The Joint is Jumpin': Online Access to More JDC Documents

I'm in love! This morning I discovered that the Joint Distribution Committee (also fondly known as "the Joint") has been incredibly busy digitizing and uploading new documents for public viewing. This is relatively new and incredibly welcome. Now I find that I can search by village (shtetl) name and find useful historical documents. The Joint now offers over 250,000 digitized pages of text documents from their collections, 1914-1932,

For those uninitiated, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has been in existence since 1914 when its mission was to provide relief to struggling Jewish populations in Palestine. Shortly after it began, it also served desperate Jewish populations in war-torn Eastern Europe. The JDC is still in operation and still does great work for Jewish people and others in need.

As one might expect with such a history of good work, they have quite an archive of documents and photos. The Joint's archives have been open to on-site researchers. But, it has only been in the last few months that the ongoing lengthy process of digitizing and uploading to the web has been bearing fruit for those wishing online access. In March of this year the New York Times featured an article about the digitization effort. When I'd checked in March 2012, the Joint had many photographs from their collection online and some documents searchable by surname.  But when I searched via the surname index I did not come up with anything of personal family history interest. 

In the case of my father's family shtetl Lubin (aka Labun or Yurovshchina) the Joint had previously in 2010 provided me (for a fee) webpage use of the only known extant photo of a building in the village: a photograph taken in 1923 when the Joint sponsored a project to renovate the shtetl's bathhouse. It occurred to me then that perhaps there would be documentation to go along with the photo, but my email correspondence and phone calls with helpful archivists did not result in any such finds. That is until this morning.

Now one may search the JDC digitized records by location. In doing so, I found several letters regarding the donation of $300 by the Lubin immigrants in New York to JDC for the express purpose of providing flour for Lubiners in advance of the Passover holiday. The correspondence is not complete - one wonders if they have the letters written to them, as well as the copies of ones written to others. And there were attachments and enclosures with these letters that are not, apparently, included in the record. But, the letters and, especially, the report paint interesting and sobering pictures of conditions between the wars in Ukraine.

Prior to April 1919, the town had a population of 12,000. 2,500 were Jewish. There were 225 houses and 50 shops that were owned by the Jewish population. The community produced flax, hemp and jute. And there were three oil refineries.[1]

The Jewish population was hit with a pogrom in April 1919 resulting in 24 Jewish people murdered and homes pillaged and robbed. Another pogrom occurred in September 1920. Most of the Jewish population left all they had and fled to Starokostyantyniv (20 miles south southwest). Later, many returned to a devastated community. In 1921 a raging fire destroyed 20 houses and left 30 families homeless. These horrors affected approximately 200 Lubin families. As of the May 1923 JDC report, there were 50 widows, 80 orphans and 50 invalids in Lubin. Public health was in a deplorable condition.[1]

A letter from the Moscow Headquarters of the Joint dated 11 May 1923 reported on the good that the Lubin Relief money had accomplished.

...The $300 was converted into 13,500 million roubles, 12,500 million of which was used for the neediest orphans, sick and those who are unable to work.  Aid was extended to 92 families consisting of 299 people. The population in Laboun argued that it is imperative to repair the Bathhouse in the town and for this purpose the balance if 1,000 million roubles was set aside. We hope this will be satisfactory to the Landsmanschaft...[2]

Apparently, it was.

In August The Moscow Headquarters reported that an additional $57.60 was delivered to Lubin as a result of differences in the exchange rate for the initial $300. In consultation with members of the Lubin community, the money was put toward the bathhouse repairs. Even so, the letter estimated that an additional $250 would be required to complete the work.[3]

Lubin shtetl names mentioned in the eight digitized documents include M. Myers (likely Myer Myers, my great great uncle), Secretary of the New York City Lubin Relief organization; and the following Lubin residents:

• Yente Ravrebbe [4]
• Noah Zaslavsky [5]
• Simche Avrum [5]
• Yosef Novak [5]
• Chaim Ravrebbe [5]
• Yankov Kesselman [5]
• Leib Tzop [5]
• Moishe Rosenfeld [5]
• Miriam Kourman [2]
• Leah Kourman [2]
• Zousa Zak [1]
• Mounia Boxer [1]
• Mounia Kentzishin [6]
• Ichiel Dolgopiaty [6]

If you have not yet checked out the Joint for your Jewish research, do so. It may give you excellent background information. The search page also provides video tutorials that may help you if you have trouble with their search function.

Notes:
1. "1921-1932 New York Collection, USSR: Localities, L-Mink," American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JDC Digital Archives (http://archives.jdc.org : accessed 4 July 2012), "Report on Laboun (Lubin)," by I.M. Kowalsky, 05 November 1923 [sic: date should be 11 May 1923], Item 356444.

2. "1921-1932 New York Collection, USSR: Localities, L-Mink," American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JDC Digital Archives (http://archives.jdc.org : accessed 4 July 2012), "Letter from Headquarters, American Jewish JDC, Moscow to Joint Distribution Committee, New York, Attention Landsmanschaften Bureau, Subject: S.R. Sp. 12-#300. Lubin Relief (Laboun)," 11 May 1923, Item 356443.

3. "1921-1932 New York Collection, USSR: Localities, L-Mink," American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JDC Digital Archives (http://archives.jdc.org : accessed 4 July 2012), "Letter from Headquarters, American Jewish JDC, Moscow to Joint Distribution Committee, New York Attention Landsmanschaften Bureau, Subject: Additional Report on Labun (LDN-R 42)," 8 August 1923, Item 356446.

4. "1921-1932 New York Collection, USSR: Localities, L-Mink," American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JDC Digital Archives (http://archives.jdc.org : accessed 4 July 2012), "Letter from I.M. Naishtut to Mr. M. Myers," 06 March 1923, Item 356440.

5. "1921-1932 New York Collection, USSR: Localities, L-Mink," American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JDC Digital Archives (http://archives.jdc.org : accessed 4 July 2012), "Letter from I.M. Naishtut to Joint Distribution Committee, Moscow, Subject: S.R. Sp. #12 - #300 - Lubin Relief," 06 March 1923, Item 356441.

6. "1921-1932 New York Collection, USSR: Localities, L-Mink," American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JDC Digital Archives (http://archives.jdc.org : accessed 4 July 2012), "Subject: S.R. Sp. No. 12-300-Lehman," 05 November 1923 [sic: date should be 11 May 1923], Item 356445.

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