August 31,1914 – 9 Elul, 5674
In response to a plea by the leaders of Palestine’s prestate Jewish community, and based on his own knowledge of its precarious state due to the outbreak of war and with it the cessation of contributions from the countries involved, Henry Morgenthau Sr., U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, cabled American banker Jacob Schiff: “Palestinian Jews facing terrible crisis […] serious destruction threatens thriving colonies […] fifty thousand dollars needed.” Within a month, the appeal produced the equivalent of one million dollars today. The organization created to raise this enormous sum became the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, better known as the Joint, or the JDC. Morgenthau was also among the first to publicize the Turkish massacres of Armenians in 1915, as horrific reports poured in from American consuls all over the Ottoman Empire.
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