The 1931 campaign committee for $20,000 to help the Jews of Europe and to build the new land of Israel invites all the Jews of Worcester to attend a mass meeting on Sunday evening May 21 1931 at the Bancroft Hotel Ballroom.

This flyer in Yiddish, prepared by Harold Gurwitz's father, the then owner of Mercantile Press was distributed to Jewish households in Worcester.

1931-Early pioneers in Palestine were beginning to settle the land and join other Jews who had lived on the land for close to 2,000 years, after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Jews living in Palestine under foreign rule

1931-Soon the darkest period in Jewish history-the Holocaust-would take the lives of millions of Jews.

Yet Jews in Worcester MA were raisng funds to support Jews in Europe and Palestine....in 1931!

Today 78 years later, with our Jewish world so different, we are still looking after those in need in Europe, Israel and at home.

The final sentences of that 1931 flyer read:

We all know that times are very bad in America
We might not be able to give as much as we did in the past, but everyone must give as much as they can to improve the situation of our sisters and brothers who are waiting for our help.