JDC

JDC was founded during World War I, when prominent U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau, Sr. wired New York philanthropist Jacob Schiff to ask for money to help Jews suffering in Ottoman Palestine. We were the first Jewish organization in the United States to give large-scale funding for international relief.

World War I left in its wake the seeds of many additional catastrophes—pogroms, health epidemics, famine, revolution, and economic ruin—and JDC played a major role in sustaining Jews in Palestine and rebuilding the devastated communities of Eastern Europe.