Orphan Relief in the Jewish Community in Jerusalem during and in the Aftermath of the First World War

Abstract

Abstract:The Palestine Orphan Committee (Vaad ha-Yetomim be-’Erets-Yisrael) was officially established in 1919 and assumed responsibility for the care of close to 3,000 children in need in 1919, and more than 4,000 children in the following year, most of them in Jerusalem. These children and youth were defined as orphans, which at the time referred to boys and girls who were left without a providing figure from their nuclear family, and who were not yet capable of providing for themselves. Although the Palestine Orphan Committee was established in order to solve the problem of Jewish orphanhood in Palestine caused by the First World War, the main effort of the committee was to reconstruct the economically independent Jewish family. The Palestine Orphan Committee followed a progressive agenda and aspired to place the children under its care with families, and not in an orphanage. To this end, the Palestine Orphan Bureau (Misrad ha-Yetomim be-’Erets-Yisrael), a division of the Palestine Orphan Committee, provided regular supervision for children living in private homes by “orphan visitors,” a milestone in the development of the public health nurses who worked in Palestine during the British Mandate.