The first group of new Sosua settlers since Italy’s entry into the war sailed for the Dominican Republic today on the steamship Coamo of the Porto Rico Line. They included 13 refugees who had been selected in Switzerland and arrived from Lisbon and five refugees who came here from England.
The five were part of a group of 35 selected in England by Sir Herbert Emerson who reached New York last Tuesday on the British liner Cameronia. The remaining 30 are lodged at the New York Association for Jewish Children, formerly the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, and will sail Saturday on the steamship Cherokee.
On hand for today’s departure of the Coamo were James N. Rosenberg, president of the Dominican Republic Settlement Association, and George L. Warren, executive secretary of the President’s Advisory Committee on Political Refugees and member of the executive committee of the United States Committee for Care of European Children. One of the refugees played gay tunes on an accordion as the ship sailed. Among the passengers was a two-and-a-half-year-old baby joining its mother in Ciudad Trujillo.
Among those present to see the ship sail were some of the refugees’ new-found friends from the Association. The faculty and officials of the Association have established a close relationship with the refugees. One of the refugees who arrived here hoping to find an uncle in New York discovered that his relative was a porter at the Association home. Another encountered an old schoolmate from Germany. One girl had three large crates of household goods in expectation of finding a husband in the Dominican Republic. Three of the refugees from England are non-Jewish.
Rosenberg made a statement to the J.T.A. pointing out that the refugees were, for the most part, poor and provided only with a minimum of equipment for subsistence. He appealed to interested persons and manufacturers to contribute clothing and household articles for the refugees arriving here, as well as for those already in the Dominican Republic, which, he said, could be sent duty free.
Rosenberg voiced gratitude to the Association for housing the refugees. In turn the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, which supports the Association, adopted a resolution expressing pleasure at being able to aid the refugees.
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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.
