We are deeply saddened to hear the news of Jerry Springer’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family.
Jerry Springer earned his fame through a life in politics, becoming elected Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1978, and presenting the well-known ‘Jerry Springer Show’ which was first aired in 1991. But Jerry was also a passionate supporter of World Jewish Relief’s work, attending annual dinners, using our archives to find out about his family history and our role in his parents’ rescue from Nazi Germany.
Jerry Springer’s Early Life
Jerry Springer was born in 1944 in London’s Highgate underground station, which was being used as a bomb shelter during WWII. After the war, when Jerry was just 5 years old, his family relocated to the United States.
Was Jerry Springer Jewish?
World Jewish Relief, then the Central British Fund (CBF) for German Jewry, rescued more than 40,000 people in the 1930s and 40s, including almost 10,000 children on the Kindertransports. As Jews living in Nazi Germany during the outbreak of war, Jerry Springer’s family had no choice but to flee.
How did World Jewish Relief help Jerry Springer?
World Jewish Relief rescued Jerry Springer’s parents and brought them to safety in the UK in 1939. 15 of his family members were tragically murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
In 2015, World Jewish Relief’s then Vice-Chair Linda Rosenblatt presented Jerry Springer with his parent’s immigration documents, stored in our archives which have the names of over 315,000 people and records for more than 65,000 people we supported at that time.
“I was deeply touched when I received the records of my parents’ immigration. These papers are a piece of family history which I will treasure forever.
I am delighted to support the organisation which helped my parents in 1939. World Jewish Relief is still doing critical life-saving work around the world some 70 years later.”
Jerry Springer and World Jewish Relief
In 2017, Jerry Springer graciously attended our Annual Business Dinner to speak with Emily Maitlis about his family history, the impact of the Holocaust on his family, and how World Jewish Relief saved his life.
“A general rule I always follow: if somebody saves my life, I’ll always show up at their dinner.”
You can watch the full, emotional interview here
“Many of us at World Jewish Relief had the pleasure of meeting Jerry Springer and we are deeply saddened by his passing. He was one of the most charismatic and sparkly speakers that we have had the good fortune to work with and he assisted World Jewish Relief to raise significant funding for our work. We were particularly glad that we could reunite him with his parent’s immigration records through our historic archives. Our thoughts go to his family at this sad moment.”
