American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Subgroup: JDC Landsmanshaftn Department. Records.
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Biographical/Historical
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (also known as the JDC) was founded on November 27, 1914, in order to facilitate and centralize the collection and distribution of funds by American Jews for Jews abroad. The Landsmanshaftn Department of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (LD) was originally organized as a department of the JDC, known as the Landsmanshaftn Bureau, in 1919 in New York. The aim of the department was to encourage relief efforts by the landsmanshaftn in the United States for their native communities in Eastern Europe.
This work was temporarily discontinued in 1924 before it was revived in the late 1930s as part of the JDC Reconstruction program. At this time, the JDC pledged to match with equal amounts of funds every donation made by each landsmanshaft to their former native communities, particularly those made on behalf of the interest-free loan associations (interest-free loan associations) in these communities. The JDC organized a Landsmanshaftn Fraternal Division, known usually as the Landsmanshaftn Department, in 1937 and this department successfully enlisted the cooperation of several hundred landsmanshaftn.
The outbreak of World War II put a temporary end to this program, which was revived once again in 1945, this time mainly as a channel of relief aid furnished by the landsmanshaftn for the survivors from their native communities. These activities were later expanded to include issues of immigration and the location of survivors.
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