Metadata: Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- London Metropolitan Archives, City of London
- Holding institution (official language):
- London Metropolitan Archives, City of London
- Postal address:
- 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB, United Kingdom
- Phone number:
- (+44) 20 7332 3820
- Email:
- ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk
- Reference number:
- ACC/2793
- Title:
- Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief
- Title (official language):
- Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief
- Creator/accumulator:
- Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief
- Date(s):
- 1933/2004
- Language:
- English
- German
- Extent:
- 50.86 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- Records of the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief, predecessor organisations and associated organisations. The archive details the work of the Fund in shelters, hostels, internment camps, schools and foster homes. Records include correspondence; reports; appeals; records relating to relief organisations including the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, the Pioneer Welfare Fund; the Medical Committee for Relief Abroad and the Jewish Board of Guardians; records relating to refugee organisations including the Central Committee for Refugees; the Central Office for Refugees; Jewish Refugees Committee and Children's Refugee Movements; records relating to the Agudas Israel World Organisation and the Israel Colonisation Organisation; administrative papers including Committee minutes and papers; and case files for Afghan, Argentine, Austrian, Belgian, British, Czech, Egyptian, Ethiopian, German, Hungarian, Iranian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Polish, Rumanian, Russian, South African, Syrian, American and Yugoslavian cases. The archive also includes case files relating to the migration of Jews from Eastern Europe during the 1930s, including case files relating to children who were evacuated from Germany and Austria in 1938 and 1939 and came to the UK through the Kindertransport.
- Archival history:
- Deposited at London Metropolitan Archives in multiple accessions between 1990 and 2011.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief was founded in the early months of 1933 by a group of Anglo-Jewish community leaders, in response to the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on a platform of anti-Semitism. Among the founders were Antony de Rothschild, Leonard G Montefiore and Otto Schiff. The Fund has been through many name changes in its lifetime. It started out as the Central British Fund for German Jewry, then became part of the new Council for German Jewry in 1936 along with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the American United Palestine Appeal. On the outbreak of World War Two in 1939 the Fund changed its name to the Central Council for Jewish Refugees and in 1944 changed again to the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief. The organisation is now known as World Jewish Relief. The Fund's mission, according to its Memorandum of Association, was "to relieve or assist Jewish refugees in any part of the world in such manner and on such terms and conditions (if any) as may be thought fit." In this work the fund was aided by various organisations, including the Jewish Refugees Committee (JRC) which was founded by Otto Schiff in 1933, the Children's Refugee Movement (established by the JRC and the Inter-Aid Committee) and the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad, which was established in 1943 and financed by the Central Council for Jewish Refugees (as the Central British Fund was then known).
- Access points: locations:
- Eastern Europe
- Middle East
- United Kingdom
- System of arrangement:
- Catalogued in seven sections: Central British Fund and predecessors; Relief organisations; Refugee organisations; Other organisations; Administration; Case files; Microfilm
- Access, restrictions:
- These records are open to public inspection, although records containing personal information may be subject to closure periods. Case files are accessible only by written permission of the depositor. For details of access to Kindertransport and other 1930s case files please see https://www.worldjewishrelief.org/about-us/your-family-history
- Finding aids:
- Please see online catalogues.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
- Yerusha Network member:
- London Metropolitan Archives
- Author of the description:
- Nicola Avery, London Metropolitan Archives, 2018