Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. was an organization established by the ''

Conference on Jewish Relations A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

'' in April 1947 to collect and distribute heirless Jewish property in the American occupied zone of Germany after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The organization, originally named the Commission on European Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (alternatively Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Commission), was originally proposed in 1944 by Theodor Gaster of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, and one of its cofounders. Shortly after its founding, it became the cultural arm of the

Jewish Restitution Successor Organization The Jewish Restitution Successor Organization Inc. (JRSO, also IRSO) was founded in 1947 in New York by various American and international Jewish organizations. Originally, it was incorporated on May 15, 1947, as the Jewish Restitution Commission, b ...

. It distributed about 150,000 heirless items, mostly books from the

Offenbach Archival Depot The Offenbach Archival Depot was a central collecting point in the American Sector of Germany for books, manuscripts and archival materials looted, confiscated or taken by the German army or Nazi government from the occupied countries during World ...

whose owners could not be identified, to libraries in the United States and abroad, among others to the library of the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich in Switzerland.

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (born Johanna Arendt; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a German and American historian and philosopher. She was one of the most influential political theory, political theorists of the twentieth century. Her work ...

, then managing director of the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., handed over parts of the library of the Breslau Rabbinical Seminary in Germany which was suppressed by the Nazis in 1938. The oldest books of the Breslau collection date back to the 16th century, among them a 1595 print of

Flavius Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing ''The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Judaea ...

' ''

Antiquities of the Jews ''Antiquities of the Jews'' (; , ''Ioudaikē archaiologia'') is a 20-volume historiographical work, written in Greek, by the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus in the 13th year of the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, which was 94 CE. It cont ...

''. Funding for the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction's operations was provided by the

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Advert Where and how does this article resemble an WP:SOAP, advert and how should it be improved? See: Wikipedia:Spam (you might trthe Teahouseif you have questions). American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a J ...

and the

Jewish Agency for Palestine The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jews, Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). ...

. Among the leaders and officers of the organization were

Salo Baron Salo Wittmayer Baron (May 26, 1895 – November 25, 1989) was an Austrian-born American historian, described as "the greatest Jewish historian of the 20th century". Baron taught at Columbia University from 1930 until his retirement in 1963. Lif ...

Leo Baeck Leo Baeck (; 23 May 1873 – 2 November 1956) was a 20th-century German rabbi, scholar, and theologian. He served as leader of Reform Judaism in his native country and internationally, and later represented all German Jews during the Nazi ...

, and

Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem (; 5 December 1897 – 21 February 1982) was an Israeli philosopher and historian. Widely regarded as the founder of modern academic study of the Kabbalah, Scholem was appointed the first professor of Jewish mysticism at Hebrew Un ...

. The organization ceased operations in 1952.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * Shlomit Steinberg. Orphaned Art: Looted Art from the Holocaust in the Israel Museum, Exhibition Catalogue, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2008 * Shlomit Steinberg."Provenance Research in Museums: Between History and Methodology", Taking Responsibility, Nazi-looted Art – A Challenge for Museums, Libraries and Archives, Magdeburg, 2009, pp. 307–319 * Shlomit Steinberg, "The Road Paved with Good Intentions: Between Berlin and Jerusalem 1945-1955", Auf der Suche nach einer verlorenen Sammlung, Das Berliner Judisches Museum (1933-1938), Exhibition Catalogue, Berlin, 2011, pp. 48–57 * Shlomit Steinberg, "The Road to recovery: From the Central Collecting Points to a Safe Haven – The J.R.S.O, Dossier". In Schriftenreihe der Kommission fur Provenienzforschurg 3, Christopher Bazil and Eva Blimlinger (eds.). Bohlau Verlag, Wien-Koln–Weimar, 2012, pp. 119–132 * Elisabeth Gallas: ''Kulturelles Erbe und rechtliche Anerkennung. Die JCR, Inc. nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg,'' in: Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung, 22. Metropol, Berlin 2013, , pp. 35 – 56 (in German) *

Elisabeth Gallas Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

: ''"Das Leichenhaus der Bücher." Kulturrestitution und jüdisches Geschichtsdenken nach 1945.''

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (V&R) is a scholarly publishing house based in Göttingen, Germany. It was founded in 1735 by (1700–1750) in connection with the establishment of the Georg-August-Universität in the same city. After Abraham Vandenh ...

, Göttingen 2013 (in German) * David Guedj
The Distribution of Heirless Books to Morocco by the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc.
Zutot: Perspectives on Jewish Culture, 15 (2018), pp. 63–72. {{Authority control Holocaust charities and reparations Restitution Aftermath of the Holocaust Jewish organizations Organizations established in 1947 Organizations disestablished in 1952 Allied occupation of Germany