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In the early 1900’s large amounts of Romanian Jews fled to New York. The Rumanian Committee was organized in New York City as a result of this. The Committee’s aim was to help relocate the immigrants to other cities and help them find employment. The Rumanian Committee soon became the Industrial Removal Office (IRO), under the Jewish Agricultural Society. The IRO was a much broader organization and assisted any Jewish immigrant needing employment, regardless of nationality or origin. The IRO sought to help immigrants assimilate into American society, in addition to relocating them and helping them find work.
This database contains records of the Industrial Removal Office from 1899-1922. This includes administrative and financial records, statistical records, immigrants’ placement and removal records, Jewish life conditions surveys, and correspondence. Records may be written in either English or Yiddish.
The records have been organized into 11 series, according to record type. The series that will be most valuable to genealogists is Series II, so it is recommended that research begins there, before looking into the other series.
Ancestry.com has reproduced these records courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) where this collection is available on microfilm.