A Large Grant

The grant of $1,500,000 by the American Joint Reconstruction Foundation in Paris for constructive relief in various European countries is a result of the increasing difficulties which the Jews in these nations are now facing.

Only recently the Polish directors of the Joint Distribution Committee made a special trip to Paris with a report on the precarious position of the Polish Jews. At about the same time a Jewish delegation was sent to Paris from Austria to acquaint the leaders of the Foundation with the urgent need of Austrian Jewry.

These delegations had no difficulty in convincing directors of the Foundation of the necessity to assign special sums for constructive relief activities, it seems from the present decision.

The American Joint Reconstruction Foundation, which plays a big role in Jewish life in Europe, is now in the tenth year of its existence. It was brought into life by the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Colonization Association in May, 1924, to carry on certain of the reconstruction activities in which both organizations had separately been interested. Its chief work is in stimulating, assisting and financing Jewish credit cooperatives.

The Foundation operates not only in all parts of Europe but also in Turkey and in Palestine. Its financial resources are provided entirely by the JDC and the ICA. Each of these organizations has a number of representatives on the board of directors, which also includes representatives of Jewish communities of European countries.

The work of the Foundation has been especially appreciated in all parts of Poland, in Rumania and in the Baltic countries. Now this work has been extended to Germany and Austria.

The funds just assigned by the Foundation indicate that the directors realize the economic plight of the European Jews. The news about the new credits will be received with enthusiasm especially by the Jews of Poland and Austria, for whom the major proportion of the credits will probably go.