International Jewish Correspondence (IJC)

International Jewish Correspondence (IJC) was founded in Montreal by Barry Simon (a high school teacher) and sponsored by the Canadian Jewish Congress. The objective of IJC was to link Jews from wherever they lived with pen-pals in other parts of the world.

History

IJC was founded in 1978. Since its inception, IJC received thousands of letters from individuals and families while others sent IJC the names and addresses of their students, their friends or members of their class or youth group. Once in a while, a friend or family member of someone living in an Arab or Soviet Bloc country sent an address so that IJC could let them know that the Jews of the world were interested in their plight. At times, Jewish prisoners were given the IJC address so that they could write to others while behind bars. Amongst those who wrote over the years were youngsters aged 7 and retired persons. Many of the letters IJC received came from professional and business persons. The group which sent the largest number of letters were students of university and secondary school age.

The majority of the letters are in English, while others are written in French, Hebrew, Spanish and Yiddish. Jewish populations in close to 20 countries participated in IJC, including some with dwindling Jewish populations, such as Estonia, Morocco and Zimbabwe. In addition, IJC has in its files the addresses of Jewish organizations and the Jewish press in over 50 countries, from Burma to Monaco, most of them having been contacted at one time or another to publish information about IJC. One marriage that we know of and several long term relationships between Jews around the world were forged due to the IJC.

IJC became less active as the Internet gained in popularity in the nineties and consequently had ceased operations by 2002. Barry Simon looks forward to the day when the Jews of the world will have a website that they would be able to access in their own language, wherever they might be in the world, and correspond via e-mail with like-minded Jewish individuals [or classes/groups] in other cities or countries.

External links

* [http://www.cjc.ca/template.php?action=archives&Type=1&Language=EN&Rec=436 The Canadian Jewish Congress National Archives]