One Jewish Community's Response to Nazism and the Refugee Crisis: The Formation and Fund-raising Objectives of the Jewish Federation of Youngstown, Ohio, 1935–1941

Clarence J. Strouss's convening of a meeting on August 21, 1935, at the Tod House in Youngstown, Ohio, ushered in a new organizational era for the city's disparate Jewish communities. Strouss—president and general manager of the local Strouss-Hirshberg Company—embodied the social advancements and successful assimilation over the past century of the city's earliest German Jewish immigrant families. The drastic influx of eastern European Jewish immigrants to Youngstown from 1880 to 1924 transformed the city's demographics and altered specifically the German Jewish community's cultural, religious, and political traditions. Severe reversals in American immigration policy following World War I reduced the once-constant flow of new immigrant laborers to the burgeoning industrial city. National and international Jewish organizations' innumerable demands for monetary assistance—in response to immigration restrictions, an economic depression, and the development of totalitarian governments in Europe—placed excessive burdens on Youngstown's fractured Jewish communities. The twenty-six men and women who met at the Tod House responded to these demands by creating a central Jewish organization aimed at merging local, national, and overseas appeals into a single united effort.¹ The Jewish Federation of Youngstown's annual fund-raising campaigns from 1935 to 1941 marked Youngstown Jewry's first unified response to the evils of Nazism and the subsequent refugee crisis.

The historiography of America's response to Nazism, the refugee crisis, and the Holocaust consists of works focused primarily on the federal government's actions or national Jewish organizations' divisiveness and offers scant analysis of individual Jewish community fund-raising relief efforts. Numerous monographs focusing on the causes for the Roosevelt administration's inept response to the rescue of persecuted European Jewry dominate this field of scholarship. Several scholarly articles and essays do chronicle the social, political, and economic schisms inherent within American national Jewish organizations during the interwar years. The divisiveness among prominent Jewish leaders and their ineffective efforts in lobbying the federal government to rescue their brethren permeate these informative analyses. Yet, these works do not take into account fund-raising and relief efforts conducted by individual Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds throughout the country. The absence of in-depth histories focusing on how individual Jewish communities responded during the crucial prewar years creates an incomplete historiography of American Jewry's response to Nazism and the refugee crisis.²

According to Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer, "of the approximately 15 million Jews worldwide at the start of World War I, 10 million resided in the warring eastern European nations of Russia, Austro-Hungary, Germany, and Romania." Drastic decreases in available immigration quotas coupled with the devastating effects of World War I throughout eastern Europe altered significantly American Jewish communities' philanthropic objectives. Deep-rooted social, political, and religious schisms inherent throughout American Jewry started to dissipate slowly at the local level during the 1920s. The estimated 8.5 million eastern Europeans displaced by the war redirected American Jewish communal efforts toward distributing assistance for their displaced war-ravaged brethren. Before the start of the war, Jewish landsman-shaften provided the primary means of assistance for newly arriving Jewish immigrants. These fraternal organizations directed Jewish welfare programs and preceded the development of national Jewish agencies for overseas relief. Newly established national and international organizations unintentionally created financial burdens for unorganized Jewish communities. Concerned Jewish citizens throughout the United States, therefore, perceptively created Jewish Federations, Jewish Welfare Funds, and Jewish Community Councils, which established better organizational unity by combining communal activities previously separated by religious, social, or political differences. The significance of Jewish Federations rested on their success in bringing together divergent Jewish groups throughout individual communities into a single cooperative organizational body. The steps leading up to the development of a Jewish Federation in Youngstown diverge from the typical process Jewish communities followed when establishing communal organizations. As Louis B. Greenberg noted, "In most cities the Federation comes into the picture after the development of a [Jewish Community] Center, a social service program, and various agencies of communal life. Here [Youngstown] we have reversed the process, and the Jewish Federation is the instrument through which all other phases of the program are to come into existence."³

Despite forming several years after Federations in Ohio's larger cities, the Jewish Federation of Youngstown's annual fund-raising totals compare favorably to the efforts of larger Jewish communities with well-established Federations. Following Hitler's ascension to power in 1933, Youngstown remained the only large city in Ohio without a functioning Jewish Federation or Welfare Fund. Prolonged economic hardships created by the Great Depression and demands for support from various national Jewish organizations thwarted united fund-raising campaigns by local Jewish community leaders. Each local organization's annual appeals for support required local leadership to organize, staff, and collect subscriptions for each fund-raising drive. The same group of Jewish community leaders managed repeatedly the innumerable annual campaigns, which overlapped with each other and created confusion for potential donors regarding each organization's objectives.⁴

The Youngstown Jewish community did attempt united fund-raising campaigns for local, national, and overseas relief in 1928, 1929, and 1931. Each drive, however, included only a few local organizations and concluded with minimal success. The lack of proper leadership, failure to organize a broad base of support, the inability to realize the gravity of the situation in Europe, and continued difficulties with economic conditions thwarted these early efforts. In the fall of 1933, a thousand Youngstown Jews packed the Idora Park Theater to listen to Samuel Untermeyer's impassioned request for further local support for the economic boycott on German goods. Calls for united action by Jews at the advent of Hitlerism echoed in local newspaper editorials in the days following Untermeyer's speech. Joint dances sponsored by the city's largest temples, Rodef Sholom (Reform), Emanu-El (Orthodox), and Anshe Emeth (Orthodox/Conservative), in the early 1930s and a Union Service held in December 1934 where Rabbis Philo, Manello, and Kollin (religious leaders of the aforementioned temples) shared the same pulpit illustrate initial attempts to unite.⁵

A visit from Jerome Levy, field representative of the United Jewish Appeal, in the summer of 1935 aroused local Jewish leaders to renew their earlier efforts at a united communal drive. For Levy, Youngstown Jewry's earlier attempts at united drives failed because "they lacked a leader who devoted their skill full-time and energy in a manner similar to those leading Community Chest fund-raising campaigns throughout the country."⁶ Following the meeting with Levy, the local Jewish leadership selected Clarence J. Strouss as temporary chairman of several preliminary subcommittees. The subcommittees communicated with neighboring Jewish Federations in order to appreciate the organizational steps needed for establishing a successful Jewish Federation in Youngstown. Discussions concerning the viability of organizing a Jewish Federation in Youngstown took place throughout the fall of 1935. Accordingly, a meeting at Anshe Emeth Social Hall on October 31, 1935, officially established the Jewish Federation of Youngstown, hired H. Peretz as executive director, passed a constitution and bylaws, and elected officers and a board of directors. Those selected to lead the Federation represented a socioreligious cross-section of the city's three largest Jewish congregations, indicating a coalescing of the disparate communities. Despite the absence of congregants from the city's smaller Orthodox temples (Children of Israel, Shaareh Torah, and Ohev Tzedek) within the leadership of the new organization, the Federation did not exclude their involvement or communal welfare needs from their organizational objectives.⁷

A mere week after formally being established, the Jewish Federation of Youngstown set its inaugural fund-raising goal at $30,100 with the hope of exceeding this "total with little difficulty." Weekly editions of the Youngstown Jewish Times in October, November, and December described to the community how "the new Federation would eliminate that constant digging down into the pockets that has heretofore characterized the giving season…and eliminate the spasmodic and periodic attempts of individual organizations to obtain contributions."⁸ The city's first united Jewish campaign encompassed twenty-five separate local, national, and overseas organizational appeals. C. J. Strouss, general chairman of the inaugural campaign, proclaimed to the community that participation in the campaign was a sacred duty of every Jew.⁹ Youngstown Jewry responded to Strouss's and other Federation leaders' request with 1,386 donations amounting to $36,654.56. Youngstown Jewry's ability to donate this sum of money, despite the continued economic depression and the infancy of the Federation, reveals a community prepared to respond to the needs of its local and international brethren.¹⁰

As the Nazis celebrated Hitler's third anniversary as Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1936, editorials throughout the Jewish Times detailed the dictator's threat to European society. Felix M. Warburg's article "German Jewry Today After Three Years" implored American Jews to realize that the Nuremberg Laws indicated that the German Jewish situation was no longer an emergency but rather a permanent situation with grave consequences. For the editors of the Jewish Times, "persecution, starvation, and exile have been their [German Jews'] lot, and the immediate future offers little hope . . . the Nazi regime is still pursuing ruthlessly its determination to destroy German Jewry."¹¹ The Jewish Times, however, did not cover German Jewry's condition exclusively. Editorials and "News Flashes" throughout 1936 described the precarious position of Polish Jews, indicating an appreciation and awareness of the conditions of Jewish communities throughout various European nations. "Cablegram and Telegraphic Flashes" also relayed news of anti-Semitic pogroms in Romania, Jugoslavia (Yugoslavia), and in Vienna, Austria.¹² Such reports informed Youngtown Jewry of the prevalence of European anti-Semitism and the possibility of increased anti-Jewish agitation in the United States.

Late spring and summer editions of the Jewish Times chronicled national Jewish organizations' views toward a World Jewish Congress, the possibility of another world war, and the proliferation of fascist groups throughout the United States. Organized in 1906 for the purpose of safeguarding the civil and religious rights of Jews in the wake of Russian pogroms, the American Jewish Committee represented wealthier segments of the American Jewish community. The actions and decisions of Committee president Cyrus Adler and vice president Judge Irving Lehman epitomize the Committee's support of the Roosevelt administration during the 1930s, despite growing criticism by other national Jewish organizations. Committee leaders went so far as to criticize other national Jewish organizations' condemnations of the Roosevelt administration's lethargy. For Adler and Lehman, public protests, harsh criticisms of government inaction, and demands for increased immigration quotas would only heighten anti-Semitic rhetoric within Germany and throughout the United States. The American Jewish Congress, established in 1918, represented middle-class American Jewish professionals. Eastern European immigrants of the last half century advocating Zionist ideologies made up a sizeable portion of the Congress's membership. Led by Stephen S. Wise, the American Jewish Congress supported the economic boycott of German goods organized by Samuel Untermeyer under the auspices of the anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights. Created on February 25, 1934, the Jewish Labor Committee consisted of the estimated half million Yiddish-speaking Jewish working masses. Under the direction of Baruch Vladeck, the Labor Committee positioned itself as the American wing of the worldwide Jewish socialist movement. The Labor Committee's association with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) prohibited the Committee from demanding any alterations to America's restrictive immigration policies. The Labor Committee made no efforts toward rescuing refugees until after the Nazi invasion of Poland in September 1939. These three national Jewish organizations reacted to Hitlerism in ways that conveyed their constituents' divergent social, political, and economic dispositions. Continued economic distress, fears of arousing American anti-Semitism, the public's prevailing mood of isolationism, and disagreements over Zionism created clear divisions throughout American national Jewish organizations.¹³

The Youngstown Jewish community elected Rabbi Carl Manello and Louis Ozersky, both of Temple Emanu-El, as delegates to the American Jewish Congress Convention in Washington, D.C., where debate centered on the formation of a World Jewish Congress. Editorials and opinion pieces indicate Youngstown Jewry's support of a World Jewish Congress and criticisms toward the American Jewish Committee's opposition of the creation of the Congress. Such a position suggests the community's advocacy of public opposition to Nazi persecutions of German Jews, rather than quiet protests and political discussions advocated by the American Jewish Committee. The Jewish Federation, therefore, neared its one-year anniversary in the fall of 1936 with a Jewish populace thoroughly informed of the unabated persecutions spreading throughout Europe and its communal obligation to assist in any manner possible.¹⁴

On November 29, 1936, the Jewish Federation of Youngstown launched its second annual fund-raising campaign, "Give So That Jewish Life May Live." The minimum campaign goal of $42,500 equaled a 41 percent increase, compared to the Federation's 1935-36 campaign, and included the appeals of more than thirty-six local, national, and overseas Jewish agencies. Louis B. Greenberg, the new executive director replacing H. Peretz, encouraged the Jewish community to support the united fund-raising drive in editorial pieces and in articles titled "Federation Facts, Philosophy, and Figures." Greenberg's inspirational and informative articles reveal a need to persuade and motivate the Jewish community to support the infant Federation. Greenberg's "Federation Facts" column in mid-October reminded readers how the Federation "replaced chaos with order, disunity with unity, [and] discord with harmony, by demonstrating that cooperation and tolerance is possible even in the face of fundamental differences of opinion." Greenberg believed "the Jewish Federation mark[ed] an important measure of progress of Youngstown Jewry culturally [because] where neighbors once may have regarded one another with suspicion they now entertain warm sympathy, friendship, and tolerance of each other."¹⁵ For Greenberg, the success of the Federation during the last year demonstrated the most effective method for serving the Jewish communities' varied interests and created a "central pillar in the edifice of local Jewish life."¹⁶ Praising the Federation's ability to bring the once disparate Jewish communities together as a more unified entity was not the only motivational theme appearing throughout the Jewish Times in the weeks leading up to the fund-raising campaign.

Rabbi Philo's late October editorial in the Youngstown Jewish Times, "All for One, One for All," referred to the Federation's efficiency as another example of its success. Philo reminded readers of how pre-Federation fund-raising efforts "besieged the community with a new fund appeal appearing every few weeks." Several other articles detailed how the Federation did not assess any new costs or organizational burdens to members of the community. In fact, the Federation allowed for "a far more efficient and economical instrument that assured more institutions readily received their quotas from the community." In addition to bringing Youngstown Jewry together and professionally organizing fund-raising efforts, Jewish communal leaders also argued that the Federation provided a platform for the Jewish community to contribute to American life. At the first Annual Meeting of the general membership on October 28, C. J. Strouss mentioned in his opening remarks how the Federation aided in protecting American civil liberties. Strouss stated, "In supporting our philanthropic, social, educational, and cultural organizations in America we are making an important contribution to American life." Federation leaders, therefore, argued that Jewish citizens eager to demonstrate their assimilation and acceptance of American mores could do so by participating in Federation activities, especially in the annual Jewish appeal. Greenberg's, Philo's, and Strouss's appeals to the Jewish community reveal the Federation's initial task of selling the concept of a single united annual campaign to a Jewish community hesitant to discard previous fund-raising methods.¹⁷ Despite their hesitancy, Youngstown Jewry's fund-raising effort in 1936 compares favorably to Federation campaigns in neighboring Ohio Jewish communities.

Aside from raising $43,679.23, which surpassed the minimum quota of $42,500, the Jewish Federation of Youngstown did not reach its 1936-37 campaign goal of "at least ten thousand more than the prescribed minimum."¹⁸ A net increase of only $7,024.67 from the Federation's inaugural 1935-36 campaign, despite increased campaigning, advertisements, and editorial reminders within the Jewish Times over the course of a full calendar year, explains leaders' initial disappointments. A brief description of Jewish fund-raising efforts in Ohio's eight most populated cities as compared to Youngstown's efforts—while taking into account the size of the Jewish population, the age of each city's Federation or Welfare Fund, and the allocations of campaign subscriptions—allows for a more accurate analysis of Youngstown Jewry's initial successes or failures. Table 1 posits Ohio's eight most populated cities in descending order according to their Jewish population. Dividing annual Federation budgets into local and nonlocal allocations assists in determining each city's organizational objectives and accomplishments.

Table 1.

1936–37 Campaign Allocations as of Spring 1937

Youngstown, Akron, Dayton, and Canton established Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds during the previous three years, Canton being the earliest of the four in 1933. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Columbus—cities with the largest number of Jewish inhabitants—organized Federations and Welfare Funds in 1904, 1929, 1926, and 1920, respectively. The Jewish Federation of Youngstown's ability to raise campaign funds nearly equaling Columbus Jewry's totals, despite just over a year of communal organization as compared to the state capital's decade, demonstrates the comparative success of the second annual campaign. The Jewish community of Toledo stands out as the real anomaly within the graph. Despite having an organized Jewish Federation since 1920 and numbering 12,000 Jewish citizens, Toledo's fund-raising totals in 1936 pale in comparison to Jewish communities with recently organized united communal fund-raising bodies, such as Youngstown, and with communities with substantially fewer Jewish residents.¹⁹

Examination of the Jewish Federation of Youngstown's nonlocal budget allocations presents insight into the national and overseas agencies the organization entrusted with their communal subscriptions. Jewish Federations divided their nonlocal allocations during the interwar years into six subcategories: regional, civic and protective, health and medical services, educational cultural, coordination and research, and overseas. The Jewish Federation of Youngstown allocated approximately 73 percent of its nonlocal budget expenditures ($15,725) to civic and protective agencies and to overseas agencies. The 1936-37 budget expenditures represent undoubtedly Youngstown Jewry's awareness, concern, and response to nonlocal catastrophes. After completing two united fund-raising campaigns, the Federation board of directors asserted proudly, "Contrary what many 'friends' wish us to believe, we have proven that Jews can and do agree when there is a planned program and a purposeful goal to be attained."²⁰

Federation leaders, however, voiced their dissatisfaction with the second annual campaign totals in a plethora of articles explaining the importance of the Federation within nearly every 1937 edition of the Jewish Times. "Federation Facts" columns appearing in January and early February sternly encouraged the Jewish community to pledge greater amounts to the third united campaign. A brief delineation of subscription figures denotes Federation leaders' concerns. Of the 1,352 individual contributions collected by January 22, 1937, 309 citizens pledged between $25 and $2,000, which accounted for 86 percent of all the money collected. The remaining contributors donated just $6,413.94, amounting to an average of $5 per subscriber. For executive director Greenberg, in the years preceding the formation of the Federation, the majority of local Jews donated on average $5 to each of the thirty organizations now included within the Federation's annual appeal. Unless in personal distress, therefore, the more than 1,000 subscribers traditionally donated between $100 and $200 annually to various individual appeals by national Jewish organizations, to local temple drives, and to B'nai B'rith or Zionist causes. Greenberg's assertion that "there are few subscribers who could not have doubled or trebled their subscriptions without the slightest real sacrifice" appears well founded and once again reveals the difficult job of assuring the community that the Jewish Federation encompassed all previous local fund-raising drives.²¹

The Federation also used the pages of the Jewish Times to articulate clearly to the community that the Federation, although uniting disparate organizations into one fund-raising entity, did not advocate a "uniformity" of Jewish ideology. Federation leaders reminded the community that "we are trying to do something towards the moulding of our own destiny . . . we are merely uniting our efforts, unifying our objectives, but retaining our variety of outlooks and approaches to Jewish life." The amicable professional relationships exuded by the Federation board of directors, which consisted of individuals with divergent religious, political, and socioeconomic views, demonstrate how the organization operated successfully. For Greenberg, the board of directors' ability to distribute campaign allocations justly to various organizations "made the Federation a true University of Jewish life. . . . It is what breaks down narrow provincialisms, broadens a community, and increases the horizon of its individual members." The Jewish Federation's appeals for cooperation and increased funding from the community continued throughout the year.²²

The American government's continued advocacy of immigration restriction amidst the developing refugee crisis in central Europe appeared regularly in Jewish Times editorials, syndicated articles, and "Cablegram and Telegraphic Flashes" during 1937. Editorials titled "Another Door Closed" and "Refugee Problem" informed readers of the need for greater assistance for the thousands of German Jewish refugees stranded throughout Europe. A reprinted Joint Distribution Committee report indicated that German refugees displaced by the Third Reich numbered 35,000, of which approximately 29,000 were Jews. From June 1, 1936, to June 30, 1937, the United States had a net increase of only 23,508 immigrants, indicating the continued success of interwar immigration restrictions. Jewish immigrants accounted for 11,120 of this total, or 47 percent. Despite Ohio ranking sixth behind New York, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey as a destination of Jewish immigrants, only 316 Jewish immigrants arrived in Ohio—equaling 19 percent of all immigrants entering the state.²³ The Federation's fall advertisements for the 1937-38 annual campaign reflected an increased awareness of the refugee crisis, marking a transition in Federation objectives.

The refrain "I'll Give More This Year!" accompanied the Jewish Federation's third annual fund-raising campaign. The weeklong campaign commenced on October 31, 1937, with an opening banquet at Anshe Emeth Social Hall with Maurice Samuels, world-renowned author, as the keynote speaker. The Federation's minimum goal of $51,000 amounted to a 20 percent increase from the previous year's goal and a 69 percent increase from the inaugural campaign goal in 1935. Multiple announcements throughout the fall editions of the Jewish Times with the refrain "When You Say 'No' to the Jewish Federation Appeal, You Say 'Yes' to Hitler!" illustrate the Federation's aggressive campaigning in the hope of generating more contributions and in larger amounts. A September 3, 1937, article titled "Bloody Figures" described for the Jewish community the true nature and horrific conditions created by the Nazis throughout Europe. Numerous photos depicting the depraved conditions of "the wandering Jew" complemented the graphic articles and created the image that Youngstown Jewry could make a difference as a "link in the chain of humanity" to assist Jewish refugees. For the editors of the Jewish Times, "Youngstown Jews must carry this load, share in the responsibility . . . if we are to be worthy of our heritage as Jews, and citizens of this great free land."²⁴ The emotionalism evident throughout these appeals denotes the Federation's concerted efforts toward increasing Youngstown Jewry's awareness of the grave situation facing Jewish refugees.

Jerome Curtis of the Cleveland Welfare Fund; Dr. Joseph Dunner, an exile from Germany; Louis Platt of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC); and Mendel N. Fisher of the United Palestine Appeal (UPA) addressed Federation workers and donors at a victory dinner on November 7, 1937, at the Tod House. Federation officials totaled the results of the third annual united Jewish appeal in late December and announced that pledges to the thirty-two combined participating agencies amounted to $52,024.45. The non-local allocations for the 1937-38 drive totaled $30,590—equaling nearly 59 percent of all Federation expenditures. The amount also equaled a 42 percent increase compared to nonlocal allocations derived from the 1936-37 campaign. Monetary allotments to overseas agencies once again received the vast majority of nonlocal expenditures. The Federation assigned $20,000 to the combined efforts of the UPA and JDC, exceeding the total amount of all nonlocal allocations for the 1935-36 campaign by more than $6,000. The board of directors' decision to increase spending for overseas agencies aimed at aiding Jewish refugees confirms the Federation's growing desire to assist refugees and parallels neighboring Jewish communities' increased nonlocal expenditures.²⁵

At a meeting on December 14, 1937, the board of directors unanimously elected C. J. Strouss to lead once again the Jewish community as president of the Federation. Strouss described to the board of directors that evening his concerns over continued immigration problems facing Jewish refugees. Strouss promoted the creation of a local branch of the Coordinating Committee for Aid to Refugees and Emigrants so Youngstown Jewry could provide greater organizational assistance to fleeing refugees. Organized in October 1934, the National Coordinating Committee for Aid to Refugees and Emigrants Coming from Germany (NCC) provided aid to refugees of all faiths fleeing Europe. According to John L. Bernstein, the committee served as a "central registry and clearing bureau for all organizations interested in the refugee question and handled special cases that no other agency assumed responsibility for." The NCC reorganized in 1939 as the National Refugee Service (NRS) and aided in the relocation of approximately 25,000 refugees by 1946. The Jewish Federation's $500 allotment to the Youngstown Coordinating Committee following the 1937-38 united campaign marked the first direct monetary assistance to the NCC and indicated the Jewish community's desire to assist in the relocation of refugees to Youngstown.²⁶

The Federation started the year 1938 by requesting that the community provide greater financial, medical, and occupational assistance for the placement of German Jewish refugees in Youngstown. Hitler's March 13, 1938, Anschluss, exacerbating European immigration patterns, provided further proof of the need for direct assistance for Jewish refugees. The Nazis immediately applied anti-Semitic decrees and initiated violent persecutions toward the approximately 180,000.200,000 Jews of Austria. Abhorrence regarding Hitler's uncontested "rape of Austria" appeared throughout international and national newspapers. The March 18, 1938, cover of the Youngstown Jewish Times contained a map of Austria with the headline "We Mourn the Death of This Nation the Past Week." The National Origins Quota of 1929, however, only allocated 1,413 annual quotas for Austria, thus trapping thousands of Austrian Jews desperately trying to exit an unimaginable nightmare of persecution.²⁷

Within weeks of Hitler's annexation, the Roosevelt administration invited thirty-two European and Latin American governments to join in an international conference to aid European refugees. The administration selected the French resort town of Évian-les-Bains as the site for the summer gathering. Roosevelt extended invitations to nations unaffected by the massive influx of refugees caused by Nazi military aggressions, which the administration termed "receiver" nations. For Eric Estorick, the international conference's main goal was only to "consider what steps could be taken to facilitate the settlement in other countries of political refugees from Germany and Austria." Opening on July 6, 1938, conference attendees' agreed unanimously "to only consider immediate steps to be taken within the existing immigration laws and resolutions." This resolution quelled the American public's worries of new liberal immigration policies. American Jewish leaders' reserved optimism toward the calling of the conference soon ceased when the nations unanimously concluded "that the refugee problem as a whole was too complex to be considered at the moment." The only true accomplishment of the conference was its choice to recognize the European refugee crisis as an international humanitarian concern. Overall, the Évian conference maintained a restrictive element, demonstrated the reluctance of many Western democracies, and failed completely in the major objective of finding places for European refugees.²⁸

Potential refugees faced innumerable restrictions and procedural barriers. The permanence of the National Origins Quota and former President Herbert Hoover's 1930 reinterpretation of the likely to become a public charge clause (LPC) guaranteed the exclusion of a mass emigration of refugees to the United States. Despite increasing anti-Semitic decrees throughout central Europe and Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in May 1939, refugees needed to meet innumerable requirements for an acceptable visa application. According to Holocaust scholar Saul Friedman, immigrants and refugees alike "had to present an un-expired passport, a public certificate attesting good conduct in the past, a certificate from the Public Health Surgeon indicating that the applicant would not be an unhealthy public charge, duplicate records of all pertinent personal data, a thorough financial statement, as well as an affidavit filed by a relative or friend within the United States guaranteeing a specific percentage of support."²⁹ An absence of any of these requirements resulted in delays or refusals and prolonged the misery of fleeing refugees. The State Department's decision to allow individual consular officers to maintain the ultimate authority left few alternative options for refugees. Nazi directions for immigrants also included complex demands and excessive requirements. Nazi directions issued by the Berlin Migration Department required "exit permits, entry permits, Spanish and Portuguese transit visas, a passport picture, three identifiable photos, French francs for food and drinks, American dollars for other expenses, railway and boat tickets, and baggage tickets and lists."³⁰ These demands, coupled with consular officers' excessive requirements, created daunting obstacles for refugees fleeing Nazi Europe, which showed a true lack of humanitarian concern.

A statistical analysis of refugee admission rates and immigrant departures to and from Germany from 1933 to 1938 indicates the success of American immigration restriction. From July 1, 1932, to June 30, 1938, a total of 241,962 immigrants and refugees entered the United States. During the same time span, 246,449 individuals departed the country, making for a net decrease of 4,487. American immigration laws permitted the admission of 922,644 individuals during this period. Therefore, during the Nazis' first five years of power, only 26 percent of America's already restrictive immigration quotas were filled. The 31,648 immigrants and refugees who did enter the country in 1938 amounted to less than 0.04 percent of America's total population. Thus, as the editors of the American Jewish Yearbook indicated, "the safest course for a Jewish immigrant was to apply to a philanthropic agency."³¹ Despite these legal barriers, Youngstown Jewry continued to place great emphasis on the rescue of refugees.

The Federation's fourth annual Jewish appeal opened on Sunday, November 6, 1938, with a goal of $57,000 with thirty participating agencies. The fourth campaign included an organizational change; campaign workers were divided into professional and occupational divisions to ensure greater collecting efficiency. The week before the kickoff banquet, Marvin Lowenthal, historian and acclaimed scholar, addressed the First Union Sabbath Eve Service held by all Youngstown temples and under the direction of Rabbis Philo, Manello, and Kollin. Lowenthal and other speakers informed those in attendance that the campaign goal "must be raised to protect ourselves from the scourge of anti-Semitism exported by European despots, and strengthen cultural and philanthropic agencies in Youngstown and throughout the world." For C. J. Strouss, the decision to set the campaign goal in early August rather than later in October resulted in an annual campaign quota significantly below the $75,000 needed from Youngstown Jewry in the wake of pogroms in the Sudetenland and in Italy.³² Innumerable reports and articles describing the unrelenting destruction of European Jewry following Kristallnacht in early November continued to motivate Youngstown Jewry to assist in refugee resettlement projects.

A December 16 editorial in the Jewish Times titled "Resettlement Our Problem" exemplifies Youngstown Jewry's emphasis on assisting refugees. The editorial informed readers that "this past year [1938] has been a year of destiny for German Jews . . . the only hope lies in emigration . . . it is for us therefore to make every refugee resettlement project our own special project and to work toward that end with every ounce of strength at our command." Addresses and speeches by Rabbi Julius Gordon of St. Louis and Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland during the weeklong campaign described with great clarity the need to assist those displaced by the Third Reich. Local newspaper reporting and informative lectures by prominent national Jewish leaders resulted in greater communal involvement dealing with the coordination, organization, and subscription of funds. As a result, the 1938-39 Jewish Federation campaign, although conducted during an acute local economic recession, resulted in 1,416 pledges and an oversubscription totaling $64,638.33. Once again, nonlocal allocations totaled 61 percent ($39,900) of the money raised during the fourth campaign. The Federation's allocation of $26,200 toward the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), which included the United Palestine Appeal, Joint Distribution Committee, and the National Refugee Service, represented the largest Federation allocation since its inception.³³

On January 10, 1939, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of the United Palestine Appeal (UPA), and William Rosenwald of the National Coordinating Committee for Aid to Refugees and Emigrants from Germany (NCC), met in New York and organized a "reconstituted" United Jewish Appeal (UJA). For historian Marc Lee Raphael, the three national Jewish organizations' decision to reunite their fund-raising efforts in response to the unrelenting anti-Semitic ravages throughout Europe positioned the UJA as the "single American Jewish fund-raising organization for the work of relief and rehabilitation in Europe, for immigration and settlement in Palestine, and for refugee aid in the United States."³⁴ Despite the organizations' divergent ideologies and fund-raising objectives, so evident during previous united fund-raising attempts, the newly organized UJA represented three national Jewish organizations' united response to Nazism and the refugee crisis.

For Raphael, British restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine in 1937 and 1938 and the Nazis' destruction of Jewish property in November 1938 "literally crystallized the growing realization by the leaders of American Jewry that in spite of their ideological differences only a centralized and harmonious fund-raising body could fully mobilize" the resources needed to assist European Jewry.³⁵ The reconstitution of the United Jewish Appeal in January 1939 created an organization with the clear objectives of relocating European refugees and assisting Jews already relocated in Palestine and other Western countries. The Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds played a crucial role in advocating the objectives and fund-raising needs of a more unified organizational approach in assisting refugees. Throughout 1939 and 1940, the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds conducted seminars and conferences throughout the nation advocating the potential effectiveness of the newly formed UJA.³⁶ The 1939 UJA raised $16.25 million but failed to reach its goal of $20 million. The Jewish Federation of Youngstown's 1939-40 annual appeal allocation to the UJA demonstrates its confidence in the three organizations' unity and objectives.

Nazi Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1939 exacerbated further Youngstown Jewry's concern and uncertainty regarding the plight of their European brethren. An editorial titled "Passover Message from Rabbi Philo" detailed the author's difficulty in writing a "cheerful Passover message as paganism, persecution, prejudice, and privation—the four horsemen of Nazism—sweep over all of Europe." The Jewish Times did not remain complacent during 1939 but rather championed the efforts of the United Jewish Appeal and informed Youngstown Jewry via editorials, articles, and photos that the "UJA represented America's Answer to the Plight of Jews Abroad." Several articles argued that the Joint Distribution Committee's, United Palestine Appeal's, and National Coordinating Committee's ability to unite their rescue efforts despite ideological differences illustrated the "unity of all elements of the Jewish community," which Jewish Federation annual appeals embodied and implemented. Louis Adamic's "America and the Refugees" and Nathan C. Belth's "The Refugee Problem" reiterated the grave status of the refugee crisis and propelled the Jewish Federation of Youngstown to launch its fifth annual appeal in the fall of 1939 with a $100,000 goal.³⁷

Henry Montor, executive vice president of the UJA, addressed an enthusiastic group of campaign workers and volunteers at a victory dinner at Anshe Emeth Temple on Sunday, November 5, 1939. Despite a record 2,498 pledges, subscription totals equaled only $89,413.50. Montor's discussion offered a "vivid and factual presentation to two hundred men, women, and youth" outlining the UJA's need for continued support from Youngstown Jewry. Montor's address at the fifth annual Jewish Federation appeal and the Federation's allocation of $44,000 to the UJA demonstrate once again Youngstown Jewry's concerted attempt to maximize local funding toward refugee rescue efforts.

Although the United Jewish Appeal garnered wide-ranging financial support from Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds throughout the country, internal quarreling among leaders of the JDC, UPA, and NRS³⁸ persisted for several years. The 1940 United Jewish Appeal, which collected $14.25 million from just over 3,000 communities, assured $5.25 million for the Joint Distribution Committee, $2.5 million for the United Palestine Appeal, and $2.5 million for the National Refugee Service. An allocation committee divided the excess funds among the three participating agencies. Despite the successes of the 1939 and 1940 appeals, each of the three organizations demanded higher proportions of the prescribed allocations for upcoming appeals. Leaders of the United Palestine Appeal, consisting mostly of Zionists, argued that the 23 percent share they received should exceed the amount allocated to the National Refugee Service. According to Marc Lee Raphael, "For Zionists the 'trickle' of refugees that came to America and were aided by the NRS could never be compared, either in number or need, to the thousands who fled to Palestine." Tentative allocations for the 1941 appeal, which retained the 1940 percent distribution for the National Refugee Service, led the United Palestine Appeal to withdraw from the United Jewish Appeal. The United Palestine Appeal's independent 1941 campaign goal of $12 million amounted to a fourfold increase compared to its 1940 United Jewish Appeal allocation. As a result, the National Refugee Service and the Joint Distribution Committee launched separate campaigns with goals of $4.34 million and $11.25 million, respectively. Each organization's separate campaigns included goals that far exceeded the amounts prescribed by the United Palestine Appeal. After a temporary dissolution of the UJA for several months in early 1941, the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds worked successfully to reunite the three organizations. On March 9, 1941, "in response to the overwhelming desire of American Jewry," the UJA launched its 1941 campaign, which included a new distribution formula of funds.³⁹ The brief schism in early 1941 marked the last significant disruption between the agencies that remained dedicated to the rescue and relocation of European Jews during the course of World War II.

During the course of 1940, the Jewish Federation of Youngstown remained dedicated to the rescue and relocation of refugees. C. J. Strouss's annual Federation report in March 1940 described specifically the group's ongoing attempts to relocate refugees to Youngstown. The Youngstown Coordinating Committee for Resettlement of Refugees, headed by Mrs. Joseph Wilkoff, prepared, in cooperation with local B'nai B'rith Lodge No. 339, a program to secure signers of affidavits of support for German refugees wishing to come to the United States. The Youngstown Chapter of the Council for Jewish Women, under the direction of Mrs. Henry Weinberger, assisted in the housing and "hospitality" of the newcomers. Mrs. Paul Kaufman headed the Federation's Americanization and citizenship committee, and social worker Stanley Engel assisted in the resettlement process by working directly with the signers of affidavits.⁴⁰

Informative articles throughout the Jewish Times asked Youngstown Jewry to support financially the Youngstown Coordinating Committee, Ohio State Refugee Resettlement Committee, German-Jewish Children's Aid-Council Project, and the National Refugee Service through the upcoming annual Federation appeal. Federation articles and editorials informed readers during the summer that "a total of 1,439 refugees settled outside of New York during the first six months of 1940," thus illustrating that the Jewish community's efforts were paying off. The National Refugee Service's 1939 quota for refugees equaled 2,650 families for the entire country. The Cleveland Coordinating Committee maintained a quota of seventy-two persons annually, while Detroit resettled approximately six refugees a month. The Youngstown Coordinating Committee permitted one family per month in 1939, but after 1940 the quota increased to five families each month. Youngstown Jewry's active involvement in the resettlement of refugees led the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds to hold a district conference at Youngstown's Hotel Ohio on September 15, 1940. Attendees at the conference included Judge Morris Rothenberg, national UJA cochairman; Morris Leavitt, Joint Distribution Committee secretary; A. S. Magida, UJA field director; Cecelia Razovsky, National Refugee Service director; and Dr. Horace Marston, Anti-Defamation League director.⁴¹ The convergence of national Jewish organization leaders in Youngstown at the conference indicates the Federation's commitment to informing the community of the refugee situation and its desire to demonstrate to national organizations Youngstown Jewry's united fund-raising successes.

The Federation selected C. J. Strouss general chairman of the 1940 annual Federation appeal for a sixth consecutive term on October 25, 1940. With opportunities diminishing daily to save refugees and with subscription totals increasing each year, the Federation set the campaign goal at $103,000, tripling the Federation's inaugural campaign goal for 1935-36. Despite successfully relocating refugees, holding a district conference for the Council of Federations and Welfare Funds, and William Rosenwald (cochairman of the UJA and president of the NRS) sending personal letters to several Jewish families, the sixth annual campaign netted only $91,356.11. Although both the 1939-40 and 1940-41 campaigns failed to meet the prescribed goal, the Jewish Federation of Youngstown continued to allocate the largest sums of campaign money to the United Jewish Appeal. The 1940-41 allotment of $40,000 amounted to 79 percent of the nonlocal budget, or approximately 44 percent of the entire campaign subscriptions. The Jewish Federation of Youngstown responded to the increase of refugee families permitted to relocate in the city (from one per month to five) by establishing a foster family care program under the auspices of the Family Welfare Department following the 1940-41 campaign.⁴² Federation efforts continued to focus primarily on the rescue and resettlement of refugees despite the widening parameters of World War II. Youngstown Jewry's efforts from 1935-41, through a united Federation, assisted undoubtedly in the rescuing of refugees in the years preceding America's entry into World War II.

Youngstown Jewry's annual fund-raising campaigns and refugee relief efforts resulted in approximately forty families resettling in the city by 1940 and some 300 over the next decade. From 1935 to 1941, the Jewish Federation of Youngstown raised $377,766.18 for local, national, and overseas relief efforts. The $229,534.83, or 61 percent of all funds, the Federation allocated to nonlocal agencies is indicative of Youngstown Jewry's emphasis on assisting those residing outside their own city limits. The Federation's organizational infancy and the socioreligious and political diversity of Youngstown's various Jewish communities did not inhibit the organization from successfully assisting its European brethren. The Jewish Times' relentless coverage of Nazi barbarism quells any references to a lack of knowledge of the abhorrent conditions facing European Jewry in the years immediately preceding Hitler's Final Solution. Youngstown Jewry, despite its relatively small size, clearly worked to save their European brethren despite Jewish organizational leaders' divisiveness at the national level and virtually impenetrable immigration restrictions. The Jewish Federation of Youngstown's efforts are commendable.⁴³ Additional research into midsized Jewish communities' responses to news of Nazi atrocities is needed for further scholarly comparison of the ideological pulses of various American Jewish communities and their organizational efforts during the crucial prewar years.