Abbreviations: U.S. Rescue and Relief
Agudath
Agudath Israel
ADL
Anti-Defamation League, B’nai Brith
AFL
American Federation of Labor
AFSC
American Friends’ Service Committee (Quakers), USA
AJC
American Jewish Committee, USA
AJDC
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, headquarters New York, USA
AJJDC
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, headquarters New York, USA
AJRC
American Jewish Relief Committee, USA
AOF
American ORT Federation, USA
APC
American Palestine Committee, USA
ARC
American Red Cross
ARF
American Relief for France, USA
AZEC
American Zionist Emergency Council, USA
CCAR
Central Council of American Rabbis, USA
CJA
Committee for a Jewish Army of Stateless and Palestinian Jews, USA
Congress
American Jewish Congress, USA
DORSA
Dominican Republic Settlement Association
ECSJPE
Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe (Bergson Group), USA
ECZA
American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs, USA (became American Zionist Emergency Council)
ERC
Emergency Rescue Committee
GJCA
German Jewish Children’s Aid, USA
HCNL
Hebrew Committee for National Liberation, USA
HIAS
Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, headquarters New York, USA
HICEM
Umbrella organization composed of HIAS, ICA, and Emigdirekt (Berlin Aid Society)
ICA
Jewish Colonization Association
IGCR
Inter-Governmental Committee on Refugees, USA
IJA
Institute of Jewish Affairs (part of World Jewish Congress; WJC), USA
IRO
International Refugee Organization, USA
Joint
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
JDC
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, headquarters New York, USA
JNF
Jewish National Fund (Karen Kayemet le’Yisrael), USA
MERRA
Middle East Relief and Refugee Administration
NCC
National Coordinating Committee
NRS
National Refugee Service
NSC
Special Non-Sectarian Committee for German Refugee Children
OFFRO
Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations
OSE
American National Committee of the World Union for Preserving Heath of Jews, USA
PACPR
President’s Advisory Committee on Political Refugees, USA, established March 1938
REC
Refugee Economic Corporation
RWR
Russian War Relief Committee, USA
RZP
Representation of Polish Jewry (Reprezentacja Zydowsta Polskiego), New York, London
UGC
United Galician Jews of America, USA
UJA
United Jewish Appeal, USA
URJ
United Rumanian Jews of America, USA
USC
Unitarian Service Committee, headquarters, USA (non-Jewish)
WJC
World Jewish Congress, USA, established 1936
WRB
War Refugee Board, (Treasury Department, US government), USA, established January 1944
ZOA
Zionist Organization of America, USA
Terms – Glossary
Agudat ha Rabbanim
Hebrew: “Union of Orthodox Rabbis” of the USA and Canada
Agudat Isarel
Hebrew: “Union of Israel”; established in 1912 as a political party in Poland, originally an Orthodox anti-Zionist organization. Sent relief aid to Poland along with Va’ad ha-Hatsalah
Alaskan Development Plan
A major rescue plan proposed by US Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes in 1940. It sought to allow 10,000 Jewish refugees to settle in Alaska for the duration of the war. The program was rejected by Roosevelt and members of Congress.