The United States Government was urged yesterday by the American Jewish Committee to support the claim of the Government of Israel for one and a half billion dollars in reparations from Germany “on the ground that these acts of the German State were the direct cause of Israel’s enormous expenditure in receiving and rehabilitating nearly 500,000 Jews who escaped the Nazi genocide program.”
In a letter to Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Jacob Blaustein, president of the American Jewish Committee, declared that the entire economy of Israel has had to be geared to the absorption of these immigrants at great hardship to the community which they joined. “Since Germany is responsible for this expenditure by Israel and for the sacrifices which the people of Israel have had to make, it is proper that Germany make good, at least in a financial way, the damage it has caused,” Mr. Blaustein pointed out.
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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.