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The American Joint Distribution Committee was founded on August 27, 1914 when the American Jewish Relief Committee (AJRC) and the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews (CCRJ) joined forces under the name of the Joint Distribution Committee of American Funds for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers. Conceived as a temporary agency to relieve suffering during the war, it developed more fully and complexly in the period of postwar reconstruction. In 1931 the organization changed its name to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, becoming a much-needed and permanent agency. Throughout the 1930s the organization became the relief center for Jews fleeing Nazi oppression, and in the late 1940s it conducted efforts to get oppressed Jews to Israel. The American Jewish Historical Society, the Leo Baeck Insitute, and YIVO all hold relevant collections.
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, collection (AJHS I-345)
This collection comprises annual reports, budget reports, cables, calendars of events, catalogs, correspondence, minutes, memorandum, lists of Board of Director members, photographs of speakers, and a chart of the organization’s Geneva Headquarters. The documents in this collection describe the many and varied activities of the committee such as fundraising, relief distribution, general information concerning Russian farm colonies and immigration.
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Collection (LBI AR 7196) [Digitized]
The bulk of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) collection consists of the German case files of the JDC and date from 1929 to 1947. These records document various individuals’ immigration attempts. Although the JDC was at first reluctant to aid individuals directly, this became necessary after the outbreak of World War II.
American (Jewish) Joint Distribution Committee (YIVO RG 335) [Partially Digitized]
YIVO's Record Group 335 contains various records of the JDC, including its nine subgroups, 335.1-335.9. In addition, YIVO has many collections of various individual landsmanshaftn and charitable organizations, some of which are mentioned in this collection, and its own Landsmanshaftn collection, as well as records of several people associated with the JDC.
AJDC Reports (RG 335.1)
Reports of JDC executive offices, 1930-1960. Materials on negotiations between the British government and the Jewish Agency headed by Chaim Weizmann, 1930. Reports on relief work done in Poland, 1916-1939.
Records of American Joint Reconstruction Foundation (RG 335.2)
Consists of correspondence, financial reports, and reports on the situation in various communities from the AJRF offices during the years 1924-1939, as well as some material of the Reconstruction Committee of the JDC, a predecessor of the AJRF, 1920-24.
Records of the Joint Distribution Committee War Orphans Bureau (RG 335.3) [Digitized]
Organized by the AJDC in 1919, to provide relief for Jewish war orphans mainly in Eastern Europe. Activities included finding foster families, building orphanages, exploring possibilities of adoption in the U.S., Canada, South Africa and Palestine. Arranged by case file number or, alphabetically for geographical files.
AJDC Search Department Records (RG 335.4) [Digitized]
Location of American Relatives (LAR) Questionnaires
American Joint Distribution Committee (AJDC) Office in Lisbon (RG 335.5) [Digitized]
Consists mainly of correspondence and includes some memoranda and financial records relating to immigration activities of AJDC offices in Lisbon during the years 1939-1951. Includes correspondence with the American Friend Service Committee; AJDC in Paris, intergovernmental Committee on refugees, Council for Refugee Settlement in Johanesburg, and National Refugee Service. Lists of passengers, lists of refugees, 1940-46; administrative memoranda; bulletins of European AJDC.
Personal Services Department Records of the American (Jewish) Joint Distribution Committee (RG 335.6) [Digitized]
Department assumed the work of the AJDC's Transmigration Bureau during and after WWII. This primarily comprised receiving and processing of deposits made by emigrants from Europe towards transportation costs. After the war, much of the work involved search and location of relatives and survivors. Series 1: Immigrant Case Files (1946-1952) Series 2: Transmigration Bureau correspondence; Subject files (1946-1957). Series 3: Promissory note files (1947-1948).
Records of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Landsmanshaftn Department (RG 335.7)
Correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, committee meeting minutes, bank reports and receipts from the interest-free loan associations and from individual donors, official documentation about immigration and displaced persons, and programs and invitations from events held by landsmanshaftn. The materials date from 1926-1950. 800+ communities and countries are represented. Most of the documents for an individual community are in a single folders. Most material in English and Yiddish.
AJDC Clippings (RG 335.8)
Clippings from English, Yiddish, and German newspapers in America dealing with general conditions in various countries and general topics during the years 1950-1969. Legacy finding aid available here.
AJDC Photographs (RG 335.9)
Photographs depicting AJDC activities all over the world. The photos are alphabetically arranged by country.
HIAS is an international migration agency sponsored by the American Jewish community—a national resettlement agency and an international refugee service organization with programs where they are needed most around the world. Since its origins in the 1880s, the HIAS mission has evolved to remain relevant amid constantly changing world conditions for Jews and other refugee groups forced to flee their homelands. This work is done in support of their goal, which for over 100 years has been to rescue and resettle Jews and other refugees in the United States or other safe havens.
The American Jewish Historical Society and YIVO both hold extensive material related to HIAS in their collections. For a more in-depth guide to these collections, please see our Collection Guide: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) Collection (YIVO RG 245)
The records of HIAS reflect the activities of all its administrative offices in the United States and abroad. The collection is comprised of the records of HIAS, HICEM and the United HIAS Service, and is divided into several subgroups.
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) Records (AJHS I-363)
The records of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, now known as HIAS, comprise much of the history of HIAS through the second half of the 20th century, primarily through the files created by leadership based in the New York headquarters. This collection is held offsite.
USNA was organized in New York in 1946 through a merger of the National Refugee Service and the Service to Foreign Born of the National Council of Jewish Women in response to the postwar influx of Jewish refugees into the U.S. The organization lasted until 1954 when it merged with HIAS.
Records of the United Service for New Americans (AJHS I-93) [Digitized]
This collection contains correspondence, records, and publications of the United Service for New Americans (USNA), the major immigration and resettlement organization in the United States for Jewish displaced persons immigrating in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These records document USNA’s interaction and coordination with the United States government’s Displaced Persons Commission, associated Jewish agencies, particularly the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), and representatives of Jewish settlement groups in cities and towns across the country.
United Service for New Americans (USNA) Collection (YIVO RG 246) [Off-site]
The bulk of the collection consists of individual case files, which are held off-site. A legacy finding aid is available here.
United Service for New Americans (USNA) Collection (YIVO RG 246.1) [Digitized]
Administrative records, relate to all stages of the organization's history beginning with its founding in 1946 up to its merger into the United HIAS Service. Includes administrative correspondence, financial records, statistical materials on migration, correspondence relating to individual cases.
Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter Collection (AJHS P-317) [Digitized]
Collection of papers generated or received in the course of Jack Cohen’s role as the B’nai B’rith representative to the Coordinating Committee for Fort Ontario, and Rabbi Mosco Tzechoval’s role as the spiritual leader at the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, NY, 1944-1946. The papers document the religious, educational, cultural, and medical needs of the refugees; the working and living conditions of the shelter; contributions of B'nai B'rith and other organizations to the shelter.
German Jewish Children's Aid Records (YIVO RG 249) [Digitized]
The German-Jewish Children's Aid, later known as the European-Jewish Children's Aid, was involved in bringing Jewish children to the United States from Europe before, during, and after WWII. Collection is comprised of correspondence, reports and case files, which may contain biographical information as well as questionnaires and correspondence concerning the case.
Joseph Perkins Chamberlain Papers (YIVO RG 278) [Digitized]
His activities in refugee work lasted from 1933 until 1950, starting with his appointment in 1933 as an American member of the Intergovernmental High Commission for Refugees (Jewish and others) Coming from Germany. On many occasions Chamberlain assumed the role of spokesman for the refugee organizations, interceding on their behalf with the State Department or representing the refugee cause at public functions. The collection contains a variety of materials related to different refugee and aid organizations.
National Refugee Service (AJHS I-92) [Partially Digitized]
In January of 1944, President Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board as a governmental organization to assist in the rescue of refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. The Board set up an emergency refugee shelter in Oswego, New York to hold close to 1,000 refugees. The Records of the National Refugee Service contains field reports and documents describing the plan to open the refugee shelter in Oswego.
United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York Collection (AJHS I-433) [Off-site]
In 1939, leaders of three national Jewish organizations already involved with aiding Jewish refugees and immigrants formed the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) in the days after Kristallnacht to combine efforts. By 1942 a New York office had opened.
UJA-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York is the organization that resulted after three mergers over the course of the 20th century. This collection incorporates the surviving historical records of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities, the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City, the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies Joint Campaign and United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York.
A collection guide is available here.
Dispersion and resettlement: the story of the Jews from Central Europe / [editor, Werner Rosenstock]. London: Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain, 1955.
Haven from the Holocaust: Oswego, New York, 1944-1946 / by Lawrence Baron. Cooperstown, N.Y.: New York State Historical Association,], 1983.
The admission and resettlement of displaced persons in the United States: a handbook of legal and technical information for the use of local social and civic agencies / by Frank L. Auerbach. Rev.ed. New York: Common Council for American Unity, 1950.
The displaced person and the social agency;: a study of the casework process in its relation to immigrant adjustment / New York: United Hias Service, 1958.
The USNA story: a summing up 1933-1953 of 20 years of service to Jewish refugees by the American Jewish Community / New York: Published by USNA, n.d.
Token refuge: the story of the Jewish refugee shelter at Oswego, 1944-1946 / Sharon R. Lowenstein. of Modern Jewish Experience (Bloomington, Ind.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
United Jewish Relief Agencies of Canada: preliminary inventory / Lillian Reinblatt. Montreal: Canadian Jewish Congress, 1985.
Visas to freedom: the history of HIAS / by Mark Wischnitzer. Firsted. Cleveland: World Pub. Co., 1956.
300,000 new Americans: the epic of a modern immigrant-aid service / foreword by Eleanor Roosevelt. 1st ed. New York]: Harper, 1957.