The fate of more than 20,000 Jewish DP’s, who have waited five long years in Europe’s bleak DP camps for an opportunity to rebuild their broken lives in the United States, today rests in the hands of the American Jewish Community, Walter Bieringer, president of United Service for New Americans, emphasized in an emergency appeal to American Jewish community leaders.
The new DP bill, which has already passed the House and Senate and is now being reviewed by a committee representing both bodies of Congress prior to its enactment, will enable at least 20,000 more Jewish DP’s to reach the United States by June, 1951. This number is in addition to the 25,000 anticipated for 1950, Mr. Bieringer said.
Mr. Bieringer warned, however, that unless American Jewish communities immediately provided job and housing assurances for 10,000 Jewish DP families, they will be ineligible for admission to this country. “This means,” said Mr. Bieringer, “that the Jews of America will decide within the next few weeks whether these DP’s can come to this country where they may live in peace and dignity or whether they will be doomed to longer periods of frustration, homelessness, and misery.”
In addition to the campaign in communities already participating in the United Service resettlement program, Mr. Bieringer issued a plea to leaders of smaller communities which have not yet undertaken to share the responsibilities of resettling Jewish survivors. “No community, small or large, can avoid the great American tradition of offering refuge to the downtrodden,” he wrote.
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.
