With powerful photographs and a compelling bilingual text, this 1922 poster urges the Jews of Philadelphia - many of them of East European origin - to come to the aid of their suffering brethren, whose lives had been devastated by World War I and its aftermath. While the images display the Jews' suffering, the Yiddish headline asks boldly: "ARE THEY YOUR KIN?" and the anser is "Your brothers, your sisters, your dearests will die if you are unable to help them." The text ends with a dramatic declaration: "THEIR LIVES ARE IN YOUR HANDS."
The poster also reflects the rising dominance of American Jewry and the parallel waning of the influence and power of European Jewish philanthropists. This shift in authority and clout was accelerated by The Great War of 1914-1918, continued throughout the interwar years, and came to its tragic conclusion during the Holocaust.
Immediately after the outbreak of WWI, American Jews began sending money to help the Jews of Europe (and the small Jewish community in Palestine). These efforts quickly evolved into well-organized nationwide fundraising campaigns. New philanthropic organizations were established, prominent among them the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (the "Joint") and tens of millions of dollars were collected in just a few years.
Two words that appear at the bottom of the poster reflect two distinct ideologies that guided American Jewry's aid to European Jews. The term "Relief" relates to charitable activities, spanning from medical aid to soup kitchens. The term "Reconstruction" refers to a system that promoted self help. The desire to help East European and Zionist Jews to help themselves dominated Jewish philanthropic initiatives in the USA. "Reconstruction" helped Jews in Poland, Romania and even in the Soviet Union rebuilt their lives in the post-1918 world and gave them hope. Stalin's purges of Jewish life, including the Jewish agricultural settlements in the Crimea and Southern Ukraine established by the Joint ("Agro-Joint"), and the Holocaust brought the Reconstruction efforts to a tragic halt.
