Mrs. Hassenfeld was the first female president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ( JDC ) , from 1988 to 1992 . In this position , she helped to found the International Development Program ( IDP ) , a non-sectarian emergency aid organization , in response to the December 1988 Armenian earthquake . The charter flights bringing severely injured earthquake victims to Israel marked the first time that the JDC offered crisis help to non-Jews . Also in 1988 , she oversaw the JDC 's return to the Soviet Union , the first time the organization had been in the Soviet Union since the dissolution of the Agro-Joint in 1938 . Hassenfeld , through the JDC , was involved with the rescue of Serbs , Croats , Muslims , and Jews from Sarajevo during the Breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and aided Jewish outreach in Central and Eastern Europe , including the resettling in various countries of Jews leaving after the break-up of the Soviet Union . She also oversaw JDC operations in the Middle East and Africa , most dramatically the 1991 Operation Solomon airlift rescue of over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews , bringing them to settle in Israel
1988 Armenian earthquake
1988 Armenian earthquake
Sylvia Hassenfeld