Jewish Welfare Board at Camp Dix - 1918

Building of the Jewish Welfare Board

When the Camp was young, one of the first men we had the pleasure of meeting was Cyrus Janover,  Camp Dix representative of the Jewish Welfare Board. He was in Camp when the first selected men arrived, on September 5, 1917.

Janover was popular in Camp not only with the men of his own race, but everyone else. He maintained his grand headquarters at YMCA hut No. 2, where religious meetings were held for the members of the Hebrew race every Friday evening.

Interesting though the work in Camp certainly was, Janover felt a higher and nobler call and the Camp lost him to a better cause when he joined the men in uniform.

With the coming of spring, the increased number of their men in Camp, the Board decided to build for themselves one of the so-called huts. This building, shown in the above illustration, was completed just before the signing of the armistice.

The building was designed along architectural lines quite different from any of the other huts m Camp. It is provided with the usual reading and rest room, offices and sleeping headquarters for the staff. It is centrally located on New Jersey Avenue, just below the post office and about midway between the two ends of the Camp.

The three or four Secretaries who wear the Camp Welfare uniform similar to that worn by the Knights of Columbus and YMCA men, with the double triangle insignia on the coat sleeve and cap, are on hand at all times to assist anyone who calls, and they heartily co-operate with all other Camp and community organizations.

Owing to the lateness of its arrival in force, the work of the Jewish Welfare Board has been less known than that of the other welfare organizations, but it managed to keep in close touch with the members of the Hebrew race; providing home hospitality and entertainment for the boys on furlough and pass. The YMCA in Philadelphia and New York and their building in Trenton have done noble work during the great war.