Central Jewish Organization (Boston, Mass.) Records

The Central Jewish Organization (originally called the Central Jewish Committe) was founded in 1909 in Boston Massachusetts, with Menahem Max Eichler, rabbi at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, serving as its first chairman. The organization was mainly concerned with the welfare of Jewish prisoners and their families and, through its Prisoner Aid Fund, provided monetary assistance to family members of prisoners and helped released prisoners find work and reestablish themselves in the community. Within prisons, the organization hosted Passover seders and, in 1909, hired Louis Alexander to serve as a prison chaplain. Additionally, the Central Jewish Organization, through its Education Committee, worked to improve teacher training, establish schools, and organize services for young adults, and through its Hospital Committee, visited patients in local hospitals who were unable to speak English.