Charles Jordan

Charles Jordan, the executive vice-president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) was found dead in the Vltava River in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on August 20th, 1967. Sharing excerpts from his book about Charles Jordan, Martin Smok will discuss the newly discovered information about his contacts with Prague and the Czechoslovak Jewish exiles in the United States.

Who was this executive of the most influential Jewish philanthropic organization of the time, a leading UN expert on refugee matters awarded with the French Légion d’honneur and the Norwegian Nansen Refugee Award? Why was he nicknamed Father of the Refugees? What kept him returning to enemy territory – the Communist and Arab countries? What kind of secret negotiations and rescue through ransom plans was he involved in? Why did he come to Prague in the summer of 1967, how exactly did he die? 

Martin Smok is a documentary filmmaker and independent researcher. Besides working as a consultant for the USC Shoah Foundation for over 20 years, Smok authored two documentary film trilogies examining modern history of Jewish presence in Czechoslovakia: Among Blind Fools, capturing the rescue through ransom negotiations in wartime Slovakia, and Between a Star and a Crescent, dedicated to the role of Communist Czechoslovakia in the Middle East. Smok also curated exhibitions examining the same subject: Hagibor – the Place and the People about the Hagibor location in Prague, site of a Jewish sporting ground, then a concentration camp and even later an internment camp in Prague; Shattered Hopes about the history of postwar return, migration and emigration of Jews through Czechoslovakia in 1945-1953; Stranded in Shanghai about the Czechoslovak refugee experience in the Hongkew ghetto; Through the Labyrinth of Normalization – Jewish Community as a Mirror for the Majority Society about the use and the impact of the Communist construct of a Jewish/Zionist enemy after the invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968; and The Jewish Community in Prague since 1945 until the Present Time, a permanent exhibition installed in the Jubilee synagogue in the Jerusalem street. 

Smork also authored a groundbreaking book dedicated to the history of Jewish presence in Konigliche Weinberge - Kralovske Vinohrady, a territory that currently is a part of Prague 2 district, and published a few other books, catalogues and articles. It was his interest in Jewish rescue through ransom negotiations during the WWII and their continuation into the Cold War period that brought him to the story of Charles Jordan some 15 years ago. His book A Mysterious Death in Prague, The Life and Times of the Father of the Refugees should have been published in Czech at the end of this year, which will not happen, due to the pandemic. 

The lecture will be presented live online on ZOOM. RSVP through Eventbrite to receive a Zoom link. It will be recorded and available on YouTube.

Suggested donation $10. 

The event is organized by the Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews, with support of BBLA.