$11,000,000 in Cash Received by United Jewish Campaign on $20,500,000 Pledges

The sum of $11,000,000 in cash has already been remitted by communities throughout the United States and Canada to the office of the United Jewish Campaign, according to a statement issued by David A. Brown, national chairman. The amount subscribed toward the $25,000,000 United Jewish Campaign has reached the total of $20,500,000. The local campaigns were conducted in various parts of the country at different times during the last two years, and the payments against these subscriptions to the campaigns fall due in installmens covering a period of three years. The present collection of $11,000,000 in cash, therefore, represents a splendid response by American Jews toward the needs of the reconstructive work in behalf of jewry abroad, Mr. Brown stated.

"The amount so far forwarded to the treasury," Mr. Brown added, "While highly gratifying, has not covered the actual expenditures which the program of the Joint Distribution Committee requires.

"When the plight of European Jewry became highly critical in 1925, the Joint Distribution Committee was forced to resume its life-saving relief and reconstructive work on a large scale immediately, and in advance of the actual beginnings of the local campaigns. Building its confidence on the readiness of American Jews to help, as they had done throughout the previous history of this organization, the Joint Distribution Committee took the drastic step of borrowing money from the banks on the endorsement of officers of the organization and national leaders, in full expectation that the sums thus borrowed would, in due course, be collected during the campaign. That confidence was amply justified. According to the schedule of the dates when payments fall due in each locality, with very few exceptions, the various states and communities have so far remitted to the communities have so fare remitted to the national treasury the amounts counted upon. But as the program had to be started before the money collecti g effort was under way, the Joint distribution Committee at the present time has notes outstanding of over $700,000, which must be paid up from the present collections."

In addition to this debt, the requirements of the Joint Distribution Committee for its work in Russia, Palestine, Poland and other countries of Eastern Europe, run to about five hundred thousand dollars a month.

"This budget includes all the reconstruction activities, beginning with the settlement of thousands of Jewish families on the land in Russia, providing tens of thousands of families in Poland and other European countries with credit facilities, includes the care of orphans medical care, and provides aid for the cultural and religious needs of the younger generation. The life and future of our people depend on each of these activities, and a monthly budget of about $500,000 is the minimum requirement for this enormous task," Mr. Brown declared.

"If all the pledges due in the course of the next nine months are paid in regularly to the United Jewish Campaign, the Joint Distribution Committee will be in a position to meet its obligations this year. This is what we hope for. As we approach the summer months, we espectially urge all of the leaders in the communities to exert their greatest effort in the in the collection of these subscriptions. What cannot be done during the hot summer noths must be effectively gotten under way now. The work of the Joint Distribution Committee must continue in a regular, unhampered way and the Jewish communities in this country are in a position to furnish the support so urgently required by our people in Russia and throughout Eastern Europe."

In reply to inquiries that have come from many parts of the country as to whether another campaign was contempated in the immediate future, to raise the $5,000,000 required for the $10,000,000 fund for Russian colonization started by Julius Rosenwald’s $5,000,000 subscription, Mr. Brown stated that no campaign will be conducted, the funds being raised privately.

Mr. Brown stressed the point that there should be no confusion between the present $25,000,000 campaign and the $10,000,000 fund which is about to be raised.

The Joint Distribution Committee has already budgeted for Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Roumania, Palestine and other countries the entire funds which will be made available through the pledges made to the United Jewish Campaign organization throughout the country. None of the funds of this special $10,000,000 effort will be available for any other purpose than the colonization of Russian Jews.

The Joint Distribution Committee clearly understans that all the other activities carried on in Russia, aside from the colonization work, will have to be cared for by the Joint Distribution Committee.

Mr. Brown states that he hopes another great campaign such as the one being conducted at present will never again be necessary. But he believes that for some years to come a modest amount of relief may be necessary in many countries in which we are at present working. It is his hope that some method may be devised whereby a modest sum of approximately one million dollars per year can be raised, if necessary, for the five years beginning with 1929, without the strenuous and aggressive efforts of campaigning that have been so necessary in raising the much larger sums during the past 14 years.