Gross pledges of $2,649,557 in the $3,500,000 campaign for overseas reconstruction and aid were reported at a national gathering today of 500 leaders of the Joint Distribution Committee by Rabbi Jonah B. Wise and Isidore Coons, co-chairman and director of the drive.
Other speakers at the conference, held in the Hotel Astor, included Governor Herbert H. Lehman, whose address was broadcast over an NBC network, Felix M. Warburg, reporting as national chairman of the 1936 campaign; Paul Baerwald, chairman of the J.D.C.; Joseph C. Hyman, executive director; Prof. Joseph P. Chamberlain, ex-member of the League of Nations High Commission for Refugees; Prof. Oscar I. Janowsky and George Backer, president of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
In his report, Dr. Wise said that “as the Joint Distribution Committee did not surrender to the depression in America, so it refuses to surrender to the crisis abroad. The Joint Distribution Committee will continue to sustain the Jewish communities in Poland, Rumania and other parts of Europe,” he declared.
“It is our belief that now, more than ever, people are alive to the need for aiding the disadvantaged. The improved business conditions in our land have been reflected in the contributions made for the work of the Joint Distribution Committee in 1936. And we are confident that there will be an increased measure of generosity to meet the severe crisis and the dark days that lie ahead for millions of our fellow-beings.”
He said that cash on hand totalled $1,744,000, adding that substantially more pledges were expected since some of the largest communities had not been heard from yet. The quota for next year was referred to an executive meeting with a recommendation that a much larger quota be adopted for next year.
Mr. Backer was added to the executive committee. Five new vice-chairmen were named: James H. Becker, David M. Bressler, Alexander Kahn, William Rosenwald and Rabbi Wise.
A resolution was adopted gratefully recording “the cooperation given it by Christians, both individually and in groups, who have so generously practiced the principal of brotherly love and who have unhesitatingly voiced their vigorous protest against the persecutions and horrors which our people have undergone and are still enduring.”
LEHMAN SEES TASK CHALLENGING JEWS’ GENEROSITY
Governor Lehman reviewed the record of the J.D.C. in providing relief
Describing as “black indeed” the future facing the 400,000 remaining Jews in Germany, he declared that helping them was a task “that challenges everything we have of resourcefulness and generosity.”
“In many countries,” he said,” there are aspects of such suffering and deprivation as, even in our long history of vitality and courage, our people have rarely if ever been called upon to endure…….
“How we can best assist them to become more productive citizens is a problem of deep interest to them and to us. The immediate problem is one of sustaining them through the crisis through which they are going, a crisis which is not of their own making and in which they are helpless victims….”
MUST BUILD WHILE OTHERS DESTROY, SAYS WARBURG
Mr. Warburg sketched the highlights of the organization’s 23 years of activity in behalf of Jews abroad.
“Today we are in the very midst of the greatest emergency of all,” he said. “The Joint Distribution Committee must rebuild even while others are destroying. It is helping Jews in Germany, in Poland, in Rumania, and in dozens of other countries to recast and redirect their lives, and to build for the future.
“Without hesitation, I say that unless we continue to help, many thousands of these individuals face extinction. How far we can go with our plans and our assistance depends upon contributions of the public. Based on the performance of the past and what must be done in the immediate future, we must expect much larger contributions than ever before. Though the Jews of America have given generously they have not given enough to meet the needs.”
In citing the help extended German-Jewish refugees here, Mr. Warburg paid warm tribute to the role of the Rockefeller Foundation. He emphasized that precautions had been taken against “dumping of unemployable or undesirables in this country” under the newly strengthened Coordinating Committee directed by Prof. Joseph P. Chamberlain, William Rosenwald, Jacob Billikopf and Miss Cecilia Razovsky.
Mr. Warburg warmly praised the activities of Dr. Bernhard Kahn, European director of the J._.C., and Dr. Joseph Rosen, of the Agro-Joint.
BACKER SEES GERMANY AT WAR IN TWO YEARS
Mr. Backer declared that the solution of the German Jewish problem must be hastened because the Jews of the Reich feel the certainty of war within two years. He said there was one theory that war would bring
“But even the first solution, which seems to offer some temporary respite for the Jews, has a dark picture at its conclusion, for what would a defeated Germany do to its Jewish population?” he said.
Mr. Rosen asserted that Russia did not need or desire outside help for Biro-Bidjan. He declared that Russia had the possibilities of becoming a country of immigration, but owing to the present complicated situation in Europe was not opening her doors to immigrants and would not until conditions in Europe became more nearly normal.
Mr. Hyman described the J.C.C.’s activities abroad and its cooperation with other organizations, such as the Council for German Jewry, the High Commission for Refugees and Jewish-aid organizations in the various countries. He told of sudden emergencies which arise requiring J.D.C. financial aid, as aiding 600 refugees to enter South Africa before the Nov. 1 deadline on immigration.
In respect to Poland, he urged private agencies and groups to help find markets for goods being manufactured by Polish Jews in projects opened with the J.D.C.’s participation. Because of cheapness of work and raw material the products can be sold abroad in non-competitive fields, he said, and the Government has given assurance it may advance $200,000 to $300,000, of which a $100,000 payment has already been authorized, to find new fields where Jews do not compete with Poles.
Alexander Kahn presided at a large luncheon meeting–committees were holding separate luncheon meetings–and Carl J. Austrian, head of the New York campaign, presided at the morning session.
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