New York, NY, May X, 2014 -; On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) a new exhibition,, from June 13 through September 21, 2014. Founded in New York City in 1914 as a response to the plight of Jews in Europe and Ottoman Palestine at the outset of World War I, JDC has become a premier humanitarian organization helping Jews and non-Jews in need worldwide.A collaboration between the New-York Historical Society and JDC, the exhibition recounts JDC’s 100-year history with photographs, objects, films, and letters dating from 1914 compiled from JDC’s extensive Global Archives in New York and Jerusalem. The exhibition is curated by Marilyn Satin Kushner, Curator and Head, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections at the New-York Historical Society, with JDC Global Archives Director Linda Levi.’We are proud to be partnering with the venerable New-York Historical Society to highlight JDC’s enduring role in one of humankind’s most tumultuous centuries, offering hope and opportunity for Jews and so many others around the world,’said JDC’s CEO Alan H. Gill.’This exhibition truly celebrates JDC’s ten decades of unparalleled global humanitarian service and Jewish community development -; from rescue, poverty alleviation, Jewish cultural and educational opportunities, social innovation, and disaster relief work that has benefitted millions of people and transformed countless lives in Israel and more than 90 countries overseas since JDC’s founding.’ ‘I Live. Send Help.’ will chronicle JDC from its inception in 1914, when Jacob Schiff, Henry Morgenthau, Sr., and other Jewish philanthropists came together in New York City to help needy Jews in the Middle East and Europe suffering at the outset of World War I. After the war ended, new crises emerged and JDC – originally intended as a temporary initiative – continued and expanded its efforts around the world. During the buildup to World War II, JDC helped relocate Jewish refugees and save them from Nazi persecution, in places as far and wide as Shanghai, China; La Paz, Bolivia; Kobe, Japan; and Sosua, Dominican Republic. JDC was critical in rehabilitating and resettling survivors of the Holocaust after their liberation. The exhibition also visits the challenges facing Jewish communities in North Africa and the Middle East, and focuses on JDC’s most recent relief activities rebuilding Jewish communities of the former Soviet Union and aiding Filipinos in the wake of the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan.
JDC’s centennial events are steered by an esteemed ad-hoc committee chaired by Andrew Tisch and leading members Nancy Grosfeld, Sam Pollack, Jerry Spitzer, Patricia Werthan Uhlmann, Caryn Wolf Wechsler and Jane Weitzman. Accompanying the exhibition is the newly-published 160-page photo book I Live. Send Helpwith a prologue by award-winning author David Bezmozgis and generously underwritten by Jerome and Linda Spitzer of New York. The book is available for purchase at https://www.jdc.org/purchase-JDC100th-book for $29.95.
