People in New York City line up to send funds to families in Europe and Palestine

During and following World War I, Americans who had relatives living in the war zones sought ways to send help to their families. The new wartime relief agency, the Joint Distribution Committee of American Funds for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers (JDC) created a special Transmission Bureau in September 1915 as a vehicle through which families in America could transfer funds to their relatives trapped in the war zone abroad. This project was the vision of Harriet Lowenstein, JDC’s first comptroller, who single-handedly ran the bureau until the high volume of demand required her to hire assistants. JDC later opened additional branch bureaus in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and San Francisco. From its earliest days, the Transmission Bureau line snaked out the door of the JDC main office. This branch office for the transmission of individual remittances was located at 98 Second Avenue in New York City (a neighborhood populated by immigrants). Relatives were able to deposit funds that could be sent directly to family in Europe and Palestine. Before the war’s end, over $600,000 was transferred, typically in small deposits of $5 or $10.