"We are working for a healthy generation"

This poster advocating for a healthful life was produced in Berlin, Germany with funds from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). The Society for the Protection of Jewish Health in Poland –TOZ (Towarzystwo Ochrony Zdrowia ludnosci Zydowskiej w Polsce) was a Jewish organization established in Poland in 1921, derived from the Russian OZE organization (Obshchestvo Zdravookhraneniia Evreev), established in 1912. TOZ provided health care, especially for children, by establishing a network of infirmaries, sanatoriums, and clinics. It financed summer camps for children from poor families, popularized hygiene and sports, by issuing pamphlets, periodicals, and posters such as the artifact shown here. The conflicts and pogroms that took place during and after World War I brought disease, famine, and dislocation to hundreds of thousands of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in Poland. In response, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a humanitarian organization, dispatched delegations of doctors, public health experts, and social workers; established soup kitchens, reconstructed and equipped hospitals, supported orphanages, and sent food in convoys of trucks to hundreds of towns and villages in Poland.