The Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden (Heb. Ḥevrat ha-‛Ezra li-Yehude Germanya) was established in 1901 in Berlin to alleviate the cultural, social, and political conditions of Jews in the Levant and Eastern Europe. Its operations in the “Orient” (i.e., the Ottoman Empire and especially Palestine) ceased by the end of World War I, and it was officially dissolved in 1939. Its welfare activities centered on Russia and Romania, but some took place in Ottoman lands and the Balkans, mainly during the Balkan War (1912) and World War I.
Most of the Hilfsverein’s educational operations cent…