American Jewish Congress; Office of Jewish Information

OJ ITEMS VOL. 1, NO. 2. FEBRUARY 4, 1946 [I.E. OFFICE OF JEWISH INFORMATION] [1 ISSUE ONLY, OF 15 PUBLISHED]

New York: American Jewish Congress Office of Jewish Information, 1946. Item #42860

1st edition. Serial publication, original paper wrappers. 8vo, 6 unnumbered pages accordion folded, + front and rear + 4 blank.
“A Weekly Service on Jewish Affairs issued to the press by the Office of Jewish Information.” Headlines of this issue include, ‘Balance Sheet of Extermination’ Totals Horror of Nazi Murder Plan; Expropriation of All American Jews Listed in Hitler’s Plans for U.S.; Urge City Ban Benefits to Prejudiced Schools; Palestine Status, Postwar Problems Foremost on Conference Agenda. Includes 2 large illustrations, one titled “Bevin Confers with Arabs on Palestine.”
OJ Items was a monthly publication aimed at getting its articles placed in newspapers or otherwise used by the press in stories about Jewish life in Europe, Jews in DP Camps and elsewhere in Europe, Racial Justice in the US, and other issues, especially Zionist hopes for Palestine. Both the Harvard set and another set we examined run 15 issues (the same as this set, but without indication of dates), and CalState Northridge lists a set spanning Feb-July 1946 (the same dates as this 15-issue run), so we are confident this is the complete run, The American Jewish Congress also published the monthly small magazine “Jewish Affairs,” which sometimes included these same issues, but which was aimed at a “retail” final readership rather than at the press for inclusion in other periodicals, as was the clear goal of OJ Items.
“The American Jewish Congress (AJC) was created in December 1918 by various Jewish religious, Zionist, and immigrant community organizations. At the time, political leadership in the Jewish community of the United States was dominated by an elite of German Jewish descent. The AJC was founded to broaden leadership from that elite and to present a unified American Jewish position at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919….It became effective as a pressure group in 1928 under the leadership of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who remained the president and chief spokesperson of the AJC until his death in 1949.
Throughout the 1930s, Rabbi Wise, a dedicated liberal, was vocal in his warnings about the dangers of Nazism. When Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, Wise organized a mass protest rally at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. He accomplished this despite the opposition of the German government, the US State Department, and conservative Jewish organizations. The American Jewish Congress continued to organize protest rallies throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
In August 1933 the American Jewish Congress led a general boycott of German goods. Although active in protesting Nazi mistreatment of German Jews, the AJC abstained from publicly calling upon the US government to admit additional refugees from Germany. In this stance, they shared the views of other American Jewish organizations, which feared that such a demand would lead to further restrictions on immigration and an increase in American antisemitism.
During World War II, the AJC acted as a liaison between the US government and the WJC [World Jewish Congree] on issues relating to rescue attempts made on behalf of European Jews.
In August 1942, Rabbi Wise received a cable from Gerhart Riegner, the WJC representative in Switzerland. Riegner reported that the Nazis had planned and were implementing a policy to murder the Jews of Europe; the cable also referred specifically to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
After the State Department confirmed the accuracy of the information in the cable, now known as the ‘Riegner telegram,’ the AJC convened a Joint Emergency Committee. The committee sought to coordinate the major Jewish organizations in the United States to lobby the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt to take more steps to rescue European Jews.
In December 1942 the American Jewish Congress established a Planning Committee, which sought support for a variety of rescue proposals. The committee was never more than marginally successful in mobilizing American public support for rescue efforts. The most impressive of these projects was another rally at Madison Square Garden. Held on March 1, 1943, the rally drew a crowd of 70,000. Similar rallies were subsequently held in a number of cities throughout the United States.
The American Jewish Congress was pro-Zionist in its platform. Its leadership overlapped with that of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). As a result, the two organizations agreed to concentrate on different tasks during the war. The American Jewish Congress dedicated itself to rescuing European Jews, while the ZOA worked to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. This arrangement continued after the war” (USHMM). A rare glimpse into the immediate post-Holocaust “propaganda-PR” work of the AJC, here their work to get articles representing their perspectives into the US press in order to influence public opinion (as was done by all political organizations). In this immediate post-war period, the major issue for for the AJC was building public support for a Jewish state in Palestine–and this is reflected in the preponderance of articles here, ready for publication, which point toward this goal.
SUBJECT(S): Jews -- United States -- Periodicals. Juifs -- E´tats-Unis -- Pe´riodiques. OCLC: 174066003. OCLC lists only 2 holdings of any issues worldwide (Harvard University, Hebrew Union College); we also located another set at CalState Northridge. None in New York or outside the US. Very Good Condition, Rare and important (HOLO2-162-9-'+).

Price: $225.00