More than 10,000 top Jewish leaders in 100 communities were told today over a telephone hook-up from here of the problems facing Israel in connection with the mass emigration of Jews from Rumania and of the decisions adopted here by the national conference of the United Jewish Appeal this week-end to mobilize maximum American Jewish aid for the transportation and settlement of the Rumanian Jewish immigrants in Israel.
The nationwide telephone report to community leaders throughout the country was presented by Morris W. Berinstein and Rabbi Herbert Friedman, UJA general chairman and executive vice chairman, respectively. Mr. Berinstein told the 10,000 listeners that “the thousands of newcomers to Israel every month find Israel’s 2,000,000 people ready to give them the greatest gift anyone can give–their home, their welcome, their every physical help. We in America are only asked to give our dollars. But we must give them more speedily and more generously than ever before in order to help UJA to cope with the giant needs presented by the huge emigration.”
Rabbi Friedman warned that there was evidence that already 100,000 of Rumania’s Jews had registered for emigration out of a total Jewish population of more than 250,000. He added: “The act of registration is a clear and positive indication that the individual wishes to go. Once a would-be immigrant registers, he does not have the option of changing his mind.”
Rabbi Friedman asked that Jewish communities throughout the land “give full philanthropic priority” to the needs of Israel’s new immigrants. “If there is any doubt in anyone’s mind how sorely funds are needed, let him remember that it will cost about $160,000,000 to receive and absorb 100,000 immigrants–$60,000,000 more than we seek in the UJA special fund this year,” he said.
The UJA executive head added: “Two months ago it was our hope to help tear down 30,000 tin huts and shacks which still house 120,000 of Israel’s earlier immigrants. Today, with the new and huge influx of Eastern European Jews pouring in at the rate of 8,000 a month or more, plans are being made to use these very same huts and shacks for the newcomers, if necessary. We must not let this necessity come to pass.”
(In Washington, Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr., New Jersey Democrat, expressed today his support to Israel’s effort to accommodate the new flow of immigrants from Rumania. At the same time, he announced that he is “actively exploring legislative possibilities” for introducing an emergency bill to admit a number of Jews from Rumania and other East European countries also to the United States. He said he is holding discussions on possible action, because he thought Jews from Rumania should be afforded the same chance to enter the U. S. as provided escapees from Hungary two years ago.)
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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.
