A plea for long-range financing of relief and rehabilitation programs in stricken Jewish communities was voiced here today by Charles Jordan, director general of the Joint Distribution Committee, as the only effective method to insure permanent recovery.
Addressing the closing session of the four-day JDC country directors meeting, Mr. Jordan said that he was confident that in the future, as in the past, American Jewry through the United Jewish Appeal, would “rise to emergencies and surpass themselves in generosity.” However, he insisted that “if any single conclusion can be reached from this conference, it is that in order to really solve the problems that we are beset with there is a need for a long-term plan.”
Mr. Jordan’s remarks were made to the 120 JDC and other Jewish welfare leaders at the parley and a party of United Jewish Appeal leaders, headed by JDC chairman Edward M. M. Warburg, which arrived here today for conferences with JDC officials. The party, a “study mission,” is going on to Israel and returning the support to communities throughout the country in advance of the 1959 UJA goal-setting parley.
Earlier, Louis Horowitz, JDC director for Israel, indicated that Malben, the JDC welfare and rehabilitation set-up in Israel, would change its policy direction in the coming year. Noting that Malben was organized nearly a decade ago as an emergency service to give medical and welfare assistance to massive numbers of ill and dislocated refugees, Mr. Horowitz said that the point had been reached where Malben and its clients were ready for more personalized service. The Malben program is the JDC’s largest, with more than 36,600 clients and a budget equal to 40 percent of the JDC’s worldwide budget.
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.
