[1.1. The Joint's
structures and leading persons]
[JDC structure: 4 or 5
leading persons - ratification of decisions in every
committee]
JDC has always prided itself on being a philanthropic
organization run on business lines. Actual power in this
organization rested not so much in its formal structure, its
national council, its board of directors, or its Executive
Committee, but rather in a small group of four or five
individuals who actually made the necessary decisions and then
had them ratified in the various committees, thus observing
the rules of a kind of formal democracy and appeasing the
traditional representatives of the religious as well as labor
circles who had helped found the organization.
[JDC structure: Chairman
Felix M. Warburg - married with daughter of Jacob H. Schiff]
The chairman, a founder and outstanding figure in JDC during
these early years, was Felix M. Warburg. A member of a family
of German Jewish banking aristocrats, he had come from Hamburg
as a young man and had married the daughter of Jacob H.
Schiff, who had taken him into the firm of Kuhn, Loeb &
Co.
[Warburg respects all Jews as
Jews]
Felix Warburg was a man of great sincerity and conviction, a
fine, warm human being who was moved by a genuine feeling of
compassion toward his fellowman, particularly toward his
"coreligionists". Despite his parochial German Jewish
background, he found no difficulty in dealing with and being
sympathetic to the East European Jewish masses. As one of his
associates put it many years later, to Warburg, "even Jews in
Romania were human beings, a proposition which was not always
accepted by everyone here." He had a very real concern for
simply helping people, a (p.19)
concern that obviously was not based on any desire for status
or social standing. His main motivation was an aristocratic
yet somehow humble sense of noblesse oblige.
JDC was for Warburg "his" organization, and his rule was
patriarchal and at times somewhat high-handed. As he and a few
others tended to be responsible for the majority of funds
raised for this organization, they saw no reason to be shy
about implementing their own ideas without much parliamentary
attention to the democratic structure.
[Warburg: Bank - Jewish
affairs - and non-Jewish organizations]
He had many compartments to his life. One was the bank, which
was an obligation but neither a dominant interest nor a great
satisfaction. He once described this aspect of his life as
having taught him how to "draw the honey from even the sour
flowers".
His world of philanthropy was dominated by Jewish affairs, but
did not prevent him from being a key figure in the
nonsectarian settlement house programs, the Boy Scouts, the
Red Cross, and so on, as well as one of the founders of the
Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the American Jewish
Committee.
He was deeply involved with cultural activities in New York,
particularly in music and the various museums which he helped
generously. Above all, he was a joyous, warm man who was
constantly stimulated by his friends and associates, in return
for which he supported them in their manifold activities.
He was not a good public speaker, but his warmth and intimacy,
his straightforwardness, and his obvious lack of guile were
refreshing. He was politically naive, and was very much
astounded that he could not win over the Jewish political
leaders to his way of thinking as simply as he had won over
his colleagues on the domestic scene.
[JDC structure: Paul
Baerwald, a conservative, shy man]
Paul Baerwald, also a banker, worked in JDC with Warburg and
was a faithful supporter and friend of Warburg's. Baerwald was
a far cry from Warburg, with his warm and engaging
personality. A serious, rather shy man, Baerwald tended to be
cautious and conservative where Warburg was innovative.
Baerwald always desired to do what the powers that be
considered "right"; he certainly had the courage of his
convictions - but his convictions usually happened (p.20)
to coincide with the most conservative interpretation of any
given situation. Baerwald was most convincing in
person-to-person contact, where his overwhelming desire to do
good and his great sincerity would stand out. As a chairman of
JDC in the 1930s and after Warburg's death, he was a rather
pale reflection of his predecessor.
[JDC structure: James N.
Rosenberg, a conservative lawyer with enthusiasm and drive -
anti-Zionist]
Another individual of great importance in JDC was James N.
Rosenberg, a lawyer whom Warburg had drawn into JDC. Rosenberg
tended to be on the conservative side as well, but he was
extreme and brash where Baerwald was cautious and shy.
Rosenberg left an indelible mark on JDC. We shall have
occasion to discuss his distaste of Zionism and its
proponents; although he supported Warburg's attempts to come
to terms with Chaim Weizmann, the Zionist leader, in the 1920s
and the 1930s, he was in fact much more reserved and even
hostile to Zionism than Warburg. On the other hand,
Rosenberg's enthusiasm and tremendous drive were important
factors in getting JDC involved with the great attempt to help
with the economic and social problems of Russian Jews, which
will be discussed later.
[JDC structure: Secretary
Joseph C. Hyman, executive head]
Joseph C. Hyman, the secretary, occupied a definitely inferior
role, but he was very important as the actual executive head
of the organization.
[JDC structure: Plans in New
York - real work in Europe - plans by Kahn and Rosen]
Plans for fund raising and the overall budget were decided on
in New York, but the real work of JDC was done in Europe.
There, almost all decisions were placed in the hands of two
individuals of great intellectual stature, Dr. Bernhard Kahn,
head of the European office of JDC in Berlin, and Dr. Joseph
A. Rosen, head of JDC's Russian work.
[JDC structure: Dr. Bernhard
Kahn, "Mr. Joint"]
We shall deal with Rosen in the discussion of the work done in
Russia, but for the rest of Europe, Dr. Kahn was "Mr. Joint".
The group of Jewish German-Americans, financiers and lawyers,
who in fact ran JDC needed a man they could trust and who
would interpret their ideas in the actual operations of JDC.
Kahn was a German-educated Jew, a man Warburg could rely on.
Born in Sweden of Lithuanian Jewish parents, he was a
brilliant man, well-versed in Jewish law and lore, with a good
knowledge of Hebrew and Yiddish. He spoke all the (p.21)
great European languages, was deeply steeped in German
culture, and was an expert in economics, with a long record of
work not only with JDC, but prior to the JDC with the
Hilfsverein, the great German Jewish philanthropic
organization. An early adherent of the Zionist movement, Kahn
had been a delegate to the 1903 Zionist Congress that had
rejected the proposal to direct Zionist endeavors temporarily
to Uganda.
He was a reserved man, outwardly rather cold and pedantic but
deeply desirous of helping fellow Jews. He was the kind of man
the JDC leadership was looking for. Utterly and absolutely
reliable and responsible, extremely competent, he was
sufficiently conservative and rigid to recommend him to the
New York office of JDC, and at the same time a man of complete
independence of mind, capable of a great deal of imaginative
thinking, who happened to agree with the JDC group as to how
the agency should be run.
There was never the slightest trace of subservience about
Kahn, never a suspicion that he was not at all times honest
with himself and his office in New York.
[JDC structure: "USA" group -
Kahn group - Rosen group]
In fact, it even looked as though JDC was divided into three
separate parts - the money-raising agency in America and two
independent disbursing corporations: one under Kahn and the
other under Rosen.
[JDC structure: Inner circle
Warburg, Baerwald, Kahn, Rosen, Rosenberg, Hyman]
Warburg, Baerwald, Kahn, Rosen, Rosenberg, and Hyman - these
men constituted the inner circle that determined JDC policy.
Except for Hyman and Rosen, most of Warburg's lay associates
in JDC work, members of the Executive Committee and Board of
Directors, were of the German Jewish aristocracy in American
Jewish life.
[JDC structure: Louis
Marshall]
Up to his death in 1929, the towering personality of Louis
Marshall provided a rallying point for these circles.
[JDC contacts to other
organizations]
There were close personal ties between the lay leaders of all
the major American Jewish philanthropic and social
organizations and the American Jewish Committee, disagreements
on Zionism notwithstanding.
[Warburg's position in the
middle group around Marshall - without Zionism, without
nationalism]
Warburg and his friends belonged to that middle group in the
argument on Zionism that centered around Marshall. Warburg
never subscribed to Julius Rosenwald's anti-Zionism, though
Rosenwald was the most important financial supporter of JDC.
(p.22)
Together with
Marshall, Warburg lent his hand in the agreement with Weizmann
that set up the Jewish Agency for Palestine in 1929. Warburg
always remained basically faithful to this alliance with
Weizmann, despite his non-Zionism and his very serious
disagreements with the great Zionist leader. Palestine was not
a matter of "only" to him, as it was with Weizmann, but of
"also", and he and his circle did not adopt the Zionist
attitude of "the judges" - Brandeis, Mack, Frankfurter - and
their circle. Warburg never quite accepted the idea of Jewish
nationalism, and he looked upon its representatives with a
great deal of suspicion.
