Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. was an organization established by the '' Conference on Jewish Relations'' in April 1947 to collect and distribute heirless Jewish property in the American occupied zone of Germany after World War II. The organization, originally named the Commission on European Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (alternatively Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Commission), was originally proposed in 1944 by

Theodor Gaster Theodor Herzl Gaster (July 21, 1906 – February 2, 1992) was a British-born American Biblical scholar known for work on comparative religion, mythology and the history of religion. He is noted for his books, ''Thespis: Ritual, Myth, and Drama in ...

of the Library of Congress, and one of its cofounders. Shortly after its founding, it became the cultural arm of the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization. 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 (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...

, 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' ''

Antiquities of the Jews ''Antiquities of the Jews'' ( la, Antiquitates Iudaicae; el, Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία, ''Ioudaikē archaiologia'') is a 20-volume historiographical work, written in Greek, by historian Flavius Josephus in the 13th year of the re ...

''. Funding for the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction's operations was provided by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Palestine. Among the leaders and officers of the organization were

Salo Baron Salo Wittmayer Baron (May 26, 1895 – November 25, 1989) was a Polish-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. Life ...

, Leo Baeck, and Gershom Scholem. 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: ''"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 Vandenhoec ...

, 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. {{refend Holocaust charities and reparations Restitution Aftermath of the Holocaust Jewish organizations Organizations established in 1947 Organizations disestablished in 1952 Allied occupation of Germany