'A brand plucked out of the fire': the distribution of heirless Jewish cultural property by Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., 1947-1952

In 1947 the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. (JCR) was set up by the Office of Military Government , United States to take primary responsibility for identifying internationally heirless Jewish cultural property collected and warehoused by the American Military Government in its post-war zone of Germany. Their objective was to build up and add to existing communities elsewhere rather than reconstructing those that had been destroyed. The JCR catalogued the items and distributed them to Jewish communities in Israel, Great Britain, Continental Europe and Scandinavia, Canada, Latin America and South Africa.