A budget of $10, 081, 000 for 1960 disbursements was approved here today at the closing session of the board of directors of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
The budget, as proposed by Jacob Blaustein, senior vice-president, and approved by the board, includes an allocation of $7, 781, 241 for relief and rehabilitation of victims of Nazism; and $1, 852, 350 for reconstruction of cultural and educational institutions destroyed during the Nazi regime.
In the relief and rehabilitation portion of the budget are included grants to organizations aiding needy victims of Nazism in South America and Australia; and allocations to organizations in 30 countries aiding about 125, 000 beneficiaries. The cultural and educational grants will aid the reconstruction of Jewish schools, Talmudic seminaries and academies, including also appropriations for scholarships, research, fellowships, documentation centers, and events commemorating the catastrophes for which the Nazis were responsible.
Mr. Blaustein warned the Conference that Jewish communities throughout the world must plan to shoulder their own welfare needs entirely in the near future, since the monies allocated to the Conference from West German reparation funds will terminate in 1963.
This year, as in the past, Mr. Blaustein reported, there were about 400 applications for funds, totaling requests from Jewish organizations in 30 countries for more than $20, 000, 000. “Confronting these great demands, ” he declared, “is the inescapable fact that Conference funds are fixed at about $10, 000, 000 year after year. “
Only about $50, 000, 000 more remains to be paid to the Conference in the next five years, Mr. Blaustein pointed out. He expressed the hope that the Jewish organizations around the world, serving the needy victims of Nazism “will manage, during the coming half-decade, to bridge the gap between local income and expenditures.”
LEAVIT REPORTS ON DISBURSEMENTS OF CONFERENCE FUNDS IN 1959
Moses A. Leavitt, treasurer of the Claims Conference, reported that the Conference disbursed $10, 122, 239 in 1959. Of the total, he said, $5, 850, 000 went toward a program of capital investments for buildings in Jewish communities around the world, which contributed equal amounts for their local community centers, welfare headquarters, homes for the aged, and other permanent institutions, which were needed to replace those institutions destroyed by the Nazis.
The Conference also distributed $1, 795, 000 for cultural and educational reconstruction, including $124, 000 for research and commemoration projects. Most of this money said the treasurer, went to advance Jewish education in schools and Talmudic activities. A special grant of $150, 000 was given for scholarships and fellowships.
Included among the capital investment projects on which Mr. Leavitt reported from community center in Brussels, Belgium; a community center, synagogue and honored the aged in Denmark; community centers in Grenoble, Lyons and Strasbourg, Frankfurt a mental hospital, synagogue and community center in Holland; a home for the aged in Florence, Italy; and a community center and synagogue in Madrid, Spain.
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.
