The Joint Distribution Committee adopted a budget of $29,935,000 for 1975 to finance its aid programs that reach 400,000 needy Jews throughout the world. The budget was approved by more than 500 Jewish community leaders from the U.S. and Canada attending the JDC’s annual meeting at the New York Hilton Hotel.
Jack D. Weiler of New York, who was elected JDC chairman, succeeding Edward Ginsberg of Cleveland who had served in that post for three years, said that more than a third of the JDC budget will be used in Israel where the agency serves about 120,000 people.
He explained that the JDC will be called upon to expand its health and welfare services in that country because of Israel’s heavy defense burdens in addition to providing for the security and well-being of its people and for the tens of thousands of Soviet Jews who will be arriving in 1975.
Weiler reported that in Western Europe, the JDC’s emphasis will be on helping the French Jewish community integrate large numbers of newcomers, mainly from North Africa, and in the caring and maintenance of transmigrants in Italy and Austria. He said these programs will cost $3,790,000 and will aid some 70,000 people.
Expressing a fervent hope for peace in the Middle East. Weiler declared: "What greater boon could there be for the State of Israel than an era of peace in which to build and provide secure homes and the good things of life for its people and for the tens of thousands of Soviet Jews who will be coming in during 1975?"
400,000 JEWS AIDED IN 1974
Reporting on JDC programs in 1974, the agency’s 60th anniversary, Samuel L. Haber, executive vice-chairman, said that by the end of this year JDC will have aided some 400,000 Jews in 25 countries overseas at a cost of about $30,554,000.
JDC programs in Israel accounted for one third of the agency’s total expenditure for 1974, about $10 million. Haber said. The bulk of it was for the JDC/Malben program which provides a variety of health and rehabilitation services to the aged, handicapped and mentally ill, and helping to overcome the shortage of professional personnel through manpower training programs.
In addition, Haber reported that $1 million has been earmarked for aid to yeshivot and cultural and religious institutions and programs in Israel A third program is the Brookdale Institute of Gerontology and Adult Human Development. Another large allocation was for ORT.
PROGRAMS IN EUROPE, ARAB LANDS
Aside from helping Jews in Western Europe, JDC also has regular operations in Rumania and Yugoslavia. In the former country JDC programs aid some 16,000 of the 85,000 Jews remaining there, Haber said. In Yugoslavia about 700 Jews 10 percent of the country’s Jewish population, are aided by JDC-supported programs.
In addition, Haber reported, a relief-in-transit program. initiated about 25 years ago, provides assistance to tens of thousands of Jewish families in the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia.
In Arab and Moslem countries and in North Africa some 37,000 Jews are assisted by the JDC. These countries include Morocco, Tunisia, Iran. Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Algeria.
The Jewish population in the Arab and Moslem countries has declined from about 1,000,000 just after World War II to a little over 100,000 in 1974, Haber reported. Of these, about 37,000 Jewish men, women and children are being assisted in a variety of health, welfare and educational programs. In Morocco, more than half of the remaining Jewish population of 22,000 are being aided. In Tunisia, where the community has declined from about 100,000 in 1946 to about 8000 in 1974, close to 3000 are aided in one or another JDC-supported program.
Only in Iran has the Jewish population remained fairly stable–about 75,000, Haber reported. A small number–about 1000-2000 who emigrate each year are replaced by normal population growth. About 19,000 Iranian Jews are aided by a broad range of JDC-supported programs.
Referring to the program in Rumania, Haber said that it "has been seriously hampered by the revaluation of the Rumanian lei, the depreciation of the American dollar and rising costs generally. The total effect has been to reduce the value of the $2.5 million JDC allocated to Rumania for 1974 by over 25 percent."
WEILER ACTIVE IN JEWISH COMMUNITY AFFAIRS
Weiler has been active as a worker and leader of many local, national and international Jewish organizations. He has served as national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal for 23 years, was chairman of the UJA of Greater New York for 14 years, and continues as honorary chairman of the Real Estate Division. He has served as vice-chairman of the JDC for 13 years and as chairman of the JDC National Council for seven years.
Weiler is national treasurer of the UJA, national secretary-treasurer of the State of Israel Bond Organization, a former vice-president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, and an officer of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the New York Board of Rabbis. He is chairman of the board of Swig, Weiler and Arnow Management Co. Inc., a real estate investment company.
Judge Nochem S. Winnet of Philadelphia was elected chairman of the JDC’s National Council, succeeding Weiler who held that post previously.
CORRECTION
A story in the Dec. 11 Daily News Bulletin on Soviet emigration reported on page 2 that Jewish sources in Vienna said that 1100 of 1700 Jews permitted to leave the USSR in November decided not to go to Israel after they reached Vienna. The report should have stated that 1100 went to Israel and that 600 did not.
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.
