EKOPO

EKOPO - Jewish Committee of Aid to the Victims of the War - society established in Russia in 1915 to aid Jews - victims of the war and of the pogroms. It was necessary to establish the society in the very first days of the war to aid a great number of the Jews that fled or were evacuated out of the war zone. The number increased abruptly because of anti-Jewish actions of the top command, particularly, because of banishing all the Jews out of Kovno and Kurland provinces (about 200,000 people). It was necessary to aid tens of thousands of the families of Jews-soldiers and the families suffered Jewish pogroms. EKOPO got material and organization aid from Russia's Jewish voluntary organizations (OPE, ORT, JCS) and from the Joint established in 1914. The activity of EKOPO included the care of the transporting of the refugees to new places of settlement, providing them with foods, cloths and lodging, medical aid, care of the children, finding job or financial aid, organizing professional classes. By the end of 1916, EKOPO had aided 240,000 Jews (full number of the refugees was 350,000). Russian authorities recognized EKOPO and even supported it (because political reasons). The representatives and agents of EKOPO were endowed with executive power. EKOPO kept the contacts with All-Russian Union of Cities and Zemstvos. After the October Revolution, during the civil war, EKOPO continued its operation and its Kiev branch had the main role in those years. In 1920, as Jewish Soviet Aid Organization (Evobshchestvkom) was established, EKOPO was merged into it. However, its Leningrad branch (LEKOPO) was abolished only in January 1930.