Society for the Protection of the Health of the Jewish Population (OSE): Jewish Humanitarian Mission for over 100 Years

Abstract

The essay’s primary purpose is to bring to the attention of readers interested in the history of the Jewish people that the dramatic 20th century is not only the victims of the Holocaust—and not only the heroism of the military on the battlefields. It is active resistance to barbarism—the rescue of defenseless people through daily civilian activities, nevertheless associated with a constant risk to life. This essay examines non-political and non-religious secular Jewish welfare society within Jewish political and national movements. Five historical periods of the activity of OSE are considered: 1912–1922; 1922–1933; 1933–1945; 1945–1950; 1950–present time. This chronological classification is somewhat imperfect; however, each period reflects the dynamic of functional changes in the initial tasks of the society to review the goals of the organization to satisfy the urgent needs of the European Jewish community in a debatable circumstance of the 20th–21st centuries.