A Look Inside the Archives in New York
Since its inception in 1914, JDC has witnessed the most pivotal events of the 21st century. The JDC archive, housed in New York and Jerusalem, serves as both an account of JDC work and programs and a record of international Jewry.
Comprising almost a century of information in a variety of mediums, the breadth of information contained within the JDC Archives is beyond brief summarization. Here is a small sample:
Texts: 3 miles of documents, consisting of personal letters, passenger logs, journals to government records, and accounts of JDC programs, services, and projects such as:
-Efforts to aid and support Palestine beginning in 1914 and the onset of World War I.
-Emergency relief efforts for Jewish refugees, war orphans, and prisoners of war in the aftermath of World War I.
-Extensive holdings detailing rescue efforts during World War II, catalogue of people that JDC aided in crossing the border from Spain to France, daily journal detailing the plight of the St. Louis.
-Registration cards of Holocaust survivors JDC helped emigrate, lists from JDC Location Service in Istanbul efforts to trace survivors, legal documentation of confiscated property.
-Steps taken to reach and reinvigorate Jewish communities in Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, and Iraq, among others.
-Detailed records of rescue efforts, including Operation Magic Carpet (Yemen).
-Details on JDC programs run behind the iron curtain in the 1950s to help Jews in the USSR (now former Soviet Union).
Photographs: 100,000+ dating from 1914 to the present, some documenting obliterated Jewish communities in Europe and North Africa.
Books: 3,000+ dating from 1916, many rare and of historical importance.
Audio Recordings: 250+ oral histories, eyewitness accounts, and interviews; 100 long-playing records.
Unique Holdings:
-Chuppa made for and used in DP camps between 1945 and 1949.
-Haggadah printed in 1948 by JDC for DP camps.
-Original wood cuttings created by individuals in DP camp in Cyprus.
-Talmud created by JDC and the US Army printed in postwar Germany
Usage of JDC Archives
Materials from the collection have been and continue to be consulted by national and international cultural institutions, governments, authors, scholars, genealogists, and journalists around the world. More than 550 requests for access are submitted annually.
Museums around the world have displayed items from the Archives, including: Yad Vashem; US Holocaust Memorial Museum; The Jewish Museum, New York; Moscow House of Photography; Jewish Museum of Berlin; and the Jewish Museum of Australia, among others.
With the support of the Archives, 10 books have been written about JDC. JDC Archives have been sourced in over 50 books, in over five different languages, most recently:
Spector, Stephen. OPERATION SOLOMON: THE DARING RESCUE OF THE ETHIOPIAN JEWS. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Hoffman, Charles. RED SHTETL: THE SURVIVAL OF A JEWISH TOWN UNDER SOVIET COMMUNISM. Jerusalem: Keterpress Enterprises, 2002.
Mankowitz, Zeev W. LIFE BETWEEN MEMORY AND HOPE: THE SURVIVORS OF THE HOLOCAUST IN OCCUPIED GERMANY. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Beizer, Michael and Mitsel, Mikhail. THE AMERICAN BROTHER: THE “JOINT” IN RUSSIA, THE USSR AND THE CIS. Jerusalem: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 2004.
JDC Staff is available to respond to specific limited queries by phone, mail, or email but regrettably cannot provide in-depth research assistance. Please contact archives@jdc.org.
Learn about the JDC Archive collections in Jerusalem.