History & Goals

The Ladies Auxiliary was founded in 1947 by Edie Wolf, an army nurse, who became the first Auxiliary President. Co-founders of the organization were Shirley Hollenberg, a navy "wave," who became corresponding secratary and Elaine Lustig, an army wife who became treasurer. At that time, their main objective was to support the U.S. servicemen and servicewomen, and their most important project was the frequent visitation to patients at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Wilkes-Barre, PA. In addition to the visits, the Auxiliary Volunteers wrote letters, played checkers, served food, provided entertainment and sponsored holiday parties.

The original purpose of the formation of the Jewish War Veterans and the Auxiliary was to promote and assist the Jewish Veterans in all of their veterans programs. Today, the goals of our organization are to support all United States Veteran's causes and to continue to enable Jewish War Veterans and auxiliaries to lobby and support veterans causes on a national level.