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Charles H. Jordan

American activist, diplomat and humanitarian worker (1908-1967)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ21601067
Source-derived summary

Charles Harold Jordan (born February 7, 1908, died August 16–20, 1967) was an American Jewish humanitarian who worked as the executive vice president for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee until his death.

Jordan moved from the United States to Germany as a child. As an adult, he fled to Prague after being attacked by his wife's Nazi-brother, before returning to the U.S.. His work took him to Cuba, China, France, and Switzerland.

He died in Prague in 1967 amidst unclear circumstances. Czechoslovak authorities stated that Jordan died by drowning in the Vltava River and alleged suicide. However, Czechoslovak defector Josef Frolík reported in 1974 that Jordan died in the Egyptian embassy in Prague, at the hands of Palestinian interrogators after being abducted. He was posthumously awarded the Nansen Refugee Award in 1968.

Life

Jordan was born in Philadelphia on February 7, 1908, to Jewish parents Hertha and R. Alfred Jordan. After the breakup of his parents, his mother took him and his sister to Berlin, where he attended school.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Charles H. Jordan” as american activist, diplomat and humanitarian worker (1908-1967). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Charles, Jordan and American.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1908, 1967, 1974, 1968—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1908, 1908-02-07—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Charles, Jordan and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Charles H. Jordan”, the useful work is to connect “american activist, diplomat and humanitarian worker (1908-1967)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21601067. VIAF identifies the subject as 39002853. The Library of Congress control number is no98133403. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1908, 1967, 1974 and 1968.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Charles H. Jordan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.