1916-1918
Jewish soldiers in the Polish Army pose with matzah delivered by JDC in Suwałki, Poland. From our inception in 1914, a significant portion of JDC’s European relief efforts were dedicated to Poland, home to the largest Jewish population in Europe. After WWI, WWII, and the fall of Communism, JDC helped re-establish Polish Jewish communities, ensuring health and social welfare services and restoring and supporting Jewish schools, cultural activities, and community institutions.
1923
JDC’s provision of kosher flour for baking matzahs enabled the neediest Jewish community members celebrate the holiday, like this makeshift matzah factory in Kharkiv. JDC’s long history delivering life-saving assistance and spiritual support to Jews in Ukraine dates back more than a century.
1947
Silent footage of JDC’s extensive efforts to create a memorable Passover for Jews in postwar Vienna, Austria. After World War II ended, JDC helped tens of thousands of newly liberated Jews enjoy their freedom.
1947
After the horrors of the Holocaust, a JDC-supported Passover Seder for refugee and orphaned children in France gave new meaning to the recently liberated children. After WWII, such Jewish children, including famed writer and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, were placed in JDC-supported care homes.
1948
This 1948 Haggadah — produced for the residents of the displaced persons (DP) camps in Europe — was published and distributed by JDC with “the blessings of the Festival of Freedom.” All told, JDC aided more than 250,000 Holocaust survivors in the DP camps after World War II.
1960
Yemeni Jews hold a traditional seder at a JDC-created home for the elderly in Shaar Menashe, Israel. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, JDC and the nascent State of Israel cared for the elderly, ill, or disabled immigrants who recently arrived.
1980s
Soviet Jews, long persecuted and robbed of their religious and cultural heritage and identity, receive JDC matzah boxes after fleeing the USSR. Starting in the 1970s, JDC developed care and cultural programs in Vienna and Rome to assist Soviet Jewish refugees in transit to other countries.
1993
An interfaith JDC-sponsored Seder in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the April 1992 siege of Sarajevo, when other organizations were blocked from entering the city, JDC, local Jewish leadership, and international partners collaborated on such community events and also organized airlifts, negotiated land convoys, and ultimately rescued more than 2,100 people from Sarajevo.
1997
A Passover Seder at the JDC-supported Bayiti Jewish Home for the Aged in Mumbai, India. JDC has spent the last eight decades partnering with the Indian Jewish community to provide aid to its most vulnerable members, develop Jewish leaders, and offer dynamic programming, including ancient traditions and new paths for learning and culture.
1997
A local Jewish man stands with shmurah matzah in Djerba, Tunisia. The emigration of young Tunisian Jews between the 1950s and 1990s left behind an aging community with shrinking resources. To meet their needs, JDC expanded housing support, medical care, and financial assistance to those who remained. Today, the community thrives because of these efforts, including the establishment of a new girls’ school.
2022
A JDC-organized Passover Seder at Dacia Marin refugee camp in Vadul lui Vodă, Moldova, 2022. Less than six weeks after the Ukraine crisis began, JDC enabled thousands of Jewish refugees to celebrate Passover, shipping more than two tons of matzah, 400 bottles of grape juice, and 700 pounds of kosher food for use by refugees in Poland, Moldova, Hungary, and Romania.
2026
Building on our proud history of ensuring that Jews around the world can celebrate Passover — even in times of crisis — we will again be delivering tens of thousands of boxes of matzah, distributing food packages, and holding online and in-person festivities. This year, our efforts will reach Israelis hiding from rocket fire in shelters across the country.
This Passover, deliver hope to Jews in need.
