The OZE-TOZ (Obshchestvo Zdravookhraneniia Evreev / Society for the Protection of the Health of the Jews)

Title: The OZE-TOZ (Obshchestvo Zdravookhraneniia Evreev / Society for the Protection of the Health of the Jews)

Inclusive Dates: 1904-1940

ID: RG 53

Extent Information

10"

Administrative/Biographical History

Established in 1912 in St. Petersburg by a group of Jewish doctors, lawyers, and prominent public figures, OZE sought to create an all-Russian Jewish welfare system with the goal of promoting the study and knowledge of medical and sanitary practices, detecting and curing diseases among Jews, preventing epidemics, and creating living conditions conducive to the normal physical and mental development of Jewish children.

Established in Poland, in 1921, TOZ remained closely associated with OZE, sharing the same program of activities. Because of World War I and its disarraying consequences, especially in the eastern regions of the Polish state, TOZ concentrated its relief efforts primarily on battling contagious diseases and epidemics caused by poverty, malnourishment, and the deplorable sanitary conditions of the Jewish population.

The OZE-TOZ Collection is comprised of documents that were assembled at the YIVO Archives in New York City. The Collection is of a mixed provenance and fragmentary nature, and consists of miscellaneous materials that relate to the activities of OZE and TOZ in Eastern Europe, and to some extent, in Western Europe.

Subjects (links to similar collections)

Belorussia
Charitable Activities
Children
Community Records
Germany
Health and Health Care
Latvia
Lithuania
Pogroms
Poland
Refugees
Russia
Social Welfare
Soviet Union
Summer Camps
Ukraine
United States
USSR
World War I

Languages of Materials

Yiddish
French
German
Latvian
English
Russian
Polish

Administrative Information

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Collection Material Type: Official Records

Description:

The collection includes materials pertaining to: OZE activities in Russia, and institutions organized by OZE personnel and sponsored by the JDC in Ukraine and Belorussia, during the Soviet period; activities organized by the OZE-OSE main office in Berlin, targeted mainly at Eastern European Jews, in the 1920s; activities organized by the Vilna OZE Branch and the Vilna TOZ Committee in the city of Vilna and Vilna region in the interwar period; mission of the OSE delegation in New York, in 1925, and its meetings with leaders of JDC and other Jewish relief organizations to gather support for OZE activities in Eastern Europe; OSE activities in Latvia (Riga, Rezekne and Liepaia) in the late 1930s.

The collection also includes miscellaneous records (related primarily to the OZE-TOZ branches in Vilna and the Vilna region).

The collection consists of reports, minutes of meetings, financial records, statistical surveys, posters, printed material, and medical records.

A large section of the collection consists of correspondence between OZE-OSE and TOZ main offices and local branches throughout Eastern Europe, correspondence to and from official state agencies and the Jewish organizations, and correspondence to and from Jewish doctors and leading figures active in the two Jewish organizations.

These include Dr. Naum Gergel (one of the founders of OZE in Berlin, member of the Executive Committee of OZE Berlin, and prominent member of Yidgezkom, ORT, and JDC), Dr. B. Dubinsky (prominent activist in the Riga OSE Committee from 1939-1940), and Dr. Tsemakh Szabad (chairman of the Vilna Branch of TOZ).

The collection provides information about the relation of OZE and TOZ with other Jewish relief organizations, most importantly with the JDC. In the late 1930s, in particular, OSE activities in Eastern Europe depended more and more on the financial support of the JDC.

The Vilna records, which represent a noteworthy section of the collection, provide valuable information about the collaboration between OZE and TOZ on the local level, the creation of a temporary OZE-TOZ Committee in the city and the final liquidation of OZE.

The Latvia records, which also make up for a considerable segment of the collection, provide information about OSE activities in the critical years 1938-1940, the attempt to coordinate Jewish relief from the Paris OSE Main Office, and the growing needs of the Jewish population of Latvia.

Overall, the material in this collection bears witness to the impressive number and variety of institutions and activities organized by OZE-OSE and TOZ to bring support to the Jewish population. These were all-embracing Jewish national organizations that strove to make available health care and social services to all Jews, without distinction of religious, cultural and political background. As the announcement for the “Week of TOZ” in Vilna read, “The Health Week must be our greatest propaganda effort because health is the most precious treasure for the individual and for the nation (folk).”

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