\nHIAS in partnership with the American Jewish Historical Society, archivists at
\nAJHS will organize, describe and make available to the public more than a
\nthousand boxes of historical administrative files (primarily 1955-1990s). These
\nfiles document the work of HIAS staff and lay leadership as they fulfilled the
\nHIAS mission to rescue and resettle refugees and migrants. In addition, this
\nproject includes the creation of a database of clients who registered with HIAS
\nbetween 1955 and 2000; it is\u00a0 accessible via a search screen, through
\nwhich former HIAS clients, genealogists and family members are able to
\ndetermine whether HIAS holds restricted case files on specific people. Learn
\nmore at the HIAS Project Page: http:\/\/www.ajhs.org\/hias-home<\/a>.<\/p>\n
![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/78.media.tumblr.com\/25d7e78e13ef78f40a966bfee0e46aba\/tumblr_inline_ouudiaZIjV1r0yq0k_540.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nHIAS Letterhead from
\nthe 1952 Annual Report<\/p>\n
<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid
\nSociety, or HIAS, is an amalgamation of the many Jewish immigrant aid societies
\nwhich operated between about 1880 through 1950\u2014from the mass emigration of
\nEastern European Jews to the United States, to the crises in Europe, the Middle
\nEast, and North Africa before, during, and after World War II.<\/p>\n
HIAS, in its official reports and publications
\ndating from 1911 onward, claims to have been founded in years ranging from 1870
\nto 1884. An Annual Report from 1911 set the founding date at 1888, while an annual report from 1914 gives 1908-1909. Documents from 1948, 1954, 1959, and 1964 all claim 1884 as
\nthe founding date. Yet, 1884 does not correspond to any identifiable late
\nnineteenth century Jewish aid organization. HIAS presently\u2014according to their
\nwebsite\u2014uses 1881 as their founding date.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The HIAS Archives team\u2014tasked with
\nprocessing the last 60 years of HIAS\u2019 institutional archives\u2014looked back
\nthrough our records, along with the earlier HIAS records
\nin the custody of the YIVO Institute, and secondary sources, to determine the
\nveracity of these dates. Through our research, we determined that 1882 is the most
\naccurate date of the organization\u2019s founding; our conclusion is corroborated in
\nhistorian Mark Wischnitzer\u2019s Visas to Freedom: the History of HIAS<\/i>. <\/p>\n
To arrive at this conclusion, we had to look very closely at HIAS continued on, After the war, HICEM Today, it is simply \u201cHIAS.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthe immigrant aid societies formed by (primarily German) Jews to receive the ever-increasing
\nnumbers of their Eastern European coreligionists. And the picture which emerged
\nfrom our research is not of
\na singular organization working to aid new arrivals, but an ad-hoc collection
\nof groups, quickly forming and merging and re-merging in response to the unique
\nchallenges encountered by the new arrivals. The earliest of these
\norganizations was the first Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society, established in 1870.
\nThe Russian Emigrant Relief Committee was established in 1881, and the second Hebrew
\nEmigrant Aid Society formed out of said organization later that year. The
\nHebrew Emigrant Auxiliary Society\u2014which Wischnitzer refers to as \u201cthe nearest
\napproach to a parent organization of HIAS\u201d\u2014was founded in 1882.[1]<\/a>\n<\/p>\n
\nabsorbing related immigrant aid organizations in Baltimore, Boston, and
\nPhiladelphia. In 1927 it joined forces with the Jewish Colonization Association
\n(the JCA and\/or ICA), and the Jewish Emigration Committee of Europe, known as
\nEmigdirect, to form HICEM. HICEM acted as HIAS\u2019 international arm, and was
\ninstrumental in their work conducted during the Second World War. <\/p>\n
\ndissolved, and individual overseas HIAS offices took over the complex task of
\nresettling the Jewish survivors and Displaced Persons of Europe, and later, of
\nthe Middle East and North Africa. In 1954, HIAS merged with the United Service
\nfor New Americans (USNA), and the Migration Department of the American Jewish
\nJoint Distribution Committee to form the United HIAS Service. <\/p>\n