The first book of a three-volume history of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, by Dr. Yehuda Bauer, an Israeli historian, will be published in May by the Jewish Publication Society, it was reported this week by Edward Ginsberg, JDC chairman. The book, entitled “My Brother’s Keeper,” will cover the period from the origin of the JDC in 1914 to the outbreak of World War II. The second volume will deal with JDC activities during the war years, 1939 to 1945. The third volume will cover the period from 1945 to the present.
Dr. Bauer, associate professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also is acting director of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry. He spent two years at the JDC headquarters in New York researching its archives and interviewing survivors of the holocaust and JDC personnel involved in events prior to. during, and after the war years, Ginsberg said.
Dr. Bauer wrote “Flight and Rescue.” a history of the “Bricha” movement which brought almost 300.000 Jewish survivors into Israel. The book was published by Random House in 1970. He also wrote “From Diplomacy to Resistance,” the unfolding history of Palestine, which was published by the JPS in 1970.
“The American Jewish community has long felt that a definitive work on the Joint Distribution Committee should be written.” Ginsberg said. “The publication of the first volume of what will undoubtedly be a scholarly, authoritative and dramatic recounting of the life-saving work of the Joint Distribution Committee will certainly be one of the major highlights of JDC’s 60th anniversary celebration this year.”
A downward trend in smoking in 1972 was sharply reversed after the Yom Kippur War, especially among women, it was disclosed in the results of a survey conducted by the Hebrew University’s Institute of Social Research. In view of the findings, the Health Ministry announced that it would undertake a wide scale anti-smoking campaign, especially among pregnant women whose smoking habit could harm their unborn children.
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