British Jewish Fund to Launch $4,000,000 Drive for Relief of Jews in Europe

The Council of the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief announced today that it will shortly launch a campaign for £1,000,000 for relief and rehabilitation of Jews in Europe.

The announcement points out that the rehabilitation problem will be so vast as to necessitate measures by governmental and intergovernmental bodies, but that British Jewry desires to participate, with the Jews of other countries, in relieving the distress of Jews in Europe. The immediate problems, it adds, are rebuilding of communal life and aid to orphans.

The Manchester Guardian today, in an article discussing the relief tasks facing the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, writes that “one guarantee that UNRRA’s work will be carried out as a humanitarian matter, and not a political one, is the fact that Director General Herbert H. Lehman previously held high office in the Joint Distribution Committee, “one of the largest voluntary relief organizations in the world.”

Reviewing the efforts of voluntary groups, the Guardian particularly stresses the activities of the JDC, mentioning the visit of Dr. Joseph Schwartz, JDC European director, to liberated countries to resume contacts with Jewish communities. “The Joint, as it is familiarly known all over Europe, has been helping throughout the war years in the relief of Jewish sufferers, with the help of its Swiss counterparts,” the article says. “The magnitude of its task can be judged by the fact that its 1945 budget is $46,000,000.” The Guardian also pays tribute to the work of the British Fund for Jewish Relief.