On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, standing in front of the SAJM’s Judaica cabinets, we take a closer look at a small but particular collection of Jewish cultural objects that hold a much deeper meaning than simply objects for ritual use.
The historical collection includes two chanukiot (Chanukah candelabras), an atarah (neckpiece for a prayer shawl), four Torah shields and a pair of rimonim (finials for a Torah). We don’t know the exact provenance of each object except that they all come from Austria, Germany or Italy. What makes them special is that they each have a silver-coloured disc attached, engraved with the letters ‘JCR’.
The JCR and its crucial questions
JCR stands for Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (Inc), an organization established in New York in 1947 as the cultural arm of the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO), who operated in the American occupation zone of Germany with the goal of returning Jewish property looted by the Nazis to its rightful owners or their heirs.
This was a massive job, as the victorious Allied forces had found millions upon millions of books, manuscripts, religious and cultural artefacts, paintings, and other works of art stolen from private and public owners and stored in Nazi warehouses and libraries. Millions more had been destroyed or displaced into private collections. How were these items to be catalogued and traced? And where were they to go, as in most cases the owners were dead? What about the fact that whereas traditional restitution practices involved returning archives to a state that had been dispossessed, in this case the state had perpetrated the dispossession on its own people?
The JCR had to grapple with these questions, bringing to the fore the burning debate of where the future of Jewish existence lay – was it the United States, Palestine (which would become Israel the following year), or elsewhere in the diaspora, or would European Jewry rebuild itself as some German Jewish survivors believed? These conflicting views made it very difficult to decide where to distribute the heirless precious items and to examine what that decision meant for the nature of restitution and Jewish cultural heritage.
A unique organization
The JRSO and by extension the JCR, was an extraordinary initiative for two reasons: firstly, this was the first time that Jewish organizations from around the world were working together (its founders included American, British and French organizations as well as the Jewish Agency in Palestine and the World Jewish Congress). Secondly, this was the first time that international law recognized an organization as a legal entity representing the Jewish community collectively.
The challenge of achieving as great a degree of restitution as possible was left to the leaders and officials of the JCR who included some of the greatest thinkers of the day: Salo Baron, Theodor Gaster, Hannah Arendt, Leo Baeck and Gershom Scholem to name a few. These scholars, writers, political theorists and philosophers had many disagreements and worked at different times in the JCR. The outcome of their immense efforts was that institutions, museums and libraries of Jewish communities around the world were appointed to act as trustees for cultural property whose ownerships could not be traced. Of these items, 85 percent was sent to the United States and Israel, 8 percent to Western Europe (with half of that going to England), and the remaining 7 percent was distributed among South Africa, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Argentina and West Germany. The JCR ceased operations in 1952 though claims for restitution are currently still being made, as many books, artworks and cultural items belonging to the families of Holocaust victims remain in private and public collections to this day.
Symbols of Nazi failure
A defining feature of a group is its culture. The Nazis aimed to destroy the Jewish people not only physically but also by erasing their culture though an unprecedented, systematic and relentlessly efficient mass looting. The objects in our cabinets that display the silver disc of the JCR are a remarkable testament to the failure of the Third Reich to achieve its aims. As importantly, they exist as symbols of the groundbreaking role of the JCR in the field of cultural reconstruction and fostering connection and support between Jewish communities across the globe.
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