200,000 Jews Overseas Will Need J.D.C. Aid This Year, Report Says

The Joint Distribution Committee must aid a minimum of 200,000 needy Jews in Israel, Europe and Moslem countries during 1952, at a cost of $23,507,300, it was emphasized by Moses A. Leavitt, executive vice-chairman of the J.D.C., in the annual report of the organization issued today.

Mr. Leavitt reported that the J.D.C. spent $21,555,550 during the past year. With this sum it aided 90,000 Jewish children in Morocco, Tunisia, Tripolitania. Iran and other countries of the Moslem world, provided urgently needed food or cash grants to nearly 100,000, medical care to some 57,000 and educational assistance to 80,000, in addition to thousands of others receiving other types of aid.

Reviewing the Malben work conducted by the J.D.C. in Israel to rehabilitate ill and handicapped newcomers to the Jewish state, Mr. Leavitt said that each month an average of 300 patients were discharge in 1951 as cured and set on the path toward economic self-support–chiefly by means of rehabilitation loans–to enable them to open their own shops and stores and through sheltered workshops. A special project, the “Village for the Blind,” near Gedera, saw some 75 blind men and their families, as the year ended, well on the way toward economic independence, earning their livelihoods by means of brush-and mattress-making and other craft. “In 1952, J.D.C. expects to provide facilities for the care of some 13,000 in need of Malben’s care,” Mr. Leavitt reported.

In 1952, Mr. Leavitt stressed, the troubled situation in Moslem lands makes it urgent for J.D.C. to: 1. Evaluate Jewish families from isolated villages to larger cities for safety and at the same time provide medical care, training and preparation for emigration to Israel; 2. Provide economic help in the form of tools, loans and training for destitute artisans in North African lands; 3. Extend the fight against misery, hunger and disease to Spanish Morocco, where 40 percent of the Jews urgently require J.D.C. help; 4. Continue, and in some areas increase, the large-scale feeding programs, medical services and educational opportunities for nearly 100,000 boys and girls throughout North Africa and the Near East.

In 1952, despite the large-scale recovery that has come to Europe’s Jews, Mr. Leavitt estimated that as many as 80,000 will require J.D.C.’s aid in order to survive. He also said that the J.D.C. hopes to aid some 10,000 men, women and children to emigrate from Europe during 1952.