Central Relief Committee Dime Bank alongside newspaper clipping from the Washington Herald, "Dime Banks Will Aid Jews to Raise Funds"

Dime Savings Banks, also called "pocket banks" because of their conveniently small size, were designed to encourage contributions of even the smallest sums. Housewives would be reminded, through Central Relief Committee (CRC) advertisements in the Jewish press, to drop a coin in their banks at the end of each week. Responding to pleas for help from Jews at the outbreak of World War I, the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) was formed by Jewish relief groups representing the spectrum of Jews in America: the American Jewish Relief Committee (mostly German Jews); the (Orthodox) Central Committee for the Relief of Jews; and the People’s Relief Committee (labor groups). Contributions to JDC came from American Jews and non-Jews of all backgrounds, from well-established philanthropists to new immigrants to the U.S. from across the country.This newspaper article appeared in the Washington Herald on Sunday, December 26, 1915, detailing the creation of pocket dime banks to collect funds for the relief of Jewish war sufferers. Each bank bore a serial number so that the donors and amount collected could be recorded by the local treasurer of the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews suffering through the war, so that all collectors could be assured that their contributions would be distributed through the common fund of the JDC.