Jewish Educational Loan Fund Records II

The Hebrew Orphans’ Home was originally known as the Hebrew Orphans’ Asylum. The Hebrew Orphans’ Home was located on Washington Street in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1889, the Home took in Jewish children from across the Southeastern United States. Although it ceased to be a residential facility in 1930, the Home continued to play an important role in Atlanta’s Jewish community by providing adoption and foster home services. Under the direction of Armand and Viola Wyle the Hebrew Orphans’ Home was based on a program of sound family casework supplemented by child placement only when necessary. The Hebrew Orphans’ Home developed from an institution into a children’s agency with a flexible program of casework and placement to meet the needs of Jewish children. The Hebrew Orphans’ Home subsidized children in their own homes to provide a stable family environment. The Hebrew Orphans’ Home felt that a happy childhood was the foundation for the mental and physical development of children into healthy, mature men and women able to face the responsibilities of life. During World War II, the Home was responsible for placing Jewish refugee children with foster families in Georgia and Alabama. This organization in now known as the Jewish Education Loan Fund.