The Joint Distribution Committee appropriated a total of $70,901,000 during 1948 in behalf of 750,000 Jews in 20 countries overseas, it was disclosed over the week-end in a year-end report made by Edward M.M. Warburg, chairman of the J.D.C.
Key factor to the progress of Europe’s Jews towards genuine revival in 1948, Mr. Warburg noted, was the increased opportunity for emigration. During the past year, 120,000 European Jews found new homes in Israel, the United States, Latin America and other lands. Israel alone absorbed 100,000 of these DP’s, he said. Mr. Warburg pointed out that the J.D.C. provided in-transit food, clothing and medical care and covered transportation costs for the great majority of the migrants, who came from displaced persons camps and other areas on the continent.
The emptying of the DP camps, now proceeding at the rate of more than 5,000 persons per month, was described by Mr. Warburg as the greatest single event in Europe affecting Jewish life abroad during 1948. A second great accomplishment during the past 12 months, the J.D.C. chairman said, was the restoration to full or partial self-support of l40,000 persons–breadwinners and their dependents. These persons are no longer on J.D.C. relief rolls as a result of the agency’s reconstruction program, which includes the operation of more than 250 producers and loan cooperatives, 190 vocational training centers and 370 agricultural training centers through-out Europe, he said.
The year just completed was marked by a substantial decrease in the number of persons requiring purely relief types of assistance, Mr. Warburg said. Total recipients of J.D.C. cash relief fell from 98,000 in 1947 to 56,000 in 1948. Similarly the number depending on the agency for their daily food dropped from 410,000 to 320,000, Despite these decreases, the J.D.C. is still heavily engaged in clothing and feeding Europe’s Jewish survivors, Mr. Warburg said, adding that over 72.000,000 pounds of supplies–valued at $15,820,000–was shipped abroad during 1948 by the committee.
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.
