American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)
Fact box:
- Founded: 1914
- HQ: New York, NY
- Operating scope: ~70 countries
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee operates as one of the longest-tenured major US Jewish institutional partners on international Jewish institutional support and humanitarian response. Founded in 1914 to coordinate US Jewish humanitarian assistance to European Jews during World War I, JDC has operated continuously through more than a century of Jewish institutional activity globally.
The institution operates programmatic activity across approximately 70 countries, including post-Soviet Jewish institutional reconstruction, Ethiopian Jewish absorption activity, Ukrainian Jewish institutional response from 2022 forward, and the post-October 7 institutional response. JDC-Israel operates substantial Israeli social-service programming alongside the international portfolio.
JDC operates as a primary recipient institution of US Jewish federation overseas-allocation funding alongside The Jewish Agency for Israel.
Coverage in The Olam:
/glossary/jdc//glossary/overseas-allocation/