Which U.S. president publicly urged Americans to support the first campaign aiding war-ravaged Jews overseas? Which organization brought the first John Deere tractor to Ukraine? What killer disease was eradicated in Ottoman Palestine by a Jewish doctor?
Such historical gems, together with harrowing eye-witness testimonies of war, strife, and Jewish community life in Jerusalem, Warsaw and Morocco comprise the hundreds of thousands of searchable documents and more than 45,000 photos now available at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's (JDC) Global Archives website, http://archives.jdc.org
Drawn from the Jewish humanitarian organization's vast international collection, the online compilation currently represents materials from JDC's founding in 1914 through 1932. Additional records are being added in the coming year.
With materials for scholars, educators, genealogists, and the general public, the site also has a tutorial for site visitors. Users will be able to match archival documents with photos, the names index, and oral histories. The website includes material for serious scholarly research, curated exhibits, and a search option for those interested in family history and general Jewish interest.
"The importance of this website, and JDC's archives overall, is not just that it uniquely chronicles Jewish life abroad for the past 100 years, it's that it demonstrates how one organization steadfastly stood by its vow to help Jews in need, wherever they were," said New York University Professor Marion Kaplan.
"JDC's Archives contains some of the most remarkable stories of Jewish life and Jewish heroism in the last 100 years. No matter what your background or reason for visiting this site, you will be inspired by tales of perseverance, bravery, and an unquenchable desire to hold onto our Jewish identity in the most difficult of circumstances," said JDC CEO Steven Schwager.
The JDC Global Archives includes over 3 miles of text documents, 100,000 photographs, 1,100 audio recordings including 95 oral histories, 157 recorded historic speeches and broadcasts, and 1,300 video recordings. Every year, close to 1,000 researchers, scholars, genealogists, filmmakers, journalists, Holocaust survivors and the general public conduct research in the JDC Global Archives.