$2,000,000 Spent by J.D.C. for Orphan Care in Palestine

Work is Reviewed as Palestine Committee is Liquidated

Over 4,000 war orphans in Palestine have been cared for and placed in a position to support themselves, and the work in connection with their maintenance, education, and trade training was liquidated last month, according to a report from Jerusalem submitted by Miss Sophia Berger who served as executive director of the Palestine Orphan Committee since its inception eight and a half years ago, according to a statement issued from the headquarters of the Joint Distribution Committee.

The task involved the expenditure of over $2,250,000 of which the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Felix M. Warburg, chairman, contributed more than $2,000,000. The Hadassah Medical Organization, cooperating with the orphan committee, made possible careful attention to the children’s health. The records show that in a group of 2,000 Jerusalem children, there were six deaths over a period of five years. The committee also did pioneer work in its care of tuberculosis suspects, in dental care, in supplying lunches to kindergartens and school children, and in vocational guidance work.

The policy of the Palestine Orphan Committee was to place the children in private homes, with their widowed mothers or with relatives, wherever possible, or in carefully selected foster homes. As a result of this method of child care, its eleven orphanages were closed one by one. Especial attention was given to trade training of girls and boys. They were apprenticed to skilled artisans or were otherwise prepared for entrance into all fields of work-domestic service, skilled labor, farming, office work, and professions. The boys entered fifty-five trades, while the girls took up fourteen occupations, including teaching.

In order to prepare children for life on the land, the Palestine Orphan Committee organized two Children’s Villages, Meier Shfeyah, with a predominance of girls, maintained by the Junior Hadassah of America, and Givat Hamoreh, a village with a predominance of boys, maintained by the Jewish community of South Africa.

There are still about two hundred children to be cared for until they can be self-supporting. Miss Berger will direct the work until its completion.

The Palestine Orphan Committee which dissolved itself on the completion of its work consisted of Norman Bentwich, chairman; Miss Sophia Berger, Dr. J. L. Magnes, dean of the Hebrew University, and Emanuel N. Mohl.