Pat, Jacob, 1890-1966

Jacob Pat was born in Bialystok, Russian Empire, in 1890. He served as the General Secretary of the Jewish Labor Bund's Central Association of Yiddish Schools in Warsaw, Poland in the years preceding World War II. A prolific journalist, Pat was both writer and editor for various Bundist publications. A fund-raising trip in the fall of 1938 brought Jacob Pat to New York City as a representative of the Bund schools. Worsening conditions forced hi to remain in the United States, and separated him from his family.

In the United States, Pat devoted himself to anti-Nazi activity and rescue work. In 1941, he becae the Executive Secretary of the Jewish Labor Comittee, a position he held until his retirement in 1963. He also served as a member of the Delegation of the Jewish Labor Bund to the U.S., from 1938 to 1947, as a chairman of the Congress of Jewish Culture, and as co-editor of Zukunft. In 1946 he toured displaced persons camps and visited with communities of Jewish survivors in France and Eastern Europe. He was a frequent contributor to the Jewish press both in Yiddish and English, and published a number of books.

...