Metadata: Fonds General correspondence and administration
Collection
- Country:
- Belgium
- Holding institution:
- Jewish Social Service
- Holding institution (official language):
- Service Social Juif
- Postal address:
- Avenue Ducpétiaux 68 / Ducpétiauxlaan 68, 1060 Bruxelles (Saint-Gilles)
- Phone number:
- +32 (0)2 538 81 80
- Web address:
- http://www.servicesocialjuif.be/
- Reference number:
- JSS-SGilles-Fonds Correspondance générale et administration
- Title:
- Fonds General correspondence and administration
- Title (official language):
- Fonds Correspondance générale et administration
- Creator/accumulator:
- Service Social Juif
- Date(s):
- 1961/2016
- Date note:
- Material continues to be added to this collection.
- Extent:
- ca. 27 linear metres
- Scope and content:
-
This fonds contains the general correspondence of the SSJ as well as the minutes of meetings (i.a. of the board), reports and files concerning activities and receptions organised by the SSJ, files related to received gifts and sent acknowledgements, invoices and bookkeeping records, documents concerning agreements and contracts of SSJ employees, insurance files, documents regarding ongoing litigations, files related to social cohesion, etc. We also note reports of the various commissions and committees, such as the Commission mixte pour l’acceuil des migrants (joint commission for the reception of migrants). The most recent correspondence (1990s – present) is often arranged according to the correspondents or institutions with which the various cases were handled (Claims Conference, Joint, Jewish Museum of Belgium, Fondation de la Mémoire Contemporaine, Centrale des Œuvres sociales juives, Heureux Séjour, etc.). Furthermore we point out subject files concerning: antisemitism, Israeli migrants (requests for residence permits, work permits), COREF, students, asylum, Club Amitié, the Ligue de Santé mentale, etc. The fonds contains a sub-series of correspondence titled “cas divers” (miscellaneous matters), consisting of the correspondence of the SSJ regarding various subjects such as rejected applications for compensation, requests for attestations etc. (1950-1970).
Note that the above description only concerns the archival material stored in the main cellar, where they archives of the SSJ were transferred (2013). The material kept in the second cellar could not be described.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The organisation Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre (1944-1961)(AIVG) was created for the purpose of helping Jewish war victims, notably those who were deported or robbed, and facilitating their social and economic rehabilitation. Its statutes were published in the Moniteur belge in October 1944. This association tried to respond to the distress and urgency of the needs of Shoah survivors. The AIVG was composed of several departments: the Service Recherches et Rapatriement (‘tracing and repatriation service’), the Service Enfance (‘childrens department’), the children’s homes, the legal department, the medical service, the social service, the labour service and the Petite caisse de prêts (‘small loans fund’). The AIVG collected information and cared for the survivors of the camps, both those who lived in Belgium before the war and survivors passing through the country. The organisation provided them with relief in the form of goods and money, housing and job assistance, and loans to purchase equipment and start a professional activity. The AIVG contributed to the reconstruction effort, and to the rehabilitation of the survivors of the camps, including by offering them legal support in their efforts to be compensated for spoliation and to defend their rights to compensation. The organisation was in particular dedicated to helping seniors and children whose families had perished during the Shoah. The AIVG ensured the care for these children by means of a dozen homes, opened since April 1945. The association managed the Home de Linkebeek, the Home d’Auderghem, the Home des Poussins, then the Home des Aiglons, the Home des Hirondelles, the Home de Lasne, the Home de Profondsart, the Home de Miravalle, the Home de Ronquières; by 1955, it only operated the Home de Rhode-Saint-Genèse. At first the AIVG was financed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Joint). This funding decreased and finally ended in 1972, because the successor of the AIVG, the Service Social Juif, had started receiving subsidies from the Belgian state. After having responded to the most urgent needs in the immediate post-war years, the aid provided by the AIVG evolved and adapted to the situation of the Jews in Belgium. It primarily served the needs of the elderly, of the sick and of individuals needing social or psychological assistance. This evolution was reflected in the name change to Service Social Juif, in March 1961. The available services were also adjusted. A Centre Médico-Psychologique was opened in 1962, as well as Club Amitié for seniors. At present, the SSJ is dedicated to providing assistance to Shoah survivors and people in need. The institution includes several services: the Club Amitié for the elderly; the Centre d’Action Sociale Globale, composed of social workers, has developed a homework support program and an advocacy group for the genocide of Tutsis; a café for the Russian-speaking community; and the Centre Médico-Psychologique, that organised psychological consultations, speech therapy, and social services. The SSJ published a monthly magazine called Carrefour. (D. Dratwa, Libération et Reconstruction. La vie juive en Belgique après la Shoah, Catalogue de l’Exposition 18/08/1994, Bruxelles, Musée Juif de Belgique, 1994 ; C. Massange, Les archives de l’Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre conservées au Service Social Juif (1944-1960), Bruxelles, Fondation de la Mémoire Contemporaine, 2006 ; C. Massange, Bâtir le lendemain. L’Aide aux Israélites Victimes de la Guerre et le Service Social Juif de 1944 à nos jours, Bruxelles, Didier Devillez, 2002.)
- System of arrangement:
- The correspondence titled “cas divers” is ordered alphabetically by correspondent.
- Access, restrictions:
- Consultation requires the authorisation of the president of the Service Social Juif.
- Yerusha Network member:
- State Archives of Belgium