Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Part 3, 1933-1951 | Special Collections & Archives

Title: Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Part 3, 1933-1951

ID: URB/CRC3

Extent: 55.32 Linear Feet

Predominant Dates: 1947-1950

Arrangement

Abstract

In response to the spread of organized anti-Semitism in the United States during the 1930s, leaders of Los Angeles' Jewish community formed a special defense organization known as the Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee. The committee later changed its name to the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee. Part 3 of the collection continues the documentation of CRC’s activities under the leadership of Fred Herzberg through the end of his tenure in 1950. Included are the records of Joseph Roos, who continued to serve as assistant to Herzberg after Leon Lewis' tenure ended.

Creators

Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles. Community Relations Committee

In response to the spread of organized anti-Semitism in the United States during the 1930s spearheaded by domestic groups like the Ku Klux Klan and international ones like the propaganda arm of Hitler's Third Reich in Germany, leaders of Los Angeles' Jewish community formed a special defense organization known as the Los Angeles Community Relations Committee. The committee's purpose was to work with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), B'nai B'rith, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the American Jewish Congress, the Council of Jewish Women, and other Zionist organizations to fight anti-Semitism in the United States.

Mendel Silberberg, a respected community leader and motion picture industry attorney, served as the first chairman of Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee, which consisted of approximately forty representatives from various Jewish organizations. The committee adopted the strategy set forth by the ADL in 1933 for combating "un-Americanism", which was to infiltrate and expose pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic organizations and, if necessary, turn the information over to federal government agencies. The Community Relations Committee met on a biweekly basis to set policy and report on right wing activities in Los Angeles. It had subcommittees on research and fact-finding, public relations, legal and legislative matters, internal Jewish relations, interfaith activities, and education.

The Committee maintained close relationships with other like-minded groups, even sharing an office suite with the Southern California Anti-Defamation Council during the 1940s. The Committee collected a massive amount of propaganda literature, primarily from anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi, and other right wing organizations. Undercover agents and informants were recruited from the American Legion and Disabled American Veterans, and planted among suspect groups in the Los Angeles area.

The Americanism Committee of the Los Angeles County Council of the American Legion presented information gathered by the Community Relations Committee to the House Un-American Activities Committee (also known as the Dies Committee or HUAC), showing the connections between local groups including the American German Bund, Friends of the New Germany, and the German government in Europe. The Committee's work in the 1930s was so effective that both the AJC and ADL considered it their Los Angeles branch.

The committee also worked closely with national Jewish groups such as the American Jewish Committee and United Jewish Welfare Fund to fight the Nazi threat, and to coordinate Jewish civic defense activities nationwide. It provided information on right wing activities to the FBI, military and naval intelligence, and state and federal government prosecutors. The evidence they gathered and reports they wrote were used in trials involving naturalization proceedings, sedition and espionage.

In 1938, Joseph Roos, a newspaperman and screenwriter who had served as a volunteer informant, joined the Community Relations Committee's staff. He set up a master file system for the committee’s records, and edited the CRC's News Letter, which provided "intelligence" news reports and analysis of propaganda to committee, government officials, teachers, churchmen, influential journalists, and radio commentators across the United States. Radio broadcaster Walter Winchell and newspaper columnist Drew Pearson obtained many of their sensational "scoops" about American extremist groups from the News Letter. Under the News Research Service, Roos also directed the CRC's Radio Project and produced news releases and newspaper columns. The last issue of this noteworthy publication went to press on December 7, 1941.

With the United States' entry into World War II, the Committee's intelligence gathering activities and investigative journalism were superseded by new activities with patriotic organizations, veterans groups, inter-faith religious organizations, and local schools and colleges to combat rising bigotry and discrimination. In 1941 the committee changed its name to the Community Relations Committee (CRC) of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles.

At war's end, the CRC again reorganized itself in an attempt to better serve the larger Los Angeles community. Some of the most important issues the CRC addressed in the post-World War II period included resettlement of refugees from Eastern Europe on the West Coast, de-nazification in Germany, immigration legislation, religion in public schools, communism, civil liberties, discrimination in housing, fair employment practices, inter-racial relations, stereotyping in the motion picture industry and religious tolerance. The CRC also kept in close contact with the motion picture and television industries in an attempt to limit the cast stereotyping of Jews and other ethnic groups.

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Scope and Contents:

The Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Part 3, continues the documentation of the CRC’s activities under the leadership of Fred Herzberg through the end of his tenure in 1950. Included are the records of Joseph Roos, who continued to serve as assistant to Herzberg after Leon Lewis’s tenure ended. The records for the period 1933-1951 continue to reflect the results of Roos’s more systematic and thorough filing system and fact-finding activities. Part 3 of the collection also documents the activities of various state CRCs. The collection documents both the cooperation and divisions within the Jewish community of issues and tactics to combat right wing movements and the process of working with and through non-Jewish organizations. It has been arranged in two series: Administration (1940-1950) and Fact Finding and Community Relations (1933-1951).

Series I, Administration, documents the expanded operations of the executive office and the relationship between the Jewish Defense Agencies Coordinating Committee, the Los Angeles Jewish Community Council, State Community Relations Committees and Councils, and the motion picture industry. The series is divided into eight distinct subseries which are arranged in alphabetical order and cover the period 1940-1950. Subseries A, Jewish Defense Agencies Coordinating Committee, Los Angeles (JDACC) (1945-1950), consists of minutes, reports and correspondence between the executive office and the JDACC. Of special interest are the records on the merger between the Southern California Region of the Anti-defamation League and the CRC. Subseries B, Los Angeles Jewish Community Relations Committee (LAJCRC or CRC) (1945-1950), consists of minutes and correspondence between committee members and the executive secretary. It documents JCCs subcommittee structure. Subseries C, Los Angeles Jewish Community Relations Committee, Executive Office (1947-1950), consists of correspondence, inter-office memoranda, and reports. Subseries D, Los Angeles Jewish Community Relations Committee, Supported Groups (1947-1950), consists of materials that document the cooperation between Jewish and non-Jewish groups in the region. Subseries E, Los Angeles Jewish Community Council (1940-1950), consists of materials that document the relationships between different areas in the Jewish community in Los Angeles. Subseries F, Motion Picture Project Council (1947-1950), consists of materials that document the relationship between JCC and the film industry, as well as the Council’s role in establishing the News Research Service, Inc. Subseries G, National Community Relations Advisory Council (1947-1950), consists of materials that document community programs that worked to end discrimination and advance civil rights. Subseries H, Community Relations Committees and Councils, CRC by State (1947-1950), consists of correspondence, memoranda, publications and other printed matter for Community Relations Committee’s and Council’s outside of the state of California.

Series II, Fact Finding and Community Relations, is divided into 9 subseries covering the period 1933-1951. Subseries A, Complaints, Inquiries, and Investigations (1947-1950), consists of the records of investigations into complaints received about anti-Semitism and discrimination in the Jewish community. Subseries B, Court Cases and Legislative Hearings (1947-1950), consists of materials that document the Henry D. Allen libel suit, filed in 1947 against John Roy Carlson who had extensively documented Allen’s pre-war pro-Nazi activities in Southern California. Subseries C, Fact-Finding Files (previously Informant Files) (1947-1950), consists of correspondence with informants and their reports back to the JCC, as well as some of the printed materials and letters they collected while on assignment. Materials are arranged chronologically by date and include the code names informants were assigned by Joe Roos to help protect their identities. Subseries D, Investigated Groups and Individuals (ca. 1940-1950), consists of materials that document the activities of groups in Southern California such as the German American Bund down to a few pieces of literature collected at meetings or received in the mail from less active or out-of-state organizations. Subseries E, Issues and Projects (1946-1951), consists of background information on many of the issues the JCC was involved with, including displaced persons, discrimination, fair employment practices, de-Nazification, and intercultural education. Subseries F, Jewish Groups and Individuals (1946-1950), consists of correspondence, reports, and printed matter that document cooperation and disagreements within the Jewish community on issues and tactics used by the JCC to combat right wing activities. Subseries G, Master Files (1933-1950), consists of Roos’ reorganized JCC files used for collected information. Many of the general files contain cross-reference (or removal) sheets leading to a document located in the Master File. Subseries H, News Research Service (NRS) (ca. 1940-1950), consists of newsletters and other materials used to disseminate information collected by the JCC. Subseries I, Secular/Interfaith Cooperation Groups and Individuals (1938-1950), consists of materials that document JCC’s cooperation with the non-Jewish community on special projects and joint committees.

Finding Aid with Box List
Series I: Administration, 1940-1950
Series II: Fact Finding and Community Relations, 1933-1951