$775,000 is Allotted by J.D.C. Finance Committee for Immediate Relief Abroad

The sum of $775,000, to be used immediately for relief and reconstructive work in Eastern Europe and Russia, during May and June, was voted by the Finance Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee, in spite of the limited funds at the disposal of the J. D. C., David A. Brown, national chairman of the United Jewish Campaign announced.

This action was taken in response to repeated cables from Dr. Bernhard Kahn, European Director of the Joint Distribution Committee, who is endeavoring to bring the largest amount of relief to the starving Jews of Poland, Bessarabia and other countries, and cables from Dr. Joseph A. Rosen, who is the head of its agricultural settlement work in Russia. Dr. Rosen cabled that a large number of new Jewish families are endeavoring to settle on the Russian prairies this Spring and unless funds would be forthcoming they are in danger of being stranded.

Three hundred thousand dollars of the appropriation went to Dr. Kahn, who has advised the Committee that most of the money would have to be expended in Poland where nearly a million Jews are starving and threatened with epidemic of typhus and other hunger-diseases, Mr. Brown stated. Most of the balance was alloted to Dr. Rosen for Russian agricultural work. Likewise, in answer to the emergency situation in the religious and cultural work abroad, with rabbis and instructors who have not received salaries for the past six months and longer, the Finance Committee is making available to the Committee on Cultural Affairs, headed by Dr. Cyrus Adler, the sum of $75,000.

In making this announcement, Mr. Brown pointed out that although these appropriations had been made, the Joint Distribution Committee did not know where the money would come from. “Nevertheless, the Committee decided to take the chance in view of the urgency of the situation. I pointed out to the Committee that with the New York Campaign and the great number of ‘drives’ scheduled all over the country in the next three weeks, it was warranted to make these appropriations against an empty treasury. As it is, all the demands were cut to the bare bone. Dr. Kahn’s appropriation represents only 75 per cent of his minimum committments for the period covered. Dr. Rosen’s demand was for $500,000. The Cultural Committee asked for a minimum of $300,000 to cover the next five months.

“Whether the Joint Distribution Committee can actually meet these appropriations depends on the response of the Jews of New York and the rest of America within the next fortnight. If they measure up to what I have reason to expect that they are going to do–we shall be able to meet these appropriations, and able also to make additional appropriations covering the needs of all the important phases of its European relief and reconstruction work,” Mr. Brown declared.

HEBREWS KNEW DAYLIGHT SAVING, IRISH SUN DIALS, FOUND RECENTLY, SHOW

The adoption of Summer time is no novelty, but only a reversion in a modified form to a custom that existed for thousands of years prior to the twelfth century A. D., according to the Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, an Associated Press despatch from Dublin states.

An Irish sun dial of the sixth century recently discovered in County Down and another in County Kerry confirm conclusions to that effect drawn from the Gezer dial in Palestine. The hour varied in length according to the season and latitude, the daylight hour in Ireland being in midsummer eighty minutes and decreasing in Winter to forty.

The great Summer time novelty, says the Dean of St. Patrick’s is thus merely a mild effort to correct the disadvantages arising from the invention of the mechanical clock, which divided the day into equal hours.