The Reich Association of Jewish Frontline Soldiers at Kurfürstendamm 200

In February 1919, the Reichsbund Jüdischer Frontsoldaten (RjF) was founded in Berlin. The Reichsbund was based at Kurfürstendamm 200.

The RjF had set itself the goal of actively countering the anti-Semitism that was widespread in all sections of the population and protecting Jewish soldiers and veterans. In addition, it defended the legal and social equality of Jewish people in Germany and appealed to governments during the Weimar Republic to take more decisive action against anti-Semitic accusations and discrimination.

In order to achieve these goals, the RjF carried out extensive educational work and organized meetings and lectures. Another central task was to support Jewish veterans and their relatives who needed financial help or assistance in finding work. This help was provided both in the form of financial donations and benefits in kind, such as gifts for the children of veterans on public holidays or the provision of warm winter clothing.

Another field of activity was the organization of commemorative ceremonies in honour of the Jewish fallen of the First World War. The activities of the RjF were reported on in the magazine Der Schild, which initially appeared monthly and from 1934 even weekly.

The RjF was committed to the idea of a Germany with strong Jewish participation. When compulsory military service was reintroduced in 1935, the founder Leo Löwenstein&nbspadvocated the admission of Jewish soldiers to military service, but without success. The RjF was close to the bourgeois Central-Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubensnahe and saw itself as a non-partisan representation of interests.

After the November pogroms of 1938 the RjF was forcibly dissolved.