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The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is an American Jewish
American Jews

American Jews, or Jewish Americans, are Jews who are United States citizens or resident aliens. The United States is home to the second largest Jewish community in the world depending on religious definitions and varying population data....
 charitable organization
Charitable organization

The definition of charitable organization, and of charity, varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates....
 with the declared mission to "serve the needs of Jews throughout the world, particularly where their lives as Jews are threatened or made more difficult."

Known colloquially as "the Joint," (sometimes capitalized as "JOINT") the organization focuses its effort on non-sectarian disaster relief, rescue of Jews that are in imminent danger, relief from hunger and other hardship, cultural renewal, and transitional assistance for individuals who are displaced or have immigrated.






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The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is an American Jewish
American Jews

American Jews, or Jewish Americans, are Jews who are United States citizens or resident aliens. The United States is home to the second largest Jewish community in the world depending on religious definitions and varying population data....
 charitable organization
Charitable organization

The definition of charitable organization, and of charity, varies according to the country and in some instances the region of the country in which the charitable organization operates....
 with the declared mission to "serve the needs of Jews throughout the world, particularly where their lives as Jews are threatened or made more difficult."

Known colloquially as "the Joint," (sometimes capitalized as "JOINT") the organization focuses its effort on non-sectarian disaster relief, rescue of Jews that are in imminent danger, relief from hunger and other hardship, cultural renewal, and transitional assistance for individuals who are displaced or have immigrated. The organization no longer limits itself to the humanitarian needs of Jews and operates a number of initiatives to help all people in need throughout the world, including recent drives to alleviate the situation in the Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
, Indian Ocean tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

The was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 Coordinated Universal Time on December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia....
 relief, and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake
2005 Kashmir earthquake

The 2005 Kashmir Earthquake was a major earthquake epicenter in Azad Kashmir and in North West Frontier Province near the city of Muzaffarabad....
.

The Joint has three operating principles related to: being non-partisan and non-political, providing empowering assistance, and building strategic alliances with other organizations that take over responsibility for what the Joint helped start.

Founding and World War I

The Joint was founded in 1914 when Henry Morgenthau, Sr.
Henry Morgenthau, Sr.

Henry Morgenthau was a businessman and United States ambassador, most famous as the United States Ambassador to Turkey during the First World War....
, then ambassador to the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
, requested funds from Louis Marshall
Louis B. Marshall

Louis B. Marshall was a corporation and United States Constitution lawyer, Mediation and Jewish community leader who worked to secure Religion, Politics, and Culture freedom for all minority groups....
 and Jacob H. Schiff to alleviate famine among Palestinian Jews. As World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
 led to violence and persecution of Jews also in Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 and Poland
Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
, the Joint undertook a number of initiatives to sustain the Jewish communities there, including the establishment of credit unions, agricultural training, and other relief works.

On 4 October 1914 the Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism is a Jewish denominations of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict constructionist and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim....
 Jews founded the Central Committee
Central Committee

Central Committee most commonly refers to the central executive unit of a Leninist or Communist party, whether ruling or non-ruling. In a Communist party, the Central Committee is made up of delegates elected at a Party Congress....
 to help the suffering Jews in World War I. On 25 October 1914 American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee

The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world....
 (AJC) founded the American Jewish Relief Committee (AJRC) to help the suffering Jews. Then there was seen that an organization was needed to distribute the funds worldwide, so the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) was founded on 27 November 1914.

Agro-Joint

The Joint also worked with the Soviet
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 governmental agencies OZET
OZET

OZET was public Society for Settling Toiling Jews on the Land in the Soviet Union in the period from 1925 to 1938. Some English sources use the word "Working" instead of "Toiling"....
 and Komzet
Komzet

Komzet was the Committee for the Settlement of Toiling Jews on the Land in the Soviet Union. The primary goal of the Komzet was to help impoverished and persecuted Jewish population of the former Pale of Settlement to adopt agricultural labor....
 to equip and train more than 600,000 Jews to adopt agricultural labor in Ukraine
Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south....
, Crimea
Crimea

Crimea or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is an autonomous republic of Ukraine located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name....
 and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast
Jewish Autonomous Oblast

Jewish Autonomous Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia of Russia situated in the Far Eastern Federal District federal districts of Russia, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast of Russia and Heilongjiang province of People's Republic of China....
 as part of the Soviet collectivization program
Collectivisation in the USSR

Collectivization in the Soviet Union was a policy pursued under Joseph Stalin, between 1928 and 1940, to consolidate individual land and labour into collective farms ....
. This effort was discontinued in 1938 when Agro-Joint was expelled from the USSR.

World War II

The Joint helped 250,000 German Jews and 125,000 Austrian Jews emigrate between 1933 and 1939 and continued underground relief efforts throughout World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 to Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia

File:LocationYugoslavia2.pngYugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century....
 and Poland
Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
. It assisted Jewish refugees wherever possible; one such effort was helping thousands of European Jews in Shanghai ghetto
Shanghai ghetto

The Shanghai ghetto, formally known as the Restricted Sector for Stateless Refugees, was an area of approximately one square mile in the Hongkou District of Empire of Japan Shanghai, where about 20,000 Jewish refugees, having fled from Nazi Germany, Anschluss, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Lithuania during World War II and settled across Shangha...
 to survive the war. The organization moved its European headquarters from Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 to Lisbon
Lisbon

Lisbon is the Capital and largest city of Portugal. It is also the seat of the Lisbon and capital of the Lisbon region. Its municipalities of Portugal, which matches the city proper excluding the larger continuous conurbation, has a municipal population of 564,477 in , while the Lisbon Metropolitan Area in total has around 2.8 million inha...
 and then back to Paris when it was liberated.

Post-war years

After the war, the Joint provided relief to over 700,000 Jewish survivors in Europe, many of them in displaced persons camps. Offices were established in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of the R?o de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent....
 to facilitate immigration to Latin America
Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages ? particularly Spanish language and Portuguese language, and variably French language ? are primarily spoken....
. When the State of Israel was established in 1948, the Joint set up training and other facilities to ease the transition of immigrants. The organization helped with the immigration of more than 440,000 European Jews to Israel.

The Joint spread its coverage in the following years, making efforts on behalf of Jews in the Soviet Union, Yemen
Yemen

Yemen , officially the Republic of Yemen is an Arab country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia. Yemen has an estimated population of more than 23 million people and is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden to the South, and Oman to the east....
, Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Ethiopia
Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast....
, and elsewhere. A transit center was set up in Ladispoli
Ladispoli

Ladispoli is a town and comune in the province of Rome, Lazio, central Italy....
 in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 for Jewish emigrants from Eastern European countries.

Literature

  • Yehuda Bauer
    Yehuda Bauer

    Yehuda Bauer is a historian and scholar of the Holocaust. He is a Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
    : My Brother's Keeper. A History of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee 1929-1939; The Jewish Publication Society of America. Philadelphia 1974; ISBN 0-8276-0048-8


External links