Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee (JAFRC) was a nonprofit organization to provide humanitarian aid to refugees of the Spanish Civil War. History In 1941, the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee was formed by Lincoln Battalion veterans of the Spanish Civil War to provide aid to Spanish Loyalists refugees from Francoist Spain. JAFRC superseded previous groups, including the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy and American Medical Bureau (the latter of which Barsky had founded in 1936). Specifically, JAFRC was "dedicated to the rescue and relief of thousands of anti-fascist fighters trapped in Vichy, France, and North Africa" so that they might "return to the active fight against the Axis." JAFRC established a fundraising organization called "Spanish Refugee Appeal" of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee." Dorothy Parker took charge of the committee's fundraising and the anti-fascists soon attracted the support of Leonard Bernstein, Albert Einstein, Lillian Hellman, Langston Hughes, and Orson Welles. In 1942, it was licensed to do so in Vichy France by President Franklin Roosevelt's wartime administration, and the anti-fascists were then granted tax-exempt status. In 1946, the JAFRC began to face nearly-constant attack from federal government organizations. In 1948, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now the Internal Revenue Service) rescinded JAFRC's tax-exempt status. Thereafter, the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) tried to force JAFRC to register as a communist front organization. In April 1951, Allan Rosenberg successfully argued for the complainant Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee in Anti-Fascist Committee v. McGrath before the US Supreme Court. In 1955, the JAFRC board voted to disband. People Leaders According to letterhead dated March 17, 1944, leaders included: Walter Rautenstrauch, National Honorary Chairman Edward K. Barsky, National Chairman Lyman R. Bradley, National Treasurer Helen R. Bryan, National Secretary National Sponsors included: Dr. Comfort A. Adams Rabbi Michael Aper Dr. Hery Lambert Bibby James L. Brewer Dr. Walter B. Cannon Prof. Richard T. Cox Martha Dodd Julien Duvivier Dr. Frederick May Eliot Dr. Henry Pratt Fairchild Lion Feuchtwanger Prof. Irving Fisher Prof. Mitchell Franklin Rev. Stephen H. Fritchman Prof. Marion Hathaway Kenneth Leslie Princess Helga zu Loewenstein Dr. Robert Morss Lovett Prof. Kirtley F. Mather Philip Merivale Rt. Rev. Edward L. Parsons Prof. Renato Poggioli Dr. Francis M. Pottenger Paul Robeson Prof. Harlow Shapley Dalton Trumbo Dame May Whitty Dr. Max Yergan Members Moses Fishman Mark Straus MD Arthur Szyk (alleged) Spanish Refugee Appeal supporters Appeal Officers: Pablo Picasso, Honorary Chair Dorothy Parker, Chairman