OPEN TO THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY!
The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe
FEATURING author of RESCUE BOARD, Rebecca Erbelding
In this remarkable work of historical reclamation, Holocaust historian Rebecca Erbelding pieces together years of research and newly uncovered archival materials to tell the dramatic story of America’s little-known efforts to save the Jews of Europe.
“Erbelding writes vividly of intrigue and espionage, secret negotiations, money laundering, ransoming of victims, and rescue ships . . . [Her] history is an important contribution to understanding America’s humanitarian efforts during and after WWII and a timely perspective.” – Booklist
Light Dinner & Dessert Reception
$25 per person paid in advance
$36 per person at the door
Please register below by Friday, January 31
You may also mail in a check or call (518) 783-7800 to register.
Rebecca Erbelding’s first book, Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America’s Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe, won the JDC Herbert Katzki National Jewish Book Award. She is a historian, curator, and archivist at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and on The History Channel and National Geographic.
About RESCUE BOARD:
America has long been criticized for refusing to give harbor to the Jews during World War II as Hitler and the Nazis closed in. RESCUE BOARD tells the extraordinary unknown story of the War Refugee Board, FDR’s unpublicized effort late in the war to save the remaining Jews.
In January 1944, a young Treasury lawyer named John Pehle went to a meeting with the president to argue for the relief funds needed to help Jews escape Nazi territory. Pehle prevailed, and within days, FDR created the War Refugee Board, empowering it to rescue the victims of Nazi persecution, and put Pehle in charge.
Over the next twenty months, Pehle pulled together D.C. pencil pushers, international relief workers, smugglers, diplomats, millionaires, and rabble-rousers to run operations across four continents and a dozen countries. They tricked Nazis, forged identity papers, maneuvered food and medicine into concentration camps, recruited spies, leaked news stories, laundered money, negotiated ransoms, and funneled millions of dollars into Europe. Altogether, the War Refugee Board saved tens of thousands of lives.
Sponsored by the Brandeis Baruch, Chaim Weizmann, and Maimonides societies.
Society members are recognized in Federation’s honor roll book of donors.
You will have the opportunity to privately make a gift to support your Jewish community.
This event is generously sponsored by Marshall & Sterling Insurance.