American Jews Contributed $82,000,000 for Rescue Work During Five Years of War

In the five-year period since the outbreak of world War II, Jews in 4200 communities throughout the United Stated contributed a total of $82,000,000 to the United Jewish Appeal in a concerted effort to save large numbers of Jews in European lands from annihilation by the Nazi regime, says a report on war rescue operations since September 1, 1939, made public today by Rabbi James G. Heller, William Rosenwald, and Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, national chairman of the U.J.A.

During the past five years, the report states, the Joint Distribution Committee appropriated the sum of $47,530,900 for a world-wide rescue and relief program during which it helped 79,000 Jewish men, women, and children escape from Europe to havens of safety in the Western Hemisphere and Palestine.

As the major haven for refugees fleeing from hate-ridden lands, Palestine has absorbed more than 55,000 Jews with the aid of the United Palestine Appeal during the five years of war. A total of $48,102,000 was spent in Palestine by the agencies receiving their American support through the United Palestine Appeal for the establishment of 39 agricultural settlements, the adjustment of new immigrants, the development of 400 war industries, the acquisition of 228,102 dunams of land, and for aid in the enrollment of more than 50,000 Jewish men and women in the British armed forces and Palestine Home Guard.

For the program of adjustment and integration aid for large numbers of the 215,000 Jewish refugees who have found a haven in the United States since the beginning of the Nazi regime, the National Refugee Service spent a total of $11,837,200 in the past five years. With the entry of the United States into the war, this agency devoted its energies to retraining the newcomers to share in the war effort both on the production and battle fronts.

In outlining the rescue activities of the agencies of the United Jewish Appeal, Rabbi Heller, Mr. Rosenwald, and Rabbi Wise pointed out that the rapid progress of the Allied armies is speeding the beginning of the era of reconstruction and the end of the era of destruction for Jews and other peoples on the European continent. They emphasized that as the prison walls set up by the Germans are torn down by the advancing forces of the United Nations, the road is being cleared for large-scale rehabilitation effort which will tremendously increase the needs of the United Jewish Appeal and its constituent agencies.