen the capacity of local agencies to address the immediate and long-term needs of the elderly, at-risk youth, the chronically under employed, and new immigrants. JDC assists in building and maintaining Israel’s social strengths—including management of the public sector, governance and management of nonprofit organizations, volunteerism, and philanthropy—so that the society as a whole is more able to meet its own needs. JDC also helps those Jews and non-Jews living under fire in southern Israel.JDC Israel[edit]In 1976, JDC Global established JDC Israel (also known as \"The Joint\",הג\'וינט) with its headquarters in Jerusalem. Since then, JDC Israel has been developing programs and services for Israel\'s most vulnerable populations through its partnerships with the Israeli government, associations and non-profit organizations. JDC Israel operates through several departments:ASHALIM -Youth at Risk[edit]ELKA -Institute for Leadership and Governance[edit]ESHEL -Older Adults[edit]Israel Unlimited -People with Disabilities[edit]Israel Unlimited develops services to promote and integrate Israelis with disabilities into the community. Israel Unlimited has been a leader in the field of disabilities since 2009.All programs are built upon the following values:People with disabilities are people with abilitiesWe provide person-centered servicesWe have a multiple disability approachWe only undertake community-based solutionsPartnership is keyStatistics about people with disabilities living in Israel:Israel is home to 1,000,000 adults with disabilities300,000 people receive Governmental benefits1/3 live under the poverty lineNumbers at a glance:13,370+ participants each year3 main areas of activity: Independent Living within the Community, Inclusion in the Community, and Populations at Risk54 locations, in addition to 12 universities and colleges26 partnering Israeli NGOsTEVET-Employment Services[edit]JDC institutions[edit]In the course of its long history, JDC has helped create lasting institutions that do much of the research and policy development that inform JDC programs and advance its goals. In fact, the work of these institutions is highly regarded well beyond the Jewish community and can arguably be said to have raised the bar on social service delivery, globally.Public policy making[edit]TheMyers-JDC-Brookdale Institute, a partnership between the JDC, the Israeli government, and the Inez Myers Foundation, was established in 1974. Its role is to conduct applied social research on the scope and causes of social needs—specifically those related to aging, health policy, children and youth, people with disabilities, and new immigrants—and assesses various approaches to addressing them. The data produced by researchers has proven a powerful tool for Israel’s policy makers and social service practitioners. Among other examples, MJB researchers:Revealed the dramatic increase in the number of Israel’s disabled elderly and helped develop strategies to expand community services for them.Helped to expand and improve national education policy for Ethiopian children in the 1990s, which resulted in improved high school achievements and greater participation in higher education.Facilitated the implementation of Israel’s Special Education Law, which markedly expanded services for disabled children in the 1990s.Helped to introduce and effectively implement the National Health Insurance Law (1995), which provides universal and more equitable coverage to all of Israel\'s citizens.Other JDC-affiliated institutions includeThe Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, an independentthink tankthat analyzes and develops social policy alternatives, and the recently establishedJDC International Centre for Community Development, which supports JDC’s efforts worldwide to enhance and support Jewish communal life.Training[edit]Leadership training is a JDC core value. To that end, JDC foundedLeatid, the European center for Jewish leadership. The Leatid training program, with its focus on management and community planning, helps expand the pool of outstanding professional Jewish men and women committed to the continued well being of their communities. Jewish leaders from all parts of Europe have taken part in Leatid training seminars, including most of the current presidents of European Jewish communities, executive directors, key board members and rabbis. Indeed, those leaders who aren’t Leatid alumnus almost certainly underwentBuncher Community Leadership Training, another JDC effort in partnership with the Buncher Family Foundation and the United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh. Since its start in 1989, Buncher Leadership Training has conducted seminars in the former Soviet Union, the Baltic States, Poland, Germany, Former Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria as well as India and Latin America.Finally, theMoscow NGO Management School, founded by JDC in 2005, effectively strengthens the Russian nonprofit sector by providing professional training to managers of nonprofit organizations. The curriculum is crafted to provide opportunities for nonprofit leaders to gain skills to help their organizations succeed.Disaster relief[edit]JDC’s role as a non-sectarian disaster relief agency is motivated by the spirit oftikkun olam, the traditional moral obligation of Jews to improve conditions for the entire human family. Working with local partners, JDC has provided emergency aid and long-term development assistance to communities devastated by such catastrophic events as the Kashmir earthquake in 2005, and the South Asia tsunami in 2004. More recent relief efforts include:2008 Pakistan earthquake.On October 29, 2008, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck southwest Pakistan, northeast of the provincial capital Quetta. JDC collected funds to directly assist victims of the quake and partnered with the International Blue Crescent to deliver much-need food, bedding, hygiene kits, and warm clothing to those hardest hit.Russia-Georgia conflict.Following the eruption of hostilities on August 7, 2008, JDC partnered with the Georgian Red Cross and MASHAV, the Center for International Development of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to coordinate the shipment and deployment of critical medical supplies and other emergency assistance. JDC continues to assess the needs of the region and develop a strategy for long-term assistance to those displaced by the conflict.2008 China earthquake.China’s worst earthquake in more than 30 years devastatedSichuanand eight additional provinces on May 12, 2008, killing more than 70,000 people and leaving 1.39 million homeless. JDC is supporting a partnership between The All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (ACFSMC) and the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development (NISPED) that is leading an ambitious reconstruction effort in the region.2008 Myanmar cyclone.JDC was among the only aid organizations to enterMyanmar’sIrrawaddy DeltafollowingCyclone Nargis, which struck on May 2, 2008. The disaster affected an estimated 2.4 million people. JDC coordinated with other nongovernmental organizations to immediately provide water, food, and medical supplies and is now supporting efforts to rebuild schools, homes, and embankments destroyed by the cyclone.April 2015 Nepal earthquake.Following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that had devastated the country of Nepal, the JDC is looking to leverage its expert disaster response team and coordinate with the local authorities in order to assess the situation and provide for survivors\' needs. They are aiming to bring medical supplies, distribute shelter supplies, food kits and oral rehydration salts as well as address the needs of children, providing them with shelter, water and nutrition.[11]See also[edit]Jewish charitiesJewish refugeesJudah Leon MagnesFelix M. WarburgUnited Jewish AppealJump upAmerican Jewish Joint Distribution CommitteeContentsHideRefugees and EmigrantsMedicine and SanitationChild CareReconstructionThe Soviet Union before World War IIWorld War II, the Holocaust, and Displaced PersonsFrom the End of World War II until the Collapse of the Communist BlocThe Post-Soviet EraSuggested ReadingAuthorTranslationThe largest nonpolitical organization dedicated to helping Jews in distress all over the world. Generally known as the JDC or “Joint” and headquartered in New York, the organization (until 1931) was called the Joint Distribution Committee of (the American) Funds for Jewish War Sufferers. It was founded on 27 November 1914 with the aim of centralizing allocations of aid to Jews adversely affected byWorld War I.The JDC’s resources came from funds collected by the American Jewish Relief Committee—organized on 25 October 1914 and headed by wealthy Reform Jews of German origin, including Louis Marshall (who served as president), Jacob H. Schiff, and Felix M. Warburg; and the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering through the War (Central Relief Committee)—organized on 4 October 1914 by Orthodox Jews of East European origin and chaired by Leon Kamaiky. These groups were joined in August 1915 by the socialist People’s Relief Committee, chaired by Meyer London. Warburg became the JDC’s first chairman. Eastern Europe was and has remained one of the JDC’s main areas of activity.At first, the JDC simply transferred funds to local Jewish relief organizations such as the Evreiskii Komitet Pomoshchi Zhertvam Voiny (Jewish Committee for the Relief of War Victims; EKOPO) inRussiaand Das Jüdisches Hilfskomite für Polen und Litauen in Germany. By the end of 1917, the JDC had transferred $2,532,000 to Russia, $3,000,000 to German-occupiedPolandandLithuania, $1,532,300 toGalicia, and $76,000 toRomania.Aid packages being dispensed at the remittance office of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Warsaw, ca. 1920. Photograph by “USA” Werkstatte. (YIVO)The Joint began its work inWarsawin 1919, first as a part of the American Relief Administration (ARA) and then independently. Boris D. Bogen organized and headed the JDC Overseas Unit in Warsaw, which was staffed by dozens of American experts. They organized urgently needed sanitary and medical aid, as well as child care. The JDC’s appropriations for the relief of Polish Jewry in 1920 alone totaled almost $5 million. On 5 July 1920, during the Polish–Soviet war, two JDC emissaries, Israel Friedlaender and Bernard Cantor, were killed by the Red Army in the town of Yarmolintsy (Podolia,Ukraine) while traveling the local Jewish relief committee distributed aid from the JDC. InHungary, a Jewish relief committee, which united Orthodox,Neolog, and Zionist Jews, was created after it was ascertained that Hungarian Jews were being discriminated against in the distribution of aid transmitted by the JDC through the ARA. During the emergency relief period of 1919–1920, the JDC expended more than $22 million for various forms of relief and rehabilitation abroad.After July 1921, the JDC ceased giving general relief and reorganized its work on the principle of functionality. Its aim became to stimulate Jewish economic reconstruction and to strengthen local community institutions to the point at which these groups could take the care of the weak upon themselves.Refugees and EmigrantsMilitary operations duringWorld War Iforced hundreds of thousands of East European Jews to leave their homes. Some were expelled eastward from the war front by the Russian Army in 1914–1915. After the war, many returned from Soviet Russia to Poland and the Baltic States. Others tried to emigrate to the United States and Western Europe.Those hoping to reach the United States were helped by the JDC’s Refugee Department, which provided aid (food, shelter, clothing, and medicine), assistance in establishing contact with relatives in America, and help in drawing up exit documents. The JDC also helped refugees returning from Russia to find work, acquire trade skills, and obtain affordable loans, whether for opening businesses or for repairing or building homes. By April 1923, the organization had helped 300,000 refugees and returnees: 185,000 in Poland and 75,000 in Lithuania. The organization also supported 7,000 Jewish students from Poland, Romania, and Hungary who were studying in Czechoslovakia, as admission of Jews into their home countries’ universities was restricted.Medicine and SanitationFaced with the catastrophic health and sanitary conditions in Poland, the JDC began to render emergency medical aid. Starting in 1921, its medical department developed systematic means of fighting typhus and ringworm; vaccinated 30,000 children; disinfected thousands of homes; renovated hundreds of bathhouses and medical institutions; and provided equipment and medicines to hospitals and outpatient clinics.We are working for a healthy generation. Come join us and take part and help.\" Yiddish poster. Artwork by S. Nichamkin. Printed by Paul Schöpf, Berlin, 1926, with the aid of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and distributed in Eastern Europe by OZE. (YIVO)In 1923, a school for nurses was founded in Warsaw with JDC support. The Society for Safeguarding the Health of the Jewish Population (Towarzystwo Ochrony Zdorowia Ludności Żydowskiej;TOZ), formed in 1921, received financial support from the JDC and gradually built an effective system of health services for the Jewish population. By 1939, TOZ was responsible for more than 400 medical and sanitary facilities in 50 Polish cities and towns.The medical aid rendered by the JDC to Jews in Romania, Czechoslovakia,Latvia, and Lithuania was similar to that in Poland, but on a smaller scale. The largest share went toBucovina,Bessarabia, andSubcarpathian Rus’.Child CareIn 1922, some 40,000 orphans were registered in Poland, and another 14,000 lived in Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. The JDC Child Care Department placed orphans in shelters and with families; foster families were also located in the United States for hundreds of orphans. In 1926, more than 120 children’s shelters in Europe were subsidized by the JDC; thousands of orphans learned trades. In 1923, the Organization for Child and Orphan Care (Centrala Opieki nad Sierotami; CENTOS) was founded in Poland. The JDC gradually turned the care of orphans in that country over to the latter agency.ReconstructionWhen mass immigration to America proved to be unrealistic, the JDC concentrated its efforts on the economic rebuilding of East European Jewry. The JDC Reconstruction Department in Europe was founded in 1921, and was headed by Aleksandr Landesko. The reconstruction program, jointly carried out with the ICA (or JCA; Jewish Colonization Association) andORTin Bessarabia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia, included renovating dwellings, developing loan funds, distributing equipment for craft production, providing professional and technical training, and promoting Jewish engage-ment inagriculture. By May 1924, the department had allocated more than $2 million for funding loans in Europe; at least a quarter of the credits were sent to Poland. Some 8,000 homes were renovated or built in 400 communities.A junk dealer who received aid from the Free Loan Program of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee with his family, Warsaw, ca. 1920s. (YIVO)In Lithuania, the Jewish National Council used assets received from the JDC to establish a People’s Loan Bank, which became very popular among the Jewish population. In old Romania—which had suffered relatively less from the war—reconstruction began early and proceeded successfully, but in Bucovina, only a tenth of the aid was able to be applied to reconstruction, as the immediate needs of the population were greater.In May 1924, the JDC and ICA organized the American Joint Reconstruction Fund, to which the JDC contributed $3 million and the ICA $2 million. The fund supported loans, production cooperatives, and artisans. By 1931, in Poland alone approximately 1 million persons had used the services of the loan funds.The Soviet Union before World War IITheSovietgovernment attempted to gain control over the distribution of JDC aid, having pushed aside the old Jewish community organizations. Thus, the first agreement that was concluded with the Soviets in 1920 obligated the JDC to work with the Jewish Public Committee (known by its Russian abbreviation Evobshchestkom; or Yiddish abbr., Yidgezkom or Idgezkom), controlled by the Bolsheviks. Concurrently, famine in the Volga region and Eastern Ukraine enabled the JDC to act independently within the framework of the ARA (1921–1923), providing nonsectarian aid in an amount approaching $4 million. During that time, the JDC fed up to 2 million people in Ukraine and Belorussia. In 1922, with partial JDC funding, Evobshchestkom provided help to 132,000 children in children’s homes, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and outpatient clinics.In 1923, the JDC brought 86 American tractors to Ukraine to reconstruct Jewish agricultural colonies that had been destroyed during the war. The success of this initiative inspired the director of JDC’s Russian branch—Dr. Joseph Rosen, an American agronomist of Russian origin—to advance, together with the Soviet authorities, an ambitious plan for turning hundreds of thousands of impoverishedshtetlJews into peasants.In 1924, an agreement was signed between the JDC and the Soviet government that spawned the creation of the American Jewish Joint Agricultural Corporation (Agro-Joint). The corporation undertook to agrarianize the Jews, while the government, represented by the Committee for the Settlement of Jewish Laborers on the Land (KOMZET in Russian; KOMERD in Yiddish), promised to give the new settlers land free of charge inCrimeaand Ukraine, as well as tax and other benefits. To ensure financial backing for the project, in 1928 the JDC created the American Society for Jewish Farm Settlements in Russia (Amsojefs), with James N. Rosenberg as its chair and Julius Rosenwald as its main patron. The funds collected by Amsojefs enabled Agro-Joint to continue working in the USSR even during the Great Depression, when the JDC’s activities in other countries nearly ceased.Toolmaking course at the Agro-Joint Evrabmol trade school, Odessa, USSR, 1934.Evrabmolis a Russian acronym for Jewish Working Youth. (YIVO)Modern agricultural equipment, high-yield seed, and breeding cattle were delivered to Jewish colonies in the USSR from the United States. Agro-Joint agronomists helped train the colonists, teaching them advanced methods of agricultural work. In the city of Dzhankoy, Crimea, Agro-Joint built a factory for maintaining and repairing agricultural machinery. Agro-Joint helped more than 150,000 Jews to resettle the land, founded or strengthened more than 250 settlements, and expended $16 million, not counting long-term credits. In the 1930s, however, the collectivization of villages and the end of unemployment in the towns led to reduced numbers of Jewish peasants.Simultaneously, Agro-Joint gave aid to the urban Jewish population, supporting loan and credit funds (370 funds were operating in 1927), production cooperatives, medical facilities, and professional and technical schools. A portion of the budget was expended on supporting independent Jewish organizations engaged in social welfare, Jewish culture, and underground religious activity.Agro-Joint’s work was constantly under suspicion and was subject to the watchful eye of the Soviet security services. In 1938, the organization had to discontinue its activity in the USSR, and many of its leading workers were arrested. Some—including Rosen’s local deputies Samuil Liubarskii and Yeḥezkel Grower (Iekhezkel’ Groer)—were accused of espionage and were executed.Table: JDC LeadersWorld War II, the Holocaust, and Displaced PersonsWith the beginning of World War II, the JDC assisted Jewish emigration from Europe. In 1941, it provided financial support for the departure of refugees from Lithuania to Palestine and Japan. Aid was also sent to Jews in German-occupied territories. JDC aid even penetrated the Polishghettos, thanks to the efforts of Sally Mayer, director of the organization’s Swiss branch, and Isaac Gitterman, director of the Polish branch, who managed to transfer $300,000 to the Jewish underground in Poland in 1943–1944. In those same years, the JDC, through the International Red Cross, gave aid to Jews inTransnistria. In 1944, Mayer participated in ransoming three trainloads of Hungarian Jews (3,344 persons) from the Nazis.By an agreement between the USSR and the Polish government in exile, signed on 30 July 1941, the JDC sent parcels to Polish Jews who had been evacuated to Central Asia. In 1942–1945, the program had expended $2.2 million. In 1943, the JDC was permitted to deliver food, clothing, and other goods to the USSR. These items were supposed to be distributed by the Soviet Red Cross Society on a nonsectarian basis in regions with high concentrations of Jews. In fact, the aid reached very few Jews. In 1946–1947, the JDC supplied a significant amount of penicillin and medical equipment to Soviet hospitals. More than $2 million was expended on such deliveries in 1944–1947.From the End of World War II until the Collapse of the Communist BlocAt the end of the war, an agreement was reached between David Ben-Gurion, then chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, and Joseph Schwartz, chairman of the JDC’s European Executive Committee, stipulating that the JDC would take care of Jews in displaced persons camps and would finance legal and illegal Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe. The aid included food, clothing, transportation, money for railroad tickets, and maintenance in transit camps; this program was called Relief in Transit (RIT). Of the $30 million expended, $10–$12 million went to help Jews go to Palestine (theBeriḥahoperation). In 1945–1952, the JDC spent $342 million to aid victims of theHolocaust. After the war, the organization opened offices in all East European countries except the USSR.At the beginning of May 1945, the first shipment of JDC aid to Polish Jewish survivors arrived in Warsaw via Teheran, to be distributed by theCentral Committee of Jews in Poland(Centralny Komitet Żydow w Polsce; CKŻP). An official JDC office was opened in Poland in October of that year, headed by David Guzik (killed in 1946 in an airplane crash). The number of Jews in Poland grew as refugees were repatriated from the USSR. JDC offered economic rehabilitation to those wishing to remain in Poland and assistance to those seeking to emigrate. In fact, a majority decided to try to leave Poland, and JDC supplied them with trucks, food, and clothing.Lubavitch Hasidim, many of whom had come to Poland using false documents, were given special attention. The JDC also fed and clothed volunteers at the Haganah training camp in LowerSilesia(1947–1948), and subsidized Zionist kibbutzim for youths.Members of the Mizraḥi Zionist youth group Bene Akiva (maintained by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), doing Israeli dancing in the foothills of the Tatra Mountains, Brusno, Czechoslovakia (now in Slovakia), 1946. (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Photo Archives)Aid to those remaining in Europe included resources for finding and ransoming Jewish children who had been placed with Christian families during the war; providing monetary assistance to the elderly and disabled; strengthening communal institutions; erecting monuments to victims of the Holocaust and ghetto fighters; and supporting cultural activities, including subsidizing Jewish theaters, books, and newspapers. The JDC supported state children’s homes, gave shelter to Jewish orphans, supported Jewish schools (with an enrollment of 20,000 pupils at the end of 1946), encouraged religious activity, and helped to settle repatriates from the USSR in German territories annexed by Poland. This aid was rendered mainly through CKŻP, and also directly to the revived community organizations, TOZ, and the Religious Communities Association.From early 1947, the JDC began focusing more attention to supporting Jewish production and service cooperatives. By late 1948, there were 208 Jewish cooperatives in Poland, providing livelihoods to 18,000 people. The cooperatives received credit from the Jewish Bank, which was established with JDC help (later renamed Cooperative Bank for the Productivization of the Jews). In December 1949, the JDC was expelled from Poland, having expended almost $21 million there.Working in Hungary in 1946–1952, the JDC allocated $52 million for food, clothing, education, and social welfare. It was then accused of espionage and expelled (January 1953); many local Jewish figures who had worked with the JDC were arrested. The organization was dismissed from Romania in March 1949 and from Czechoslovakia in January 1950. At theSlánský Trialin November 1952, the JDC was accused of espionage, sabotage, illegal currency transactions, speculation, and smuggling, under the guise of charitable activity. In January 1953, during theDoctors’ Plotin the USSR, the Soviet press called the JDC an espionage organization, upon whose instructions the “doctor-saboteurs” allegedly acted.During the years of post-Stalin liberalization, the JDC returned only to Poland (remaining there until 1967). It financed kindergartens and summer camps and helped Jews returning from the USSR (1956–1959) togetsettled. The JDC also helped Hungarian Jews who fled to Austria after the suppression of the 1956 uprising. On a visit toPraguein August 1967, JDC’s executive vice-chair, Charles Jordan, was abducted and murdered.Unable to continue its work in Eastern Europe legally, the JDC set up a program of covert aid that inherited the Relief in Transit name. In aiding Soviet Jewry the JDC cooperated with the Israel governmental organization Nativ (Liaison Bureau of the Foreign Ministry). For this aim, in 1953 the JDC also established and financed the Société de Secours et d’Entraide (SSE), a “front” organization in Geneva whose task was to render aid to Jews in the Soviet satellite countries in Europe from which JDC was officially barred. The program included the shipment of packages, medical supplies, and a wide variety of religious items as well as money transfers to East European Jews. Packages were sent from Israel and Europe; after 1967 they could only be shipped through intermediary firms in Western Europe. In Hungary, the aid expended yearly by the SSE grew from several tens of thousands of dollars in the 1950s to $750,000 annually in 1977–1978. This money was allocated mainly for aid to elderly, sick, or solitary persons. The Czechoslovak, Polish, and Bulgarian governments also permitted the SSE to give aid to Jews in their countries. The Conference on Material Claims Against Germany provided the JDC $44 million for the RIT program from 1954 to 1964. In 1979, the JDC officially returned to Hungary, and in 1981 toCzechoslovakiaand Poland.After the Six-Day War, the JDC worked officially only in Romania, having been invited there through the efforts of Romanian Chief RabbiMozes Rosen, chairman of the Central Federal Council of Romanian Jews (FEDROM). Using JDC funding, FEDROM provided food, clothing, and medical aid to Romania’s rapidly aging Jewish community. Kosher dining halls were organized, and several homes for the elderly were equipped. In the 1970s, the government of Israel paid ransom money to the Romanian secret police for every Jew who emigrated. These transactions were financed by the JDC.The USSR’s share in RIT grew steadily from a modest portion in 1950s to become the largest by the 1980s. In 1963, some 1,000 parcels containing clothing (mainly overcoats and shoes) and Jewish religious articles—were sent to the USSR each month. From the end of 1960s through the 1980s,refuseniksalso received parcels, which became a factor in their struggle for emigration. The program was expanded and refined under the leadership of JDC’s executive vice president Ralph I. Goldman. In 1984 the number of parcels sent exceeded 81,000.In the 1970s, when a significant number of the Jews leaving the USSR on Israeli invitations expressed the desire to settle in the West, the JDC, together with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), and diverging from Israeli policy, helped them resettle in the United States. It also financed their stay at the transit camps in Ostia and Ladispoli, Italy.The Post-Soviet EraIn 1988, the Soviet government invited the JDC to renew its work in the USSR. A Russian Department was created in the JDC office in Jerusalem, which with the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, changed its name to the CIS Department (headed by Asher Ostrin). JDC offices were opened in the 16 largest Jewish centers in the former Soviet Union. Once again, the organization concentrated on two main areas—social welfare and relief, and renewal of Jewish life.The economic restructuring undertaken by the Soviet successor states led to tens of thousands of Jewish pensioners being turned into persons with dire needs. As a base for extending assistance to them, the JDC created 160 Ḥesed (Kindness) social welfare centers. The first such center opened inSaint Petersburgin 1993. By 2000, the Ḥesed centers were helping 240,000 elderly and needy persons, distributing food parcels, clothing and shoes, monetary grants, and medical and rehabilitation equipment. Hot meals were delivered to bedridden persons in their homes.The revival of Jewish life, undermined by the Soviet regime for 70 years, was accomplished through a network of 170 Jewish Community Centers established with JDC aid. The organization also helped communities to receive restitution for former synagogues and then renovate them. It also supported the establishment of public libraries, the development of Judaic studies and research, and the training of Jewish leaders and social workers.Asher Ostrin, Director of the CIS program of the JDC (left) and Seymour Epstein, JDC regional director for Siberia, at the opening of a synagogue renovated with JDC assistance, Omsk, 1996. (Michael Beizer)After 1989, the restitution of communal property—especially synagogues confiscated by the Communist regimes—became the key to financial independence for communities in the region. The JDC helped with these negotiations and offered advice to communities on obtaining maximum benefits from the property received. More than 100 synagogues were returned to Jewish communities in the CIS alone. In theCzech Republic, the government returned such a sufficiently large portion of real estate, synagogues, Jewish ritual objects, and items of historical and art value that the Jewish commu-nity was able to become financially independent using the property’s income.The JDC has launched various social programs in Poland, Hungary,Slovakia, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The Romanian community needed the most support, since it accounted for almost half of the elderly persons receiving home-care services from the JDC. In fact, by the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, thanks to JDC support, soup kitchens provided meals to about 12,000 people a year in Romania. In the Baltic States, the JDC helped the three largest Jewish communities—Riga,Vilnius, andTallinn—to establish a basic communal infrastructure consisting of Jewish community centers (JCCs), social welfare projects, and similar endeavors. JDC supports cultural and educational programs for children, such as the Ronald S. Lauder/AJJDC International Summer Camp in Szarvas (Hungary), where up to 2,000 Jewish children from different countries spend each summer. The JDC also provides religious articles and kosher food and subsidized religious activities and celebrations. The organization’s Buncher and Leatid programs (the former named for the sponsoring family; the latter from the Hebrew for “to the future”) provide training for lay and professional communal leaders.Suggested ReadingYehuda Bauer,My Brother’s Keeper(Philadelphia, 1974); Michael Beizer, “Who Murdered Professor Israel Friedlaender and Rabbi Bernard Cantor: The Truth Rediscovered,”American Jewish Archives Journal55.1 (2003): 63–114; Michael Beizer, “Samuil Lubarsky: Portrait of an Outstanding Agronomist,”East European Jewish Affairs34.1( 2004): 91–103; Michael Beizer and Mikhail Mitsel,The American Brother: The “Joint” in Russia, the USSR and the CIS(Jerusalem, 2004); Herman Bernstein, “JDC History” (1929), manuscript, AJJDC Archives, New York (ref. 644, vol.1); Jonathan L. Dekel-Chen,Farming the Red Land: Jewish Agricultural Colonization and Local Soviet Power, 1924–1941(New Haven, 2005); Oscar Handlin,A Continuing Task: The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 1914–1964(New York, 1964);JDC Yearbook 2004: JDC in the Former Soviet Union(New York, 2004); Arieh Kochavi, “British Response to the Involvement of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Illegal Jewish Immigration to Palestine,”Immigrant and Minorities8.3 (1989): 223–234; Yosef Litvak, “The American Joint Distribution Committee and Polish Jewry, 1944–1949,” inOrganizing Rescue: National Jewish Solidarity in the Modern Period,ed. Selwyn Ilan Troen and Benjamin Pinkus, pp.269–312 (London, 1992); Mikhail Mitsel’,“Programmy amerikanskogo evreiskogo ob”edinennogo raspredelitel’nogo komiteta v SSSR, 1943–1947 gg.,”Vestnik evreiskogo universiteta8.26 (2002): 95–121; Raḥel Roz´enski, “Hashpa‘atah shel yahadut Artsot-ha-Berit ‘al hakamat ma‘arachot ha-revaḥah ha-yehudiot be-Polin ba-shanim 1920–1929,”Gal-Ed11 (1989): 59–86; Tom Shachtman,I Seek My Brethren: Ralph Goldman and “The Joint”; Rescue, Relief and Reconstruction(New York, 2001); Zosa Szajkowski, “Private and Organized American Jewish Overseas Relief, 1914–1938,”American Jewish Historical Quarterly57 (1967): 52–106, 191–253; Anita Weiner,Renewal: Reconnecting Soviet Jewry to the Jewish People(Lanham, Md., 2003); Ronald W. Zweig,German Reparations and the Jewish World: A History of the Claims Conference,2nd ed. (London and Portland, Ore., 2001).AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE AND REFUGEE AIDRelated ArticlesCommentsHow to cite this articleA Jewish youth on an agricultural training farm that prepared Jewish refugees for life in Palestine, sponsored by the Joint Distribution Committee. Fuerth, Germany, June 13, 1946.— Wide World PhotoVIEW PHOTOGRAPHSVIEW PERSONAL HISTORYrepresentatives of 40 US Jewish organizations met in New York in November 1914 to discuss the coordination of relief measures for beleaguered Jewish populations in central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. They were inspired in part by a August 31, 1914, cable from HenryMorgenthau, then US Ambassador to Turkey, to prominent US philanthropist Jacob Schiff requesting $50,000 to save the Jews of Palestine, then part of Ottoman Turkey, from starvation.On November 27, 1914 they founded the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC or \"Joint\"). Originally the result of a merger of two newly established relief committees, the largely Reformed American Jewish Relief Committee and the Orthodox Central Relief Committee, the Joint was joined by a third committee, the People\'s Relief Committee, composed of labor and socialist groups, in early 1915. The initial purpose of the Joint was to raise and distribute funds to help support the Jewish populations of Eastern Europe and the near east duringWorld War I.In 1917-1919, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the collapse of the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey) at the end of World War I, and the massive and often brutal population transfers connected with the breakup and overthrow of the Ottoman Empire continued to adversely effect the ability of Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East, to survive, support themselves economically, and maintain their Jewish identity.Between 1914 and 1929, the JDC collected some 78.7 million dollars from Jews living in the United States. Intended to be a temporary relief organization, the increasing impoverishment of Jews in Eastern Europe, the Soviet effort to settle Jews on the land, and continued Arab violence against the Jews of Palestine prolonged the life of the JDC into the era of the Holocaust. In the decade after World War I, the JDC became the primary communal agency for overseas relief and rehabilitation. In addition to direct relief funding, JDC operatives provided funding through the American-Jewish Joint Agricultural Corporation to settle Soviet Jews on the land, primarily in Ukraine and the Crimea, and fostered economic development among Jews living in Palestine through the Palestine Economic Corporation.The impact of the Depression in the United States drastically reduced the funding available to the JDC, whose leaders had to shelve their development schemes by 1932. With the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, the JDC, while continuing to provide support for Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, focused on aid to Jews remaining in Germany and assistance to Jewish refugees from the Nazis. In April 1933, after Nazi thugs ransacked the JDC\'s European headquarters in Berlin, JDC officials relocated the office to Paris. Despite the Depression, contributions to the JDC actually increased as Jews in the United States became increasingly aware of the dangers and hardships facing their European brethren. Throughout the decade, the JDC painted a realistic picture of the plight of Jews overseas and managed to obtain sizeable contributions for overseas relief.JDC efforts were instrumental in assisting at least 190,000 Jews to leave Germany between 1933 and 1939; 80,000 were able to leave Europe altogether with JDC assistance. The JDC supported various refugee resettlement efforts in Latin America, including the Jewish colony in Sosua, Dominican Republic, and a colony in Bolivia. JDC funds were also instrumental in funding a relief program for 20,000 German and Austrian Jewish refugees in Shanghai, China.Nine months after the Germansinvaded Polandto initiateWorld War II, the JDC was compelled to close its offices inParisin the wake of the German advance in 1940 and reopen in Lisbon, Portugal.In 1939, the JDC boosted its fundraising potential for rescue by joining with the United Palestine Appeal and the National Coordinating Committee for Aid to Refugees to create the United Jewish Appeal (UJA). Whereas between 1929 and 1939 the JDC raised and spent almost 25 million dollars on relief, between 1939 and 1945, it raised more than 70 million dollars, and between 1945 and 1950, it raised approximately 300 million dollars for refugee aid.Until the United States entered the war in December 1941, the JDC sent food and money by various means to Poland, Lithuania, and other German-occupied countries. The JDC supplied money to support imperiled Jews throughout Europe—including those trapped inghettosin German-occupied Poland. It funded orphanages, children\'s centers, schools, hospitals, housing committees, public kitchens, and various cultural institutions.Even after the United States entered the war against Germany, the JDC, though no longer legally permitted to operate inside German-occupied territory, continued to funnel clandestine funds into ghettos in Poland via its office in Switzerland, headed by Saly Mayer. Mayer had contact with individuals in Switzerland—including officials of the International Red Cross—who in turn had links to Polish underground organizations. The JDC was also a significant contributor to the operations of the USWar Refugee Board(WRB) after its creation in January 1944.Made available through neutral legations, JDC funds facilitated the rescue of Jews residing inBudapestand assisted in the support of Romanian Jews during the last years of Marshal Ion Antonescu\'s rule. JDC funds also supported children\'s shelters under international protection in Budapest and partially financed the rescue operations of neutral diplomats such asRaoul Wallenbergand Carl Lutz. The JDC also sent thousands of relief packages to Jewish refugees in the Soviet Union.The JDC provided material support and facilitated the emigration of refugees who had escaped to neutral countries including Portugal and Turkey or who had found refuge in other Axis countries, including Vichy France and Japan. Between 1939 and 1944, JDC officials helped 81,000 European Jews to find asylum through emigration to various parts of the world. Following its liberation in August 1944, JDC officials reopened their central office in Paris.After the war, the JDC—working together with the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), and other organizations—became the central Jewish agency providing support and financial assistance to Jewish survivors of theHolocaustresiding in thedisplaced persons(DP) camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy. The JDC provided food to augment official rations, supplied clothing, books, and school supplies for children, supported cultural amenities, and bought religious supplies for the community. Between 1945 and 1950 alone, some 420,000 Jews in Eastern Europe become beneficiaries of the Joint, which spent over 300 million dollars on assistance and sent an army of professionals (doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, and administrators) to serve the needs of approximately 700,000 people each month—both in and outside of the DP apparatus.From 1947 on, an increasing part of the JDC budget was devoted to assisting refugees to emigrate from Europe. Between 1947 and the foundation of the Israeli state in May 1948, JDC funding assisted some 115,000 refugees to reach Palestine. JDC officials also provided relief and assistance to those would-be immigrants whom the British interned in camps on the island of Cyprus. After Israel was established, the JDC continued to facilitate Jewish immigration to the new state.By the end of 1950, around 440,000 Jews had reached Israel with JDC assistance: 270,000 were refugees from Europe; another 167,000 were refugees from Moslem countries in North Africa and the Middle East, including 46,000 from Yemen flown in from the British colony Aden in Operation “Magic Carpet.”American Jewish Organizations:Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)Jewish Organizations:Table of Contents|B\'nai B\'rith|Young JudeaFounded in 1914 to assist Palestinian Jews caught in the throes of World War I, JDC has aided millions of Jews in more than 85 countries.The Early YearsIn the fall of 1914, Henry Morgenthau, then United States Ambassador to Turkey, cabled Louis Marshall andJacob H. Schiffin New York requesting $50,000 to save the Palestinian Jews (then under Turkish rule) from starvation. By November, the funds were raised, and JDC was formed to distribute them to needy Jews in Palestine and in war-torn Europe.World War I ended in 1918, but the suffering of European Jews continued. The aftermath of the Russian Revolution and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire brought new outbreaks ofanti-Semitichostility inRussiaandPoland. Hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in pogroms and from disease and famine. Those who survived found their homes destroyed and their economic and social institutions in ruins.JDC helped local Jewish communities establish relief programs and new health and child care facilities in Poland and Russia. We also supported religious, cultural and educational institutions. In 1921, JDC began working through local agencies to make Jewish communities self-supporting. We helped establish more than 300 locally operated Eastern European cooperative credit unions to assist Jewish-owned businesses.Meanwhile, Agro-Joint – working with the Soviet government as it resettled some 600,000 Jews in the Ukraine and the Crimea – trained them to work as farmers. Agro-Joint was expelled from the USSR in 1938.World War IIAsHitlerconsolidated power between 1933 and 1939, JDC accelerated its aid to German Jewry. JDC helped 250,000 Jews fleeGermanyand 125,000 to leave Austria. As German armies approached Paris in 1940, JDC transferred its offices to Lisbon. From there, we helped thousands escape fromEurope. JDC maintained thousands more in hiding throughout the war. JDC aid reached Jewish prisoners in labor battalions in France. Some 250,000 packages from Teheran sustained Polish and Ukrainian Jews in Asiatic Russia. Supplies were parachuted to Yugoslavia, and funds were smuggled to the Polish Jewish underground.JDC supported refugee resettlement efforts in Latin America and organized a relief program in Shanghai for more than 20,000 refugees. After Pearl Harbor, JDC channeled aid to Jews in occupied Europe and Shanghai through connections its Swiss office had established with neutral embassies and the International Red Cross.Post-War EffortsLate in 1944, JDC entered Europe’s liberated areas and organized a massive relief effort. By the end of 1947, some 700,000 Jews received aid from JDC. More than 250,000 of them lived inDisplaced Persons (DP) campsoperated by JDC. JDC’s retraining programs helped people in DP camps learn trades that would enable them to earn a living, while its cultural and religious activities helped re-establish Jewish life.JDC funding helped Jewish refugees leave Europe. We opened an office in Buenos Aires,Argentina, to assistHolocaustsurvivors immigrating toSouth America. Our contributions enabled 115,000 refugees to reachPalestinebefore 1948.In May 1948, Israel proclaimed its independence. JDC, in cooperation with theJewish Agency, helped some 440,000 Jews to reachIsraelfrom Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Many of these new immigrants were too old or infirm to build new lives. JDC established JDC/MALBENfor their care and also provided services to the physically and mentally disabled in Israel.JDC organized welfare programs for Jews in North Africa and the Middle East in 1949 and later assisted in the evacuation ofJews from IraqandYemen. We continue to fund health, welfare and educational programs for those who remained, a population that has dwindled over the years.In Western Europe, JDC helped local organizations assist the devastated communities restore Jewish life, train new leadership and revive communal institutions. With onset of the Cold War, JDC was expelled from most countries of Eastern Europe but was able to provide indirect assistance to Jews behind the Iron Curtain.1960-1979Few could predict the changes that the 1960s and 1970s would bring. In 1962, JDC began working inIndia, assisting the Jewish poor and working to strengthen Jewish life. In 1967, JDC was invited back toRomania, primarily to help the community provide for its needy elderly and to sustain Jewish religious life.In Israel, JDC began its evolution from a direct service operator of programs for disadvantaged new immigrants to a catalyst for societal change.In 1969, JDC, in partnership with the government, established ESHEL, the Association for Planning & Developing Services for the Aged. ESHEL has helped develop comprehensive services for the aged that serve as models for communities around the Jewish world. JDC was also instrumental in establishing a network of American-model community centers that have helped integrate all sectors of Israeli society.In 1975, we established the JDC-Brookdale Institute. Today, it is the world’s leading Jewish center for applied research on aging, health policy, disability, and children and youth.The mid-1970s brought the loosening of barriers toSoviet Jewish emigration. While thousands of Soviet Jews emigrated to Israel, others disembarked during stopovers in Italy hoping to start new lives in the West. They were housed in Ladispoli, outsideRome, until they could obtain visas to Western countries. For more than a decade, JDC provided these transmigrants with relief and welfare services, and religious and cultural programming.1980-1999In 1983, theEthiopian governmentgranted JDC permission to establish a nonsectarian program in the Gondar region, where most Ethiopian Jews lived. Later, in the early 1990s, JDC provided aid to tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews as they awaitedaliyah. We also were key players in “Operation Solomon,” the massive airlift of 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in May 1991.JDC launched the International Development Program in 1986. Over the years, this nonsectarian program has provided development aid and disaster relief in Europe, Asia, Africa, the former Soviet Union and Latin America.During the 1980s, JDC was able to return to many countries in Eastern Europe. Since then, we have helped local communities develop welfare services for their needy elderly and community centers that offer a range of cultural and religious programs for Jews of all ages.JDC returned to the Soviet Union in 1988. We immediately initiated programs of cultural and religious renewal, and, within a year, we were providing welfare relief to thousands of destitute elderly Jews. JDC also launched a program to train local Jewish activists and helped them develop communal organizations that would orchestrate welfare and Jewish renewal programs. Today, JDC-supported welfare programs reach 250,000 needy elderly in more than 2,600 cities and towns, and Jews of all ages participate in cultural and educational programs, holiday celebrations and other communal activities.In 1991, theCubangovernment lifted restrictions on religious practice. Since then, JDC has been providing badly needed food and medical supplies and has fostered the revival of religious and communal life for Cuba’s 1,500 Jews.2000- PresentInIsraeltoday, JDC’s top priority is responding to theMatsavthat threatens Israel’s existence. As we develop and launch emergency assistance programs such as \"Keep Our Children Safe,\" we continue to provide strategic intervention that focuses on protection of children and teens; care for the elderly; aid for vulnerable immigrant populations; research and development of social services; promoting philanthropy and volunteerism and project management for donors.We also are responding aggressively to the economic crisis in Argentina that has left more than 40,000 Argentine Jews destitute and in urgent need of direct welfare assistance. Using a multileveled approach, JDC is supervising and coordinating allocations of food, shelter, medications and clothing to the most needy Jews through Social Assistance Centers and the Volunteer Network; providing relief and welfare to the elderly; establishing programs for small business development and job opportunities, and working to increase the fund-raising capacity of the local community.And, of course, we are continuing our work in the former Soviet Union and in all those countries where Jewish communities need our support.Wherever and whenever Jews are in need, JDC will be there to offer them help and hope, for we are \"One people, one heart…\" (Rashi,Exodus 19:2).Adisplaced persons camporDP campis a temporary facility fordisplaced persons. The term is mainly used for camps established afterWorld War IIinGermany,Austria, andItaly, primarily for refugees fromEastern Europeand for the former inmates of theNazi Germanconcentration camps. Two years after theend of World War II in Europe, some 850,000 people lived in DP camps across Europe, among recent times, camps have existed in many parts of the world for groups of displaced people including forrefugeesin theDarfurregion of Sudan, and forPalestiniansin Lebanon and Jordan, as well as forAfghan refugeesin Pakistan. Such camps are now generally known asrefugee camps.Contents[hide]1 DP camps following World War II1.1 Background1.2 Establishing a system for resolving displacement1.3 Camps1.4 The needs of displaced persons1.5 The difficulties of repatriation1.6 Resettlement of DPs2 See also3 References4 Further reading5 External linksDP camps following World War II[edit]Background[edit]Combat operations,ethnic cleansing, and the fear ofgenocideresulted in millions of people being uprooted from their homes in the course of World War II. Between 11 million and 20 million people were displaced. The majority were inmates ofNazi concentration camps,Labor campsandprisoner-of-war campsthat were freed by theAlliedarmies.[2]In portions of Eastern Europe, both civilians and military personnel fled their home countries in fear of advancing Soviet armies, who were preceded by widespread reports ofmass rape, pillaging, looting, and murder.[3]As the war ended, these people found themselves facing an uncertain future. Allied military and civilian authorities faced considerable challenges resettling them. Since the reasons for displacement varied considerably, theSupreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forceclassified individuals into a number of categories: evacuees, war or political refugees, political prisoners, forced or voluntary workers,Organisation Todtworkers, former forces under German command, deportees, intruded persons, extruded persons, civilian internees, ex-prisoners of war, and stateless persons.In addition, displaced persons came from every country that had been invaded and/or occupied by German forces. Although the situation of many of the DPs could be resolved by simply moving them to their original homes, this could not be done, for example, where borders changed to place the location in a new country. Additionally, many could not return home for fear of political persecution or retribution for perceived (or actual) collaboration with Axis powers.Establishing a system for resolving displacement[edit]A DP Camp football team;Hirsch Schwartzberg, Berlin DP Camps Central Committee president, is second from rightThe original plan for those displaced as a result of World War II was to repatriate them to their countries of origin as quickly as possible. Depending onsectors occupiedinAustriaandGermany, American, French, British, orSovietforces tended to the immediate needs of the refugees and set in motion plans for repatriation. (Estimates for displaced persons do not typically include several million ethnic Germans in Europe (Poland, the Netherlands etc.) who were expelled and repatriated in Germany. SeeFlight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950).)In the months and sometimes years following the end of the war, displaced persons typically reported to military personnel who attended to their immediate needs. Nearly all of them were malnourished, a great number were ill, and some were dying. Shelter was often improvised, and there were many instances of military personnel sharing from their own supplies of food, medicine, clothing, etc., to help the refugees. In a matter of weeks, there was a more or less formalized infrastructure for taking in, registering, treating, classifying, sorting, and transporting displaced persons.Initially, military missions of the various Allied nations attached to the British, French and U.S. army commands assisted in the sorting and classifying the DPs of their own nationality. For example, during 1945 and 1946 there were several dozen Polish liaison officers attached to individual occupation army units.[4]On October 1, 1945, theUnited Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration(UNRRA), which had already been running many of the camps, took responsibility for the administration of displaced persons in Europe,[5]though military authorities continued to play a role for several years to come, in providing transportation, supplies and security.Those who were easily classified and were willing to be repatriated were rapidly sent back to their country of origin. By the end of 1945, over six million refugees were repatriated by the military forces and UNRRA. British authorities made June 30, 1946 the cutoff for accepting further displaced persons in their sector of occupation, and the American sector set it at August 1, with the exception of those persecuted for race or religion, or who entered the zone in \"an organized manner.\" The American sector ceased receiving new arrivals on April 21, 1947. An unknown number of displaced persons rejected by authorities were left to find their own means of survival.Camps[edit]Displaced persons began to appear in substantial numbers in the spring of 1945. Allied forces took them into their care by improvising shelter wherever it could be found. Accommodation primarily included former military barracks, but also included summer camps for children, airports, hotels, castles, hospitals, private homes, and even partly destroyed structures. Although there were continuous efforts to sort and consolidate populations, there were hundreds of DP facilities in Germany, Austria, Italy, and other European countries by the end of 1945. One camp was even set up inGuanajuatoin Mexico.The UNRRA moved quickly to field teams to take over administration of the camps from the military forces.A number of DP camps became more or less permanent homes for these individuals. Conditions were varied and sometimes harsh. Rations were restricted, and curfews were frequently imposed. Camps were shut down as refugees found new homes and there was continuous consolidation of remaining refugees into fewer camps.By 1952, all but two DP camps were closed. The last two DP camps,Föhrenwaldclosed in 1957 andWelsin 1959.The needs of displaced persons[edit]All displaced persons had experienced trauma, and many had serious health conditions as a result of what they had endured.The immediate concern was to provide shelter, nutrition and basic health care. Most DPs had subsisted on diets of far less than 1,500caloriesa day. Sanitary conditions had been improvised at best, and there had been minimal medical care. As a result, they suffered from malnutrition, a variety of diseases, and were often unclean, lice-ridden, and prone to illness.In addition, most of the refugees suffered from psychological difficulties. They were often distrustful and apprehensive around authorities, and many were depressed and traumatized.Displaced persons were anxious to be reunited with families they had been separated from in the course of the war. Improvised efforts to identify survivors became formalized through the UNRRA\'s Central Tracking Bureau and facilities of theInternational Red Cross. The organization collected over one million names in the course of the DP era and eventually became theInternational Tracing Service.Displaced persons often moved from camp to camp, looking for family, countrymen, or better food and accommodations. Over time, ethnic and religious groups concentrated in certain camps.Camp residents quickly set up churches, synagogues, newspapers, sports events, schools, and even universities. Among these were the Technical University inEsslingenset up by thePolish Mission, theFree Ukrainian University, theUkrainian Technical-Agricultural Institute of Prodebrady, theBaltic Universityand the short-livedUNRRA University. German universities were required to accept a quota of DP students.A number of charitable organizations provided significant humanitarian relief and services among displaced persons - these include theAmerican Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,American Friends Service Committee,British Friends Relief Service, theLutheran World Federation,Catholic Charities, several nationalRed Crossorganizations,Polish American CongressandUkrainian American Relief Committee.The difficulties of repatriation[edit]Over one million refugees could not be repatriated to their original countries and were left homeless as a result of fear of persecution. These included:Ethnic or religious groups that were likely to be persecuted in their countries of origin. These included a large number of Jews (seeSh\'erit ha-Pletah), and others.Poles, Ukrainians and some Czechs - who feared persecution by the communist regimes installed in their home countries by theSoviet Army, in particular those from provinces (Galicia, etc.) that had been recently incorporated into theSoviet Union.Estonians,Lithuanians,Latvians, andFree City of Danzig Citizenswhose homelands had been invaded by the Soviet Union(1940) and Poland (1945), remained occupied after the war.Croats,SerbsandSloveneswho feared persecution by the communist government set up byJosip Broz Tito.In a portent of theCold War, individuals who simply wanted to avoid living under a communist regime.The agreement reached at theYalta Conferencerequired in principle that all citizens of the allied powers be repatriated to their home country. The Soviet Union insisted that refugees in the American, British, and French sectors who were or at some point had been Soviet citizens be sent back to the Soviet Union. A large number of refugees resisted this, fearing that their fleeing Soviet rule had condemned them as traitors.American, British, and French military officials, as well as UNRRA officials, reluctantly complied with this directive, and a number of Soviet citizens were repatriated. Many of these met with the hardship they feared, including death and confinement in theGulags. There were also cases of kidnapping and coercion to return these refugees. Many avoided such repatriation by misrepresenting their origins, fleeing, or simply resisting. Rejecting claimed Soviet sovereignty over the Baltic states, allied officials also refused to repatriate Lithuanian, Estonian, and Latvian refugees against their will.Similarly, a large number of refugees who were repatriated to Yugoslavia were subjected to summary executions and torture.A large number of Poles, who later agreed to be repatriated, did in fact suffer arrest and some were executed, particularly those that had served in theWarsaw Uprisingof 1944, or in thePolish Resistanceagainst the Nazis.Jewish survivors of the death camps and various work camps similarly refused to return to their countries of origin, starting instead an extensive underground movement to migrate to theBritish Mandate of Palestine. - seeBerihah.Resettlement of DPs[edit]Once it became obvious that repatriation plans left a large number of DPs who needed new homes, it took time for countries to commit to accepting refugees. Existing refugee quotas were completely inadequate, and by the fall of 1946, it was not clear whether the remaining DPs would ever find a home.Between 1947 and 1953, the vast majority of the \"non-repatriables\" would find new homes around the world, particularly among these countries:[6]Belgium was the first country to adopt a large-scale immigration program when it called for 20,000 coal mine workers from the DP ranks, bringing in a total of 22,000 DPs near the end of 1947. The program met with some controversy, as critics viewed it as a cynical ploy to get cheap labor.The United Kingdom accepted 86,000 DPs as part of various labor import programs, the largest being \"Operation Westward Ho\". These came in addition to 115,000 Polish army veterans who had joined thePolish Resettlement Corpsand 12,000 former members of the Waffen SS UkrainianHalychyna Division.Canada first accepted a number of refugees throughOrders in Counciland then implemented a bulk-labor program to accept qualified labor and a close-relatives plan, that ultimately took the form of a sponsorship plan. By the end of 1951, Canada had accepted 157,687 refugees.Australia had initially launched an immigration program targeting refugees of British stock, but expanded this in late 1947 to include other refugees. Australia accepted a total of 182,159 refugees, principally of Polish and Baltic origins.By the timeIsraelwas established in 1948, as many as 50,000 refugees had entered the country legally or illegally. Completely opening its doors to all Jewish refugees regardless of age, work ability, health, etc., Israel accepted more than 652,000 refugees by 1950.France accepted 38,157 displaced persons.In Latin America,Venezuelaaccepted 17,000 DPs;Brazil29,000; andArgentina33,000.French Moroccoaccepted 1,500 immigrants;Iraqextended an invitation to ten unmarried medical doctors.Norway accepted about 492 Jewish refugees, largely based on their ability to perform manual labor. These were scattered throughout the country, and most left as soon as they could, primarily to Israel.The United States was late to accept displaced persons, which led to considerable activism for a change in policy.Earl G. Harrison, who had previously reported on conditions in the camps to President Truman, led theCitizens Committee on Displaced Personsthat attracted dignitaries such asEleanor Roosevelt,David Dubinsky,Marshall Field,A. Philip Randolph, and others. Meeting considerable opposition in the United States Congress with a bias against Central and Eastern European intellectuals and Jews, Truman signed the first DP act on June 25, 1948, allowing entry by 200,000 DPs; and then followed by the more accommodating second DP act on June 16, 1950, allowing entry for another 200,000. This quota included refugees to claim asylum in person at US embassies,[citation needed]acceptance of 55,000Volksdeutschenand required sponsorship of all immigrants. The American program was the most idealistic and expansive of the Allied programs but also the most notoriously bureaucratic. Much of the humanitarian effort was undertaken by charitable organizations, such as the Lutheran World Federation and ethnic groups. Of the 400,000 DP\'s the US admitted from Eastern Europe in between 1941 and 1957, 137,450 wereEuropean Jews.[7]By 1953, over 250,000 refugees were still in Europe, most of them old, infirm, crippled, or otherwise disabled. Some found resolution through suicide. Some European countries accepted these refugees on a humanitarian basis. Norway accepted 200 refugees who were blind or had tuberculosis, and Sweden also accepted a limited number. In the end most of them were accepted by Germany and Austria for their care and ultimately full resettlement as citizens.See also[edit]Refugee campScouting in displaced persons campsTent cityThe Truce, an autobiographical story byPrimo Levi, depicts the life of displaced persons in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.Hirsch SchwartzbergReferences[edit]Jump up^DP Camps in Europe Intro, from:DPs Europe\'s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951by Mark WymanJump up^ISBN O-8014-8542-8 \"Dps: Europe\'s Displaced Persons, 1945-1951\" by Mark Wyman; reprinted 1998 Cornell University PressJump up^Antony Beevor,Berlin: The Downfall 1945, Penguin Books, 2002,ISBN 0-670-88695-5Jump up^ISBN 1-57087-204-X\"Thirteen is My Lucky Number\" Chapters 7 and 8Jump up^ioffer- p.47 and subsequentJump up^\"Michigan Family History Network report\". Dpcamps.org. Retrieved2012-05-14.Jump up^\"United States Policy Toward Jewish Refugees, 1941-1952\". Ushmm.org. Retrieved2012-05-14.Further reading[edit]Boder, David Pablo.Topical Autobiographies of Displaced People Recorded Verbatim in Displaced Persons Camps, with a Psychological and Anthropological Analysis. Chicago: [s.n.], 1950.Chubenko, Vladyslav, and I︠A︡ Tumarkin.The Man from DP Camp. Kiev: Pub. House of the Political Literature of Ukraine, 1985.Fessak, Borys.Ukrainian DP Camp, POW Camp, Government in Exile, and National Council Issues. Washington, D.C.: Ukrainian Philatelic and Numismatic Society, 2003.Grand, Sadja.Sadja Grand Letters and Other Materials Relating to Jewish Displaced Persons in Austria. 1945.Gurland, A. R. L.Glimpses of Soviet Jewry 1,000 Letters from the USSR and DP Camps. New York: American Jewish Committee, 1948.Heymont, Irving.Among the Survivors of the Holocaust, 1945 The Landsberg DP Camp Letters of Major Irving Heymont, United States Army. Monographs of the American Jewish Archives, no. 10. Cincinnati, Ohio: American Jewish Archives, 1982.ISBN 0-87820-012-6Jaroszynska-Kirchmann, Anna D. 2002. \"Patriotism, Responsibility, and the Cold War: Polish Schools in DP Camps in Germany, 1945-1951\".The Polish Review. 47, no. 1: 35.Klein, Arthur G., and Abraham Gordon Duker. 1949.Many Among Dp\'s in European Camps Are Collaborationists. Congressional Record.Nation in Exile Information Materials About Latvian DPs and Their Life in DP Camp Memmingen. S.l: s.n, 1948.Narkeliūnaitė, Salomėja, and J. Steponavičius.DP Baltic camp at Seedorf. Hamburg: Published by UNRRA Team 295, B.A.O.R, 1946.Shulman, William L.Aspects of the Holocaust From the Shtetl to the DP Camp. Bayside, NY: QCC Art Gallery, 1987.Irene Eber\"The Choice – Poland, 1939–1945.\"ISBN 0-8052-4197-3, 2004. Pub. Schocken Books Inc., NY. 240 p.External links[edit]Wikimedia Commons has media related toDisplaced persons camps.DP CampsImmigration History Research Center, University of MinnesotaLinks to national archives regarding DP CampsJewish Virtual Library topic pageORT and the DP CampsUnited States Holocaust Museum -The Aftermathand exhibitionLife Reborn: Jewish Displaced Persons ProjectYad Vashem lexical entry on displaced personsSimon Wiesenthal Center on the AftermathGerman language article in shoa.de on displaced persons in GermanyLightning and Ashes, blog about Polish DPsDP Camp - Rehabilitation for Emigration. Area Vocational Training School. Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany 1948Guide to the Records of the Displaced Persons Camps and Centers in Germany(RG 294.2), at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NYGuide to the Records of the Displaced Persons Camps and Centers in Italy(RG 294.3), at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NYGuide to the Records of the Displaced Persons Camps and Centers in Austria(RG 294.4), at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NYGuide to the Displaced Persons Camps and Centers Photograph Collection(RG 294.5), at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NYGuide to the Displaced Persons Camps and Centers Poster Collection(RG 294.6), at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, NYINTRODUCTIONAfter the war, the western Allies established DP camps in the Allied-occupied zones of Germany, Austria and Italy.The first inhabitants of these camps were concentration camp survivors who had been liberated by the Allies on German soil. Conditions in these camps, especially at the beginning, were very difficult. Many of the camps were former concentration camps and German army camps. Survivors found themselves still living behind barbed wire, still subsisting on inadequate amounts of food and still suffering from shortages of clothing, medicine and supplies.“Everything is seen in too sharp a light and is heard too loudly. Everything is beyond the human scale; and if you have breathed that air, you will understand that here live people who have already experienced their deaths long ago. Camp eyes are still saturated with the visions of suffering, camp lips smile a cynical smile, and the survivors\' voices cry, \'We have not yet perished\'.\"(Testimony of Haim Avni, emissary fromEretz Israel)In the DP camps, Holocaust survivors sometimes lived alongside antisemites and individuals who had harmed Jews during the war. In the summer of 1945, Earl Harrison, US President Truman’s emissary to the camps, wrote a report on the Jews’ suffering in the DP camps. As a result, the Jewish refugees were transferred to separate camps where they were given a degree of independence, and conditions improved. The Americans enabled US Jewish relief organizations and activists fromEretz Israelto operate in the camps. The living conditions in the British-occupied zone, where Jewish refugees had arrived mostly from Bergen-Belsen, were far less comfortable.Survivor Eliezer Adler recalls:They would take a hut and divide it into ten tiny rooms for ten couples. The desire for life overcame everything - in spite of everything I am alive, and even living with intensity.We took children and turned them into human beings…. The great reckoning with the Holocaust? Who bothered about that... you knew the reality, you knew you had no family, that you were alone, that you had to do something. You were busy doing things. I remember that I used to tell the young people: Forgetfulness is a great thing. A person can forget, because if they couldn\'t forget they couldn\'t build a new life. After such a destruction to build a new life, to get married, to bring children into the world? In forgetfulness lay the ability to create a new life...After the Holocaust, there were tens of thousands of Jewish survivors in Poland, as well as refugees who had returned there from the Soviet Union. On comprehending the enormity of the destruction of Polish Jewry and being confronted with manifestations of antisemitism, which reached their zenith with the Kielce pogrom of July 1946, these Jews decided to move westward to the American-occupied zone, and so they too arrived at the DP camps. In 1947, they were joined by a further wave of Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, and the total number of DP camp inhabitants reached a peak of some 250,000.Life in the camps in occupied Germany was regarded by most of the Jewish refugees as a temporary arrangement. They sought to leave Germany, and in many cases, Europe as a whole. Yet despite this, and despite the wretched physical conditions, the survivors in the DP camps transformed them into centers of social, cultural and educational activity.Holocaust survivor and author Aharon Appelfeld relates:The first entertainment troupes made their appearance: a mixture of old and young people, among them former actors… and all manner of skinny people who found this distraction cathartic. These troupes evolved spontaneously, and went from one camp to another. They sang, recited, told jokes… the subconscious will to exist propelled us back into the circle of life.The Jews in the DP camps established theaters and orchestras. They held sporting events and published more than 70 newspapers in Yiddish. They were among the first to research the Holocaust and initiate commemoration events. They collected testimonies from survivors, gathered written documentation and held memorial ceremonies for the victims.The survivors found themselves “liberated but not free”. Their starting point was their unique legacy, but their response was a national one. “In the DP camps, without the framework of a society to absorb them, their rehabilitation was dependent on the formation of a new society, one which struggled for its national existence while fighting for the rehabilitation of its members. The camps were a model for the incremental move from a bruised and battered Europe to a new life - in Israel and America,” wrote researcher Hagit Lavsky.Different Jewish political parties – secular and religious, Zionist and Socialist – operated in the DP camps, the legacy of the intensive political life led by the Jews of Poland before the Holocaust. With that, the trauma engendered by the Holocaust and the influence of the Zionist activists who came fromEretz Israelmeant that the political inclination in the DP camps was predominantly Zionist.There was a high level of political awareness in the DP camps, and a desire to leave Germany, especially toEretz Israel. The Jews establishedKibbutzei Hachsharah(pioneer training collectives) in which they prepared themselves forAliyah(immigration) toEretz Israel.Due to the establishment in 1948 of the State of Israel and the changes that were made to the US immigration legislation, there were increased opportunities for many of the Jews in the DP camps to emigrate. All the DP camps closed by 1950, except for Föhrenwald, which remained operative until 1957. Most of the displaced persons immigrated to Israel, approximately one third to the US, and several thousand settled in Europe, including in Germany itself, and reestablished communities that had been destroyed in the Holocaust. Additional ResourcesThe Final Stages of the War and the Aftermath - The Anguish of Liberation and the Surviving RemnantsLesson PlanFAMILYIn the first months after the war there were barely any children under the age of 5 in the DP camps, and only 3% of the survivors were children and teenagers aged 6-17. Most survivors had lost their entire families, and alongside the feelings of loss and loneliness was the yearning to establish families of their own, resulting in a marriage boom after liberation. In some of the camps there even were group weddings, and it was not uncommon for the newlyweds to hail from different countries. In the years 1946-1948, the birth rate in the DP camps was the highest in the world. Medical care for newborns and their young mothers, provided in cooperation with relief organizations, was one of the foremost challenges.Wedding at Mittenwald DP Camp, 1946Wedding at Bergen-Belsen DP Camp, 1948Babies born after World War II at Bad Reichenhall DP CampNewborns at Pocking DP Camp, 1947Artist Musia Diecher’s twinsAn infant being weighed by a nurse, MunichFamilies duringShavuotin a DP camp, 1947EDUCATIONEducators at the DP camps found themselves confronted with serious hurdles, such as illiteracy among the students, lack of concentration, and the absence of a uniform language of instruction.In addition, they had to restore the faith and confidence in the adult world that these youngsters had lost during the war. In many cases, it was not only confidence they had lost, but essentially their entire childhood. The horrors of the Holocaust had turned them into adults overnight.The survivors hailed from the most diverse European countries and while some had lost their skills during the war years others had never had a chance to learn anything.Moreover, there was a shortage of classrooms, textbooks, notebooks and other equipment. Initially, there were no professionally-trained teachers in most of the DP camps, but competent teachers were soon dispatched fromEretz Israel, the United States and England. As well as core subjects such as reading, writing and mathematics, Hebrew, Jewish history and the geography ofEretz Israelwere included in the curriculum. The orthodox community supervised the establishment ofyeshivot(Talmudic colleges).In addition to raising the younger children, youth education was organized in order to prepare the teenagers for their future working lives. This comprised sewing and tailoring classes, Hebrew lessons and agricultural training.Third Grade at Jawne School in KasselATalmud-Torahclass at FöhrenwaldAn ORT sewing class at Gauting DP Camp after WWIIChildren studying in Rosenheim DP CampYeshivahstudents at Eschwege DP CampA Hebrew lesson at Bergen-Belsen DP CampJewish students at Schwäbisch Hall DP CampCULTURE AND PRESSIt did not take long for a dynamic cultural life to develop in the DP camps. For many inmates, cultural activities constituted a kind of spiritual rehabilitation, which found its expression in the establishment of orchestras and theater groups. The fact that the revival of Jewish culture occurred in Germany of all places was seen by many as an expression of retribution.On stage, classical Jewish plays were performed, the experiences of the ghettos and concentration camps were processedand the dream ofEretz Israelwas given expression. Of particular importance to the survivors in the DP camps was the publication of Jewish newspapers, especially in Yiddish. After most inmates had been cut off almost entirely from any information during the war, and had been unable express their opinions, intensive writing activity commenced shortly after liberation. This was all the more impressive in light of the fact that paper was severely rationed and typewriters were almost impossible to find. Almost every DP camp had its own newspaper, featuring articles about sporting events, wedding and birth announcements, political reports from the DP camps and news from around the world andEretz Israel, as well as the survivors’ personal stories and search notices.Simultaneous chess match at Wetzlar DP CampConcert in FrankfurtJewish newspapers, exhibited at Bergen-BelsenMembers of the Kazet Theater, Bergen-Belsen DP campSelling newspapers at Feldafing DP CampRELIGIONThe revival of Orthodox Jewry found its expression, among other things, in the establishment ofyeshivot(Talmudic colleges). Religious schools were established in several locations including Bergen-Belsen and Föhrenwald. Jewish holidays gave occasion for gatherings and festivities, but more importantly, they constituted the revival of religious customs after the Holocaust.Professor William Haber at ayeshivahJews during prayer services at Leipheim DP CampATalmud-Torahclass at FöhrenwaldFamilies duringShavuotin a DP camp, 1947REMEMBRANCE & COMMEMORATIONAfter liberation many felt the need to preserve their experiences and to keep the memory of their destroyed communities alive. The horrors of the Shoah were documented by survivors and published in the newspapers of the DP camps, and they also wrote the stories of their communities in the form of “Yizkor” (memorial) books. At the same time, there was a need to commemorate the murdered by erecting tombstones near mass graves and memorial stones for the victims who had no grave. Holocaust commemoration ranged from traditional Jewish memorial rites to the development of new and different forms of commemoration.Memorial ceremony after WWII at Landsberg DP CampA memorial ceremony held at Landsberg DP Camp, 1947Unveiling a monument at the former Jäger BarracksYizkorat a Zionist conference, Munich DP Camp, 1946SPORTSIn addition to political and cultural activities in the DP camps, sports clubs were established and competitions organized. Sporting events were of great significance to the survivors, since they emphasized their independence and will power on the one hand, and signified a return to normality on the other.Every DP newspaper included a sports section, and sporting events announcements could always be found in the advertising columns.A Soccer match in a DP camp in GermanyMaccabi sports club athletes, Föhrenwald DP CampThe Maccabi team after the war at Föhrenwald DP CampBoxers at Leipheim DP CampA race at a sports festival, Leipheim DP CampZIONISMFor most survivors, Jewish identity was an existential issue after the Holocaust. The horrors of the Shoah had made them understand that they could not continue to exist as an unwelcome minority. They saw only one solution to this problem – Zionism. The predominance of Zionism compared to other political schools of thought that had been common before the war, can be explained by the fact that the Zionists were the only ones who had a platform that seemed to make sense after the catastrophe of the Holocaust; furthermore, the Zionists were organized and active. At the first Zionist conference of the DP camps in Bavaria after the war, the demand was made to permanently dissolve the European Diaspora and expedite immigration toEretz Israel. Additionally, the restrictions imposed by the British on immigration toEretz Israelwere severely criticized.An event organized by Beitar at Föhrenwald DP CampA Zionist parade at Landsberg DP Camp, 29/11/1947Demonstration demanding immigration toEretz IsraelThe Zionist Committee at Bergen-Belsen DP CampYizkorat a Zionist conference, Munich DP Camp, 1946KIBBUTZIMIn preparing for immigration toEretz Israel, an important role was played by thekibbutzim(farming collectives). In many respects, they carried on the tradition of Zionistkibbutzimandhachsharot(pioneer training schemes) that had been active in the interwar period mainly in Poland. Often thekibbutzimwere part of the DP camps, but their members lived in separate units and were very eager to maintain their independence. The goal of thekibbutzimwas to prepare their members forAliyah(immigration) toEretz Israel. This entailed Hebrew lessons and courses on the history ofEretz Israelas well as agricultural training. The firstkibbutzof this kind was Kibbutz Buchenwald, which was founded in the summer of 1945.TrikalaA modern city in central Thessaly, next to Kalambaka and the sites of the Meteora, its small Jewish community (50) maintains a Synagogue and a cemetery.Historical backgroundThe presence of Jews in Trikala is mentioned in sources of the Byzantine period. Their population was increased significantly after the settlement of Spanish Jews - \"Sepharadim\" - in 1492, which were later joined by immigrants from Hungary, Portugal and from Sicily.Nevertheless, the Romaniote character was maintained in the community.Tensions between Jews and Christians occasionally broke out in physical violence and Trikala’s Jews – like those of Ioanina - suffered especially during the revolutionary activities of the fanatic and renegade bishop Dionysos Skylosophos in the late 18th century. During the 19th century local antagonism forced many Jews to emigrate. By 1898 there were only 800 Jews left here and this number fell to 500 by 1941.At the times of the mass arrest of Thessalian Jews by the Nazis in 1943, Trikala’s Jews, like those of Volos and Larissa, had made arrangements beforehand with the partisans and were ready to flee to the mountains or go into hiding. Only a few of them were arrested and deported.At the end of the war, the community was reestablished. Over the years, many Jews left for Athens, Israel or elsewhere, and today there are only about 50 Jews living there.SitesThe SynagogueBefore the war, there were 3 synagogues in Trikala: the Kal Yavanim (Romaniote), Kal Sefaradi (Sefardi) and Kal Sikiliani (Romaniote-Sicilian). The last two were destroyed during the war while the oldest, the Kal Yavanim was gutted by fire. After the war, the Kal Yavanim was reconstructed, but with several interior modifications to accommodate both the Romaniote and Sfardi tradition of synagogue layout in Greece.Location: 24, Athanasiou St.Tel: (+30) 24310 258 34 / 24310 706 22CemeteryIt has some interesting tombstones with inscriptions depicting the craft or profession of the deceased. It is normally locked, so visitors should first contact the community. TRIKALA COMMUNITY - HISTORYHISTORY Friday, 26 June 2009 11:56THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF TRIKALAHISTORIC BACKGROUNDThe presence of Jews in Trikala is mentioned in sources of the Byzantine period. Their population was increased significantly after the settlement of Spanish Jews - \"Sepharadim\" - in 1492, who were later joined by immigrants from Valona, Portugal and from Sicily. The Turks who had returned from their campaign in Hungary - in 1545 - brought back a number of Jews to Trikala and other Greek cities, where they settled. The local Jews preserved the \"Romaniote\" character of the community and historians refer to the Jewish quarter and its Synagogues. During the fire that broke out in the city - on July 11, 1749 - the Jewish quarter and the Synagogues suffered great damages. Then came the \"Orlophian\" events caused by the Albanians - on July 14, 1770 - a time of looting and destruction. A great number of civilians, including Jews, were taken prisoners. In 1873 the Community had 400 members. The city was liberated from the Turkish rule on August 23, 1881. According to the 1907 census, the city had 110 Jewish families, 265 men and 294 women. The Jewish population fluctuated at various periods. The newspapers often mentioned the contribution of Jews in the economic, social and political development of the city, stressing their peaceful co-existence with their fellow-citizens.SYNAGOGUESThe Romaniote, Sephardic and Ashkenazi synagogues were in the old Jewish quarter. Each one was autonomous and preserved the particular religious traditions of the origin of the faithful. The great Synagogue \"Ka\'hal Kadosh Yavani\'im\" on Athanasiou Diakou Street, was very old and therefore torn down in 1930. A new synagogue was constructed in its place, but the Germans turned it into a stable and looted it. After the War it was repaired, but it suffered serious damages in the 1954 earthquakes. Once again it was repaired and has been functioning ever since. It was inaugurated in June 16, 1957. The smaller, stone Synagogue on Kondyli Street suffered serious damages by the Germans as well as in the 1954 earthquakes. Part of its land plot was expropriated by the Municipality in order to open up the street. The remaining section was built into an apartment building in order to house Jewish victims of the earthquakes. The rabbis who held an office in the Synagogues were Rabbi Iosif Yakoel, El Iatson- Elias Rousso and Raphael Felous. Interior of \"Yavani\'im\" Synagogue in TrikalaThe graves of the Jewish cemetery in Trikala have a particular manner: The occupation of the deceased is depicted on many gravestones. (In the photo, the handholding the razor shows that the deceased was a barber). CEMETERY It is located on a hill northwest of the city, near the national highway between Trikala and Kalambaka. It covers an area of 15,000 m2, and has over 800 graves, including a few gravestones dating at least 450 years back. Since 1995 several graves were vandalized and desecrated. Today, gravestones undergo reparation and maintenance works and the surrounding area is remodeled.Vandalism in the Jewish cemetery of TrikalaJEWISH SCHOOLAccording to older publications, a private Community school with 70 pupils had existed since 1913. It functioned until a few years after the War. Leon Pessach, Mr. and Mrs. Bior and Nissim Venouziou were among the most recent instructors. A scene from the play \"Esther\" by Racine, organisedby the Jewish Communities of Trikala and Larissa onthe occasion of the holiday of Purim in 1918 in TrikalaASSOCIATIONSVarious Associations and Committees were active within the bosom of the Community. A local newspaper, dating 17 March, 1884, refers to the Jewish Charity Association, whose target was the assistance of the needy, deeds of charity, and the education of poor pupils. Iosif Sidis was chairman and Isaac Levi, Raphael Moissis and Yehuda Atoun were members of the Board. In 1902 the very active charity organization \"Ezdra Betarot\" was founded. Other examples of Associations - Committees are \"Bikur Cholim\", \"Chevrah Kedoshah\" and the influential Zionist Association \"Eretz Tsion\" (Land of Zion), which co-operated with the sister Associations in Volos and Larissa in order to publish the \"Israel\" magazine. The young and active Asher Moissis and Yomtov Yakoel played a leading role in the foundation and function of this Association.PROFESSIONSAs of the 16th century, the Jews of Trikala were in the business of production of woolen, cotton silk and linen textiles. For a long time they \"exclusively\" ran the wine trade. Later on, until recently, they became involved in commerce, small industry and various other trades. Some of them earned a name in the battle of professional life and became well-known merchants, bankers, money-changers. They were pious and kept the Sabbath. Their deeds of charity were not restricted within the Jewish Community, but went beyond that, to the city in general. Their donations helped support the foundation of a hospital, a fitness centre and providing needy girls with a dowry. It is also worth mentioning the participation of Jews in the national struggles, in both World Wars, and in the National Resistance, all of which took a heavy toll.NAZI OCCUPATION - PERSECUTIONAfter Italy\'s defeat in 1943 there was a period of calm during the German Occupation. Then, on the night of March 23, 1944, the Nazis arrested 112 Jews (out of the 520 who lived in Trikala at that time), who did not succeed to escape and deported them to the Nazi death camps where most of them were exterminated. The Community lost 31% of its population. Only 10 prisoners returned after the War. The Community was re-organised thanks to the co-ordination of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and to the significant contribution of the \"American Joint\" charity Organization. After the War the Community had 270 members, some of whom gradually settled in other cities. The Community today has 40 members. In spite of its small size the Community of Trikala continues its long historic course.
c1945 Holocaust DP CAMP HAGGADAH Jewish JOINT JDC Greece TRIKALA Judaica HEBREW:
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