German Committee for Freeing of Russian Jews explained

The German Committee for the Freeing of Russian Jews (German, 'Deutsches Komitee zur Befreiung der russischen Juden') was created in August 1914 by Max Bodenheimer^[1] with Franz Oppenheimer, Adolf Friedman and Leo Motzkin to lobby for the socio-political liberation of Jewish people living in the Russian Empire and ensure their protection from pogroms. In November 1914 it was renamed the Committee for the East.^[2]

The Committee was initially supported by the German Empire but as no Jewish insurrection arose against the Russians the Germans soon lost interest^[3]

Further reading

• Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte in der Neuzeit by Michael A. Meyer, Steven M Lowenstein, Michael Brenner, Mordechai Breuer, Leo Baeck Institute
• Dokumente zur Geschichte des deutschen Zionismus 1882-1933 by Jehuda Reinharz

Notes and References

1. McMeekin, Sean The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power p344 (2010)
2. Sirutavičius, Vladas and Staliūnas, Darius (editors) A Pragmatic Alliance: Jewish-Lithuanian Political Cooperation at the Beginning of the 20th Century Central European University Press (2011) p125
3. McMeekin, Sean The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power (2010) p346