The Evolution of American Orthodox Relief and Rescue Efforts during the Holocaust: Two Documents

Emergency Committee for War-Torn or the Vaad ha-Hatzala, was established by the Agudat ha-Rabbanim (Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada) in the Fall of 1939 in the wake of the escape to Lithuania of hundreds of rabbis and yeshiva students from the elite Talmudic academies (yeshivot) of Eastern Poland, following its occupation by the Soviets. Vaad soon emerged as the major relief and rescue organization of Orthodox Jewry in the United States during the Holocaust. two documents that follow show its evolution from a minor rescue agency with a limited and particularistic agenda to a full-fledged relief and rescue organization that viewed the rescue of all Jews as one of its primary goals. I. The Resolutions of the Agudath Harabonim Convention [November 13-14, 1939, New York City] convention (1) lays stress upon the great and worthy tasks of the Central Relief (2) and Joint Distribution Committee (3) to whom millions of our brethren, sufferers from the World War of 1914, owe their very lives and existence, (4) and for whose aid millions of troubled, tormented and persecuted are waiting. convention requests of American Jewry that it should fulfill its duty toward its greatest and noblest world philanthropic organization. (5) In the olden days of the destruction of the Temple, Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai pleaded for the great Academy of Yavneh and her scholars (6) because he believed that the Torah was the Jewish citadel. In the tragedy that has befallen our people at the present day when complete destruction threatens the very life of the Jewish people, it should be our sacred duty to save our Yavnehs of today--the Holy Yeshivoth--in which the only salvation of Judaism and Jewish life lies. convention, therefore, resolves to launch a national campaign for the War-Torn Yeshivoth. (7) task of the campaign shall be the salvation of the great Yeshivoth (8) which this war has uprooted from their sites, whose faculties and student bodies (approximately 4,000 (9) bearers of the Light of Learning) are today refugees in Vilna, inadequately clad against the rigors of winter, starving and exhausted. They are to receive immediate attention to reorganize and to assure their continued existence under proper and permanent conditions. (10) two months of Tebet and Shebat of this year 5700 (December 13, 1939, to February 9, 1940) are designated for the campaign amongst the Jewry of America. A two-week period will be proclaimed in Greater New York to be dedicated to the proper execution of the above-mentioned campaign. A duty shall be imposed upon the Rabbis throughout the land to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the services of the above-mentioned campaign: each to devote not less then two weeks to act as members in the various delegations, visit cities, appeal in synagogues, and visit individual philanthropists. A list has already been compiled of more than fifty rabbis who have, during the convention, offered freely of their services to the campaign. It has been decided to send a special delegation to Vilna to consult Rabbi Ch. O. Grodzinski (11) and the Deans of the various Yeshivoth (12) which found refuge there and to discuss ways and means for the reconstruction and further maintenance of the Yeshivoth. convention wishes to remind everyone of the duty which he must fulfill toward the great Yeshivoth of Europe which, by grace of G-d, have been able to remain at their sites and whose needs have now been multiplied; toward the seats [centers] of Torah here in America; and toward the holy places of learning in Eretz Israel which are facing very difficult times. A duty is imposed upon every rabbi to lecture from the pulpit concerning the tragic status of the Jewish people, to arouse his congregants to penance and to strengthen in every Jew his ties to the law, the Torah and the People of Israel. …

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