{{improvereferences |date=April 2012}}

{{Orphan|date=October 2006|att=January 2012}}

{{Notability|date=January 2012}}

'''International Jewish Correspondence''' (IJC) was founded in [[Montreal]] by Barry Simon (a high school teacher) and sponsored by the [[Canadian Jewish Congress]]. The objective of IJC was to link Jews from wherever they lived with pen-pals in other parts of the world.<ref>Davis, James (January 9, 1987). [http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1987-01-09/features/8701020647_1_pen-pals-american-jewish-congress-simon "Canadian Teacher Brings Jewish Pen Pals Together"]. ''[[South Florida Sun-Sentinel]]''</ref>

== History ==

IJC was founded in 1978. Since its inception, IJC received thousands of letters from individuals and families while others sent IJC the names and addresses of their students, their friends or members of their class or youth group. Once in a while, a friend or family member of someone living in an Arab or Soviet Bloc country sent an address so that IJC could let them know that the Jews of the world were interested in their plight. At times, Jewish prisoners were given the IJC address so that they could write to others while behind bars. Amongst those who wrote over the years were youngsters aged 7 and retired persons. Many of the letters IJC received came from professional and business persons. The group which sent the largest number of letters were students of university and secondary school age.

The majority of the letters are in English, while others are written in French, [[Hebrew]], Spanish and [[Yiddish]]. Jewish populations in close to 20 countries participated in IJC, including some with dwindling Jewish populations, such as [[Estonia]], [[Morocco]] and [[Zimbabwe]]. In addition, IJC has in its files the addresses of Jewish organizations and the Jewish press in over 50 countries, from [[Burma]] to [[Monaco]], most of them having been contacted at one time or another to publish information about IJC.

IJC became less active as the Internet gained in popularity in the 1990s and had ceased operations by 2002.

==References==

<references />

[[Category:Friendship]]