Vaad Hahatzala

The “Emergency Committee for War-Torn Yeshivot”, better known as Vaad (Ha)hatzala, was founded by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada at an emergency meeting in New York (November 13-14, 1939). It was headed by a Presidium consisting of five rabbis. While Vaad Hahatzala’s headquarters were based in New York, local branches were created in i.a. Germany, France and Switzerland. The initial goal of the committee was to collect funds for rabbis, yeshiva students and their families who ended up in Lithuania after fleeing the Soviet occupation of Eastern Poland (September 1939). Additionally, the Vaad Hahatzala sought to arrange for their mass emigration, by raising funds and by petitioning governments (especially the United States) to intervene on behalf of refugees. The organisation successfully negotiated the release of 1210 Jews from Theresienstadt and their transfer to Switzerland (1945). The post-war activities of the Vaad Hahatzala focused on Germany and France, where food shipments, funds, and religious books were distributed to DP camps and yeshivot. The organisation also assisted in procuring visa to the United States for students and rabbinical teachers. On the decline after 1948, the Vaad Hahatzala most likely ceased to function around the early 1950s.