Claims Conference Allocates $10,059,644 for Vast 1963 Programs

Allocations of $10,059,644 for programs aiding 170,000 Nazi victims in 32 countries were granted last night by the board of directors of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany at the close of its annual meeting. Jacob Blaustein of Baltimore, senior vice-president of the Conference, presented the budget for 1963. The allocations will raise to $100,000,000, in all, the sums granted by the Conference since 1954.

Mr. Blaustein presented the major components in the budget as follows: $7,757,637 for relief, rehabilitation and resettlement, of which $7,000,000 is earmarked for programs in Europe and Australia; $1,917,757 for cultural and educational reconstruction; and $384,250 for other expenditures. The allocation for Europe and Australia will be administered by the American Joint Distribution Committee which will supplement this sum by $2,290,000 received from other sources, and bring to $9,290,000 the funds expended for these programs.

Mr. Blaustein called special attention to the 1963 allocations for France which will reach some $4,700,000, the greatest granted for any single country in Conference history. “Over 150,000 refugees have entered the country in the past three years, the great majority in 1962,” Mr. Blaustein said. “With their coming, the Jewish population swelled by some 40 percent. The newcomers came from North African lands, in the great majority, but thousands also stemmed from Eastern Europe. Their arrival gave rise to such staggering problems in the fields of individual and communal rehabilitation and Jewish education that no major program in France aided by Conference funds over the years could fail to escape the financial impact.”

The allocations granted for 1963 formed but a fraction of the sums requested by applicants, Mr. Blaustein pointed out. “Some 450 applications, calling for nearly $25,000,000, have come to us from 34 countries inhabited by Nazi victims. The task of scaling down those huge demands to the $10,000,000 we expect to receive this year is more difficult than ever before.”

The Claims Conference, made up of 23 national and world-wide Jewish organizations, obtains its funds for allocation under the special agreement it reached with the German Federal Government in 1952. By that agreement, $107,000,000 is being turned over to the Conference, in 12 annual installments, for the benefit of needy Nazi victims throughout the world. These funds are in addition to the much larger sums paid by the German Federal Republic to the Government of Israel as well as to individual Nazi victims for indemnification and restitution. The West German legislation governing the latter payments was also enacted under the terms of the 1952 agreement.

EDUCATION GETS $1,917,757; RECONSTRUCTION PROJECTS PLANNED

The allocation of $1,917,757 for cultural and educational reconstruction includes grants of $1,118,583 for Jewish education on the primary, secondary, supplementary, higher and adult levels, making up the most far-reaching program in this area. “These allocations have grown more than twofold since our operations began, and for 1963 they will set a 10-year record. The magnitude of the expansion testifies to the great importance attached by the Conference to that field of activity,” Mr. Blaustein said.

The rebuilding of the Jewish communities that suffered at Nazi hands is one of the major responsibilities the Conference has undertaken. Its allocations for capital projects are playing a life-renewing role in that task, Mr. Blaustein pointed out. The 1963 grants, cutting across programs for relief and rehabilitation and cultural and educational reconstruction, reached a record sum, $1,860,000. Over 40 percent of the funds are earmarked for projects in France and most of the rest is going to other countries which fell under Nazi occupation.

“Some 144 institutions will benefit from the capital grants,” Mr. Blaustein noted, “and even the briefest statistical enumeration makes impressive reading: 73 Jewish schools; 28 community and youth centers; 13 homes for the aged; 13 religious institutions; 8 summer camps; 4 medical institutions and a number of children’s and youth homes and related undertakings.”

Capital allocations granted over the years, including those for 1963, tally up to some $11,350,000 all told. Three categories – schools, community centers and homes for the aged – have held the focus of Conference interest, and absorbed over 75 percent of all capital allocations. The great bulk of the funds are aiding in the reconstruction of the Jewish communities in Europe, and a limited share has been going to overseas lands sheltering many Nazi victims.

In actual fact, these funds are meeting only the smaller part of the costs, Mr. Blaustein said. “It is notable,” he declared, “that Jewish communities, organizations and other local sources are shouldering the major share. But many capital projects which were undertaken and carried to completion would never have progressed beyond the blueprint stage without the stimulus provided by Conference aid.”