300,000 Jewish Refugees Live in Asiatic Russia, J.D.C. Representative Reports

There are more than 300,000 Jewish refugees today in the Asiatic part of Russia and eighty percent of them are Jews from Poland, Charles Passman, a member of the Middle-East Advisory Council of the Joint Distribution committee disclosed here upon arriving to attend a conference of J.D.C. officials.

Mr. Passman, who lives in Palestine, has just completed an inspection of the J.D.C.’s packaging and shipping offices in Teheran from where the American Jewish relief organization is sending 6,000 food parcels monthly to Jewish refugees in Asiatic Russia. The chief problem in aiding these refugees, he said, was the difficulty in obtaining foodstuff and supplies in view of the general situation in the Middle East and the transportation problem from other centers.

The J.D.C. official is conferring here with American supply and relief officials on means of increasing the number of J.D.C. parcels to refugees in Russia to 80,000 a month. “It is expected that as a result of these talks and of efforts in other areas, sufficient supplies will be available to enable an increase in the monthly parcel service which will permit all Jewish refugees in Asiatic Russia to receive assistance,” he said.

Mr. Passman paid warm tribute to the Soviet authorities for facilitating the relief work within Russia and praised the Iranian Government for the cooperation given to the staff of the Joint Distribution Committee in Teheran. Dr. Joseph Schwartz, chairman of the European Executive Council of the J.D.C., is expected to arrive here within a few days to coordinate the work of various J.D.C. centers in this part of the world.