The launching of a nation-wide campaign to raise a fund of $3,000,000 for reconstructive relief of Jews still remaining in Germany will take place tonight in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Astor. James G. McDonald, High Commissioner for German Refugees, will be among the speakers.
The gathering was called by Paul Baerwald and Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, representing the Joint Distribution Committee, together with Louis Lipsky and Morris Rothenberg, representing the American Palestine Campaign. The campaign will consolidate the efforts of both organizations, and a large portion of the funds raised will be used to cooperate with High Commissioner McDonald in settling refugees from Germany in other countries.
A portion of the money raised will be allotted to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for the continuance of its work. This committee cooperates with the Central Jewish Committee for Relief and Reconstruction, a German organization, in offering economic aid to Jews still in Germany. The money will be used to educate “white-collar” people in the manual trades, establish loan and credit facilities for merchants and tradesmen, train Jewish youths barred from professional careers, and establish schools for Jewish children forced to leave German institutions. In addition, the Committee aids the destitute Jewish communities of Eastern Europe.
WILL AID REFUGEE CHILDREN
The American Palestine Campaign, which will also benefit from the funds raised, will be enabled to supply additional funds to the Central Bureau for the Settlement of German Jews in Palestine, which has already aided 10,000 refugees to settle there. It will also to enabled to continue its aid to middle-class Jewish families in Germany to embark in industrial and commercial enterprises by establishing mortgage banks and other credit facilities for them. Part of the funds will be used to bring 4,450 German Jewish children to Palestine in order to prepare them for self-supporting careers.
In a statement yesterday, High Commissioner McDonald described the unified fund raising effort as the fulfillment of a hope that he has entertained since the first meeting of the High Commission at Lausanne last December.
“The plight of the Jewish men women and children, who through no fault of their own, are today homeless and desperately uncertain of the future, is one of the gravest problems facing mankind. The issues involved are as broad as humanity itself,” Mr. McDonald said.
“The problems created by the situation in Germany are complicated. Their solution involves aiding the Jews still in Germany to maintain their cultural and racial institutions and their associations of relied and rehabilitation, the absorption of portions of the refugees in countries where they now find themselves, and the settlement of thousands of German Jews in Palestine and other countries whose doors the High Commission is endeavoring to open to them.”
Mr. McDonald will be one of the principal speakers at tonight’s gathering. His address will be broadest over the WJZ network of the National Broadcasting Company. Other speakers will be Morris Rothenberg, Paul Baerwald and Rabbi Jonah B Wise. Federal Judge Julian W. Mack will preside.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
