Collection Guide: National Jewish Welfare Board

Organized in 1917 to meet the needs of Jewish servicemen in the Armed Forces, the National Jewish Welfare Board (JWB) became a national federation of local agencies and social service institutions dedicated to meeting the social, cultural, intellectual, physical and spiritual needs of the American Jewish community.

The roots of JWB can be traced to the founding of the Council of Young Men's Hebrew and Kindred Associations (YMHA-KA) in November 1913. This benevolent organization was established to promote and help coordinate the programs of the various Young Men's Hebrew Associations (YMHAs) and Jewish Community Centers (JCCs) throughout the United States. In 1916 the Council created a special Army and Navy Committee to attend to the religious and welfare needs of Jewish soldiers participating in military activities along the Mexican border. During World War I the Council decided to expand its services and aid rabbis serving near military posts. Unfortunately, the activities of the Council were hampered by its inability to speak for the entire American Jewish community. Furthermore, the absence of a unified coordinating agency led to a duplication of services and a scattering of limited resources.

The mission of the newly reorganized JWB was threefold. First, the Board hoped to promote the social welfare of American Jewish servicemen by providing them with adequate opportunities for worship, education, devotion, solace and improvement. Second, the religious, intellectual, physical, and social well being of young Jewish men and women was to be supported. Finally, JWB dedicated itself to the development of JCCs, YMHAs, Young Women's Hebrew Associations (YWHAs), and other kindred societies.

Membership in the new JWB consisted of local agencies such as JCCs, YM-YWHAs, regional federations of YMHAs and JCCs, and affiliated national organizations such as B'nai B'rith. As a result of this varied membership, JWB gained the authority to represent all American Jewish organizations.

JWB was organized into two sections - Army and Navy services and Jewish Community Center services. Sixteen full time and part time JWB workers, community volunteers, and soldier representatives provided Army and Navy services. As the officially recognized Jewish religious and welfare agency for Jewish military personnel, these staffers covered 250 military establishments, Veterans hospitals, and naval stations.

The JCC's overall goal was to provide an element of unity, purpose and service to the Jewish community. To achieve this goal, JWB provided a multitude of services to the JCCs and supported and developed numerous programs during the 1930s that stressed the development of Jewish culture and the spirit of Judaism within the overall American context. These included youth programs, which were intended to emphasize the building of character. In addition, program activities focusing on Jewish holiday celebrations, Jewish history and problems, Jewish themes, and Jewish survival were developed. In 1922 JWB's Lecture and Concert Bureau assumed the direct management of selecting lecturers to participate in forums at local JCCs. Plays, pageants, bulletins, and brochures were developed and distributed to celebrate Jewish and civic holidays. Camping services were expanded in the 1930s and training for camp counselors was offered by JWB. JWB staff also organized educational conferences and conventions, prepared Jewish bibliographies and other publications, encouraged group insurance plans for Center workers, and devoted considerable resources to assisting JCCs in finding qualified staff. By these and other means, JWB attempted to develop balanced programs that would meet the cultural, social, intellectual, and physical needs of the Jewish community.

During WWII, many new JWB committees and divisions were created to meet the wartime emergency. The Bureau of War Records was established to gather and preserve the war records of Jewish military personnel. Local war record committees were organized around the country to compile the war records of Jewish soldiers. As a result, a full account describing the activities of the Jewish soldier was published at the end of the war. In 1942, five national women's organizations affiliated with JWB began the Women's Organizations' Division. (The Division later expanded and become known as Women's Organizations' Services.) This division initiated projects to assist military personnel, organized and publicized work related to the war effort, and coordinated the efforts of women in local communities. In addition, the Committee on Personal Service was created to supervise and guide the work of field personnel servicing Jews in the military. By the end of the war, there were 626 Army and Navy Committees organized throughout the United States serving Jewish servicemen.

JWB's war activities also reached around the globe. Chaplains could be found in the West Indies, India, Burma, China, North Africa, the Pacific Islands, Europe and the Middle East. They served on hospital and transport ships, on the ground with the infantry, and were among the first to reach the concentration camps and assist survivors. By the end of the war, a total of 311 JWB chaplains had served in the military.

One of the main activities and tasks of JWB during the war was providing chaplains with the necessary supplies to meet the needs of Jewish soldiers. Enormous amounts of festival accessories, troop comforts, and kosher food were transported around the world and given to chaplains. Similarly, the recreational needs of soldiers were met by JWB at various USO buildings at home and abroad. In 1943, JWB helped organize Jewish Hospitality Committees in Great Britain to aid Jewish servicemen. Religious hospitality centers, containing synagogues, social rooms, snack bars, and kosher kitchens, were set up by field representatives in Europe, Australia, India, and China. JWB also assisted in refugee work by providing religious services, parties, reading materials and textbooks for the displaced of Europe.

To meet the demand for qualified staff to work in the expanding JCCs, JWB created the Bureau of Careers in Jewish Service to recruit Jewish civil servants and social workers. JWB offered national training services to the JCCs and provided open job listings of all professional vacancies, to encourage workers to stay in the social work field. Twenty-five different training projects were carried out by JWB's Training Services Department to orient new Center workers and to up-grade the skills of those already in the field. By 1969, the recruitment of Center workers had become a function of local Jewish communities with guidance provided by JWB's Personnel Services Department.

At the close of the 1960s JWB offered an energetic program that detected new social work needs, charted new directions, and pioneered new advances in social work practice. JWB's Service to Small Communities program began offering services to small and isolated Jewish communities throughout the country. It developed new programs to serve Jewish college youth and learn more about the attitudes, needs, and interests of the college generation. More intensive programming in Jewish music, drama, graphic arts, theatre, and dance were encouraged. And finally, displays of American Jewish history were developed and viewed by thousands in the Centers.

Like most of America, the JWB and JCC movement was swept up in the societal changes of the 1970s and 1980s. The Jewish community faced a rise in alternative household arrangements that had little connection to the synagogue or JCC movement. Many Jews were single or divorced with children and a growing number were over the age of fifty. Moreover, the trend of intermarriage, assimilation, and lower births threatened the long-term survival of the Jewish community. As a result of these changes, JWB began to develop new cultural and educational programs to strengthen the Jewish community.As the 1980s progressed, fathering programs were designed to assist men as they took on additional parenting responsibilities at home. New day care programs for the elderly and horticultural therapy were offered to senior citizens. A Shalom Newcomers Network was begun to help Jewish families and individuals put down Jewish roots in new communities. By the end of the decade, the JCCs had developed a wide array of programs to deal with such everyday concerns as heart disease prevention, child abuse, and AIDS prevention.

In 1990 JWB, in order to more accurately reflect the organization's mission and goals, and its connection with the Jewish Community Center movement, changed its name to the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America (JCC Association). The JCC Association resolved to become more proactive in anticipating the needs of the Jewish community and in providing the mechanisms and resources to meet those needs.