Aid Association of German Jews

The Aid Association of German Jews was founded in Berlin on May 23, 1901 at the suggestion of Paul Nathan . With their financial means, German Jews wanted to improve the economic and cultural situation of Jews in Eastern Europe .

task

The statutes provided for the purpose of the association:

§ 1 - The H. sets himself the humanitarian goal of promoting the moral, intellectual and economic development of fellow believers, excluding any profitable activity for the members.

§ 2 - The H. wants to focus his activity in particular on fellow believers in Eastern Europe and Asia. The seat of the Aid Association of German Jews is in Berlin.

The anti-Zionist association had 5,000 members in 1907 and an annual income of 100,000 marks . He promoted business ventures in Russia and Galicia , supported Jewish advance funds in Romania and Galicia, and subsidized schools in the Middle East . By 1907 he raised 550,000 marks for the Russian Jews who were damaged by the Kishinev pogrom (1903). The association initiated the unification of all major Jewish aid organizations . Schemaryahu Levin and Oscar Tietz were involved in the charity. Between 1901 and 1913 the Aid Association supported the emigration of 200,000 Russian Jews overseas who embarked in German ports.

After the defeat of the German Empire in World War I , the aid association lost weight in international Jewish affairs ; but he joined the Alliance Israélite Universelle and other non-Zionist organizations. He refused to attempt to jointly represent the Jews in the League of Nations . With the support of the aid association, the Technikum Haifa (later Technion ) was founded, which began teaching in the British mandate of Palestine in 1924 .

By 1930 the aid association had 290 local representations in Germany. They were mainly dedicated to advising and supporting Jews who wanted to emigrate from or via Germany. Between 1921 and 1936 that was 350,000.

During the time of National Socialism , the association had to rename itself to Aid Association of Jews in Germany . He could not continue the foreign aid. It was officially dissolved in 1939, but existed until 1941 as the “emigration section” of the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany . From 1933 to 1941 he helped 90,000 Jews emigrate to overseas states, but not to Palestine.

Reports and book series

• Annual report of the Aid Association of German Jews, submitted to the General Assembly, 1903–1919.
• Annual report (1927–1936)
• From the work of the Aid Association of German Jews (from 1934)
• School books of the Aid Association of German Jews. Berlin 1912.
• Abraham Zvi Idelsohn : Songbook. Collection of Hebrew and German songs for kindergartens, elementary and secondary schools . Berlin 1912.

The reports and books are available from the Institute for the History of German Jews in Hamburg.

Significant personalities of the aid association

• James Simon , President until 1932
• Eugen Landau
• Paul Nathan
• Max Warburg
• Mark Wischnitzer

See also

• History of the Jews in Germany
• Eastern Jews and Western Jews
• Jewish Colonization Association

literature

• Aid Association of German Jews . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . 6th edition. Volume 9, Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1907, pp.  334–335 .
• Aid Association of German Jews (publisher): Festschrift on the occasion of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Aid Association of German Jews, founded on May 28, 1901 . 1926.
• Edmund Burkard: Aid Association of German Jews 1901–1936 . Münster (Westphalia) 1971.
• David Hamann: Organizing Migration. Paul Nathan and the Aid Association of German Jews (1881–1914/18). In: Kalonymos 19 (2016), 2, pp. 6-10. [on-line]
• David Hamann: From Hamburg to the World - Jewish Emigration and the Aid Association of German Jews , 2016, part of the Hamburg key documents on German-Jewish history [online] .
• Lemma Aid Association of German Jews. In: Encyclopaedia Judaica . Volume 8. He - Ir. Jerusalem 1973, col. 479-481 (en).
• Kirsten Moneke: The Emigration of German Jews to Argentina (1933–1945). On the role of the Jewish aid organizations . Westphalian Wilhelms University , Latin America Center, Münster (Westphalia); Röhrig, St. Ingbert 1993, ISBN 3-86110-007-X .
• Andreas Reinke : Aid Association of German Jews. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 3: He-Lu. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02503-6 , pp. 40–43.

Web links

• Aid organization: anti-Zionist aid association (Encyclopaedia Judaica)
• German-Jewish emigrants at the aid association (Holocaust Encyclopedia)
• Aid Association of German Jews , at Yad Vashem
• Annual report of the Aid Association of German Jews 1931 on the digitization project Compact Memory at the University Library in Frankfurt am Main

Individual evidence

1. ^ David Hamann: Organizing Migration - Paul Nathan and the Aid Association of German Jews (1881-1914 / 18) . In: Kalonymos . tape 19 , no. 2 , 2016, p. 6-10 .
2. ^ The Aid Association of German Jews: its activities and tasks. Bayerische Israelitische Gemeindezeitung , No. 10, p. 302, October 20, 1927, accessed on June 18, 2014 (digitized version at Goethe University Frankfurt). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Aid Association of German Jews , in Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971
4. ↑ Stuttgart (Sign of Remembrance) ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.