Allocations for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee famine relief and development programs in Ethiopia now stand at $4.5 million, according to Heinz Eppler, JDC president.
Epper, addressing the semi-annual meeting of the JDC board of directors here, yesterday told the more than 150 people present that more than $1.9 million in cash donations had been received since the JDC “opened its mailbox” on November 1, 1984 and that donations of goods, such as clothing, cloth, medicine and medical supplies with an estimated value of $2 million had also been received.
An annual budget of $400,000 was reported for development programs in the Gondar region of Ethiopia. Eppler said that $600,000 expenditures from this budget line over the past six months brings the total since November to $4.5 million.
JDC board chairman Henry Taub opened the semi-annual meeting and presented the annual JDC-Smolar student journalism award of $1,000 to David Shapiro of Toronto, a student at Brandeis University.
Saul Cohen, appointed JDC executive vice president on March 1, said “whether it is one case in Portugal, 39 Jews in Lebanon, 80 people in Burma, 4,000 in Syria … the power of JDC to fulfill its overseas commitments by working with fellow-Jews everywhere is immense, and the tradition of service is being responsibly upheld today as it has been throughout the 70 years of JDC’s noble history.”
ROLE OF JDC CITED
The guest speaker was David Wyman, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts and author of “The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941-1945.” Wyman listed the record of JDC’s efforts to save the Jews of Europe, calling it “a success within a failure” of the Holocaust.
A certificate of appreciation was presented to Saul Kagan, a long-time member of the JDC board and administrator of the hardship fund of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
A dinner attended by 300 people in honor of Ralph Goldman, JDC executive vice president emeritus, closed the events of the day. The dinner was chaired by Elaine Winik. The highlight of the dinner was the presentation by Emmanuel de Margerie, French Ambassador to the United States, of the award of the Legion of Honor to Goldman.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
