- Vaad Hatzalah
Vaad Hatzalah (the Rescue Committee or Committee for Rescuing) was an organization to rescue
Jews inEurope from theHolocaust .It was founded in November 1939 by the
Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada ("Agudath Harabbanim") [http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=395035] . It was originally named Emergency Committee for War-Torn Yeshivas and it is often referred to as "the Rescue Committee" also formally named: Vaad ha-Hatzala in Hebrew.Activities
Recognizing that following the law would lead to greater numbers of Jews being murdered, the Vaad sometimes used means that were illegal.
For example, the Polish government in exile in
Bern sent coded cables toNew York on behalf of the Vaad and related Jewish organizations. This avoided the strict American censors and allowed messages from Nazi-controlled Europe to reach Jewish rescuers.cite book | first=David | last=Wyman | authorlink=David S. Wyman | year=1984 | title=The Abandonment of the Jews | id = ISBN 0-394-42813-7 | pages=46 ] The American State Department had issued orders to block messages coming from Europe regarding news of the Nazis extermination of the Jews.cite book | first=David | last=Wyman | authorlink=David S. Wyman | year=1984 | title=The Abandonment of the Jews | id = ISBN 0-394-42813-7 | pages=186 ]References
ee also
*
Survivors' Talmud External links
* [http://www.jewishmediaresources.org/article/619/]
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