500,000 Jews Aided to Emigrate by J.D.C. from Yom Kippur, 1945, to Yom Kippur, 1950

The occasion of Yom Kippur will conclude a five-year period in which 500,000 distressed Jews originating in Europe and Arab lands have been emigrated to Israel and other havens in a gigantic resettlement effort by the Joint Distribution Committee, Edward M.M. Warburg, chairman of the J.D.C., announced here.

In a message expressing gratitude to the Jews of the United States and other countries who make possible the J.D.C’s relief, reconstruction and resettlement programs abroad through their support of the United Jewish Appeal, Mr. Warburg announced that soon after Yom Kippur, the half-millionth emigrant aided by the J.D.C. since Yom Kippur of 1945 will depart from Marseille, France, to Israel.

“Five years ago,” Mr. Warburg stated, “the million and a half starving Jews of Europe, newly liberated by the Allies from the Nazi tyranny, observed the Jewish High Holidays as free men for the first time since Hitler came to power more than a decade before. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur marked for them a period of remarkable deliverance. For their fellow Jews in the United States and other democracies it marked the beginning of a period of dedication to the cause of rescuing the survivors. This spirit of dedication has culminated in some of the most remarkable relief efforts and emigration accomplishments in history.”

The half-millionth emigrant is Mrs. Fanny Kirshenberg, Polish-born victim of the Nazi occupation who is now waiting with her family in a J.D.C. transient center in Marseille for the next vessel to bring her to Israel. “But what is an hour of happiness for the Kirshenbergs, for the hundreds en route to new homes, and the half million who have already been resettled,” Mr. Warburg warned, “is an hour of deep foreboding and growing anxiety for thousands waiting to leave.”