American Jewish Congress and World Jewish Congress index cards

The American Jewish Congress (AJC) was first convened in 1918 as an organization of American Jewish leaders pursuing equal rights for Americans. In 1936, the AJC helped establish the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and acted as a liaison between the WJC and the American government on issues related to emergency relief for Jewish refugees. After World War II, the WJC assisted the rebuilding of European Jewish communities, and the AJC aided these efforts by providing support for Holocaust survivors, displaced persons, and other victims of the war.

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is an international organization founded by resolution of the First World jewish Congress, which took place in August 1936 in Geneva. The organization goal is to defend the political, social, and economic rights of Jews throughout the world. Its governing bodies were elected at the First World Jewish Congress: the executive committee headed by Stephen Wise (also the organization’s chairman), an administrative committee, headed by Nahum Goldman, and a central council headed by Louis Lipsky. At the first session of the executive committee, Sept. 6, 1936, it was decided to establish regional offices of the WJC in Geneva, New York, and London, and a central bureau in Paris. The central bureau coordinated the WJC’s work, collected information on the situation of Jews in various countries, published materials, and also lobbied at the League of Nations. In 1940, with the Second World War under way, the central bureau was transferred to New York, and a European office was established in London.