Jewish Labor Committee (U.S.) Records, Part III: Post-war Administrative Files and Anti-Discrimination Department Files

The Jewish Labor Committee, an umbrella group of Jewish trade unions and fraternal organizations, was founded in 1934 for the purpose of organizing opposition to Nazism, providing assistance to its victims, and fighting all forms of bigotry and the denial of human and labor rights. After the World War II the Committee continued its program of relief to Holocaust victims by providing shipments of food, clothing, and medical supplies to refugees in many countries. It also provided immigration assistance and offered help with employment and housing for refugees who came to the United States. After organizing labor support for the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the JLC increasingly devoted itself to educating the labor movement on issues of concern to Israel –- a departure from its earlier anti-Zionist position. During the 1950s the it worked to secure reparations payments to victims of the Holocaust. From the 1960s onward the JLC increasingly focused on a domestic agenda, defining its role as a link or liaison between the U.S. labor movement and the organized Jewish community. It continued to campaign on issues of civil rights, human rights, and trade union rights, and was active in the campaign to publicize and protest the plight of Soviet Jewry. Part III of the JLC Records includes JLC correspondence, reports, publicity material, clipping files, scrapbooks, field office records, staff files, and financial records, as well as materials produced by many other organizations that interacted with the JLC.