Despite the fact that some 80,000 of Morocco’s original 250,000 Jewish inhabitants have emigrated, the need for Joint Distribution Committee help is greater than ever because of the disruption of economic life in the North African state and the drying up of other sources of assistance, Sam Haber, JDC director for Morocco, told the 11th annual JDC country directors conference today.
The parley, being held at UNESCO House here, opened last night and will continue until tomorrow. Some 150 welfare workers and community leaders from the United States and countries of Europe, Asia and Africa are attending the parley.
Henry Levy, director for Tunisia, said that the Jewish community of that Moslem country had been weakened by emigration since teachers, rabbis and other communal leaders had departed, “leaving no available replacements to carry on.”
The director for Iran, Abe Loskove, reported a growing interest on the part of the Teheran Government in the welfare of the 80,000 member Jewish community. He reported that the JDC is supporting 25 schools and kindergartens in Iran, providing supplementary feeding programs for nearly 6,000 children and clothing for nearly 7,000.
The parley was told that while JDC expenditures in European countries had dropped from 86 percent of the JDC budget in 1946 to 28 percent in 1956, during the same period expenditures for Jews in the Moslem countries rose from two to 25 percent and in Israel from one to 41 percent.
Charles H. Jordan, director general of the JDC, told the conference that the 1956 budget of $30 million was serving 166,000 men, women and children in 25 countries throughout the world. The next year will be “crucial,” Mr. Jordan warned, “we foresee far greater demands upon us than can be met from the probable sources of income.”
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.
