Elderly man eating lunch at JDC soup kitchen

In an atmosphere of growing openness in the Eastern bloc, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) returned to Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland and began to assist impoverished Holocaust survivors long beyond its reach. After an absence of 14 years, JDC returned to Poland in 1981. In its first year of operations, JDC helped establish a Coordinating Committee for Jewish Welfare, which subsequently provided cash relief, medical and religious supplies, cultural programs, kosher kitchens, and infrastructure support to over 5,000 elderly Jews.