Varied Relief Problems Discussed at Conference of Jewish Welfare Leaders

Problems of Jewish relief and rehabilitation as well as services for Jews in the armed forces, were discussed here at round-table conference at the 10th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds which closed its three-day meeting last night.

Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, national president of the United Palestine Appeal, disclosed that the Jewish Agency for Palestine has undertaken to arrange the settlement in Palestine of 6,000 Jewish refugee children now in North Africa. Details of the assistance which Jewish men in the American armed forces in North Africa are receiving from the Jewish Welfare Board were reported by Frank L. Weil, president of the JWB and vice-president of the USO. He declared that the Jewish Welfare Board is extending its service program to men in the armed forces in England, Ireland, Australia and in many areas in the Pacific.

Joseph C. Hyman, executive vice-president of the Joint Distribution Committee, revealed that the JDC aided 795,000 Jews in all corners of the world in 1942, adding that even a larger number will require assistance this year. William Rosenwald, president of the National Refugee Service, pointed out, in his address, that “refugee boys who once benefited from the assistance of American Jews are now serving in the country’s armed forces.”

At a symposium on post-war Jewish problems held at the Assembly the speakers urged post-war equity for European Jews, to be guaranteed by an international covenant and the relaxation of immigration restrictions, especially the opening of the gates of Palestine to Jewish immigration. Max Gottschalk, director of the Research Institute on Peace and Post-War Problems of the American Jewish Committee, envisaging a large post-war migration, said that in addition to Palestine other outlets must be sought, particularly in South American republics which need both manpower and capital in order to develop socially and economically. Jacob Robinson, director of the Institute for Jewish Affairs of the American Jewish Congress, said that there is no assurance that anti-Semitism will automatically disappear at the end of the war. World leaders, he stated, must come to a decision concerning the re-emigration of the people uprooted by the war.

Emanuel Neumann, a member of the American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs, speaking at the round table conference, characterized the attempts to freeze the Jewish population of Palestine as a minority as ” a continuance of pre-war appeasement.” Charles Sherman, of the Jewish Labor Committee, said that “not only must Jews be guaranteed equal rights after the war, but conditions must be created to carry these rights into practice.”