The capstone of the Mendes era, in a sense, was the inception by the Orthodox Union of American Jewry's first major organized program of overseas aid. The instrument thus established by the Orthodox Union, the Central Relief Committee (formally, the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War), actually was set up in 1914, subsequent to the close of Dr. Mendes's last presidential term, but the undertaking was animated by his guiding spirit. It was advanced by his successor in office, Dr. Bernard Drachman. A key figure in this work from the first was Morris Engelman, who had participated in the founding of the Orthodox Union and served as its honorary secretary for many years. Engelman recorded the Central Relief Committee's activities in his booklets Four Years of Jewish War Relief Work (New York, 1938) and Fifteen Years of Effort on Behalf of World Jewry (New York, 1929).

Although subsequently obscured in the annals of Jewish history by the unspeakable horrors of Nazi onslaught and World War II, of terrible magnitude was the disaster that, with the onset in 1914 of the First World War, fell upon millions of Jews trapped in the war zones of eastern Europe and the populace of the Yishuv, the Jewish settlement in the then Turkish-ruled Holy Land. Telegraphed pleas for aid from leaders of the stricken communities were received by two eminent leaders, Rabbi Moses Sebulun Margolies (Ramaz) and Rabbi Philip Klein. These leaders turned at once to the Orthodox Union, which immediately proceeded to mobilize a large-scale relief campaign. In this instance, the Orthodox Union succeeded in enlisting the cooperation of the Agudath Harabbanim, together with that of the Mizrachi organization.

Forthwith, telegrams were sent by the Union to all congregations to conduct an appeal for contributions on Yom Kippur night, and a special conference was convened on September 24, 1914 at which the Central

Relief Committee was structured. The officers chosen were Leon Kaminsky, publisher of the Yiddish daily Tageblatt, and Harry Fischel, Albert Lucas, and Morris Engelman, officers of the Union.

The CRC moved with unsparing impetus and notable flair. A five-week cross-country speaking campaign by Dr. Drachman and Mr. Engelman, followed by another by Albert Lucas and Dr. Masliansky, stirred thousands near and far and brought an outpouring of contributions. From Engelman's inventive mind came a series of ingenious projects: issuance of War Relief stamps in denominations of one, ten, and twenty-five cents, which brought in, through community groups and business firms, hundreds of thousands of dollars; "dime savings banks" placed in homes; a concert tour by famed cantor Yossele Rosenblatt (at the initial concert at the New York Hippodrome, the attendance of four thousand raised $100,000 for the fund); the proclamation by President Wilson, in response to a request from the Orthodox Union, of January 27, 1916 as National Jewish Relief Day. The Central Relief Committee printed 346,000 copies of the presidential proclamation, issued for sale in denominations of amounts from $1 to $100, and copies of the certificates were printed in newspapers across the country. On the designated Jewish Relief Day, $2 million was raised, "making the drive the most successful effort ever conducted by an American Jewish organization.' It is to be borne in mind that the 1916 dollar was the equivalent of about fifteen dollars in the 1990's, and that the great majority of Orthodox synagogue congregants were in humble circumstances.

The Orthodox Union's overseas relief initiative prompted like action by non-Orthodox groups. In October 1914, the American Jewish Relief Committee was established. To avoid duplication, this agency and the Central Relief Committee joined in the establishment of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, popularly called JDC or "The Joint." Jewish labor forces' also set up a relief undertaking, and this presently participated also in the Joint medium, which has served a vital role in Jewish life ever since.

The Central Relief Committee thenceforward channeled its fund disbursements largely through the JDC, but also continued some direct allocations, especially to yeshivoth. Fund-raising in Orthodox Jewish channels remained exclusively under the UOJCA-sponsored CRC.

The Central Relief Committee pursued its mission throughout the war and into the post-World War I years. Nightmarish conditions continued to prevail from 1918 to 1921 in eastern Europe, with the upsurge of nationto-nation warfare together with great revolutions. The Jewish lot, amid havoc and mass starvation, was made even more desperate by pogrom after pogrom.

The efforts of the CRC went on, reaching directly and in conjunction

with JDC many devastated communities in Poland, the Ukraine, Russia, and elsewhere in Europe, and also in the land of Israel and several near-Eastern communities.

The Great Depression of the 1930s and other historical circumstances took their toll of the Central Relief Committee's funding resources and progressively curtailed its operations, which at that period were focused on aid to the European and Israeli yeshivoth. By the early 1940s, the committee had ceased to function.

In its years of activity, this arm of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America rendered a truly historic service. One cannot but think of what might have been had this force continued to function and to achieve its potential as the autonomous fund arm of the American Orthodox Jewish. community. Much in the fiscal configuration of American Jewry, and the effects of this on Jewish life in Israel as well as in the United States, might thereby have been very different from what it is today.

WARTIME TASKS

Wartime ravages followed on the heels of pogrom and persecution in eastern Europe, and amid eruptions of a new mode of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe. With such manifestations presenting grim portents for his brethren abroad, the Jewish loyalist in America was beginning to sense his own greater responsibility for Jewish destiny. He was at the same time moved by the dynamics of the American scene-for the America in which the believing Jew was finding himself was now also finding itself anew.

In these first decades of the twentieth century, the last traces of the America of pioneer days were receding before the swift advance of population spread and industrialization. And, events having perforce thrust the United States into the forefront of world powers, it could no lon&er limit its involvement in international affairs. The entree of the United States in the First World War marked a decisive change in the American clime. Jewish fife, and not least of all its traditional component, was affected accordingly.

At this point, the Union's energies were focused on mobilizing the Orthodox community to wartime tasks. Millions of dollars' worth of war bonds were sold at UOJCA-sponsored rallies. But war demands touched families in a more personal way: With scores of thousands of young Jews entering military service, Orthodox Jewry was confronted by a problem it had never yet encountered on such a scale in America.

An entire generation of Jewish youths, reared in Jewish urban neighbor

hoods, were now, for the first time in their lives, away from home in a totally non-Jewish environment. Some, put to a new test, cleaved with new purpose to their Jewishness; others were not equipped to resist the strain on already-weakened religious standards. The Union's efforts to bring spiritual aid and practical guidance to the young soldiers and sailors were of small avail in view of the vast scope of the military mobilization and the absence of established channels for the purpose.

Other Jewish groups being in a similar situation, the Union presently joined with several other organizations in convening the National Jewish Welfare Board as a joint agency for aid to Jewish service personnel. As the one body bespeaking historical Judaism in the original composition of the National Jewish Welfare Board,' the Orthodox Union was much out numbered. Its representatives seem, however, to have succeeded in getting their views respected in the preparation of the materials that were distributed and the activities that were undertaken. This work substantially mitigated, but could not undo, the strain on Jewish practice. Capping the longstanding conditions under which religious endeavor had been mired, the wartime upheaval was a watershed in the weakening of observance loyalties among the young American generation of its time.

This experience was to recur a quarter-century later with World War Il and the subsequent conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. This time, though, with the institution by the Orthodox Union of its Armed Forces Division, efforts proved to be markedly more significant.