Decide to Organize Loan Society for Mexican Jews

The organization of a permanent loan society in Mexico City in order to assist the Jews settled in that city and in other parts of the Republic of Mexico, was authorized at a joint meeting of representatives of the Independent Order B’nai B’rith and the Emergency Committee for Jewish Refugees held here on Monday at the Hotel Astor. The loan society is to be organized with the participation of representatives of the Jewish population of Mexico, and the necessary steps to bring the society into being are to be taken by Dr. Boris D. Bogen, executive secretary of the I. O. B. B., with the cooperation of Joseph L. Weinberger, director of the B’nai B’rith Mexican Bureau.

The formal vote on the question, taken after a protracted discussion of the Mexican Jewish situation participated in by Louis Marshall, David M. Bressler, and B. C. Vladek, representing the Emergency Committee and Mr. Archibald Marx, of New Orleans, Rabbi Martin Zielonka of El Paso, and Joshua L. Kantrowitz of New York, representing the I. O. B. B., authorized Dr. Bogen to draw on the Emergency Committee’s funds allocated for refugee work in Mexico. It was made clear that the joint work conducted in Mexico by the Emergency Committee and the B’nai B’rith which began in July, 1926, with funds supplied by both organizations, would terminate in July, 1928. After that period, whatever, still remains to be done in order to help the Jewish newcomers in Mexico to get on a sound financial footing, will be done solely by the B’nai B’rith.

Mr. Weinberger’s report at the joint conference itemized the various activities that have been carried on in Mexico and in which the Emergency Committee has been participating for the past year. The newly arriving immigrants were given shelter and immediate relief while they were acclimatizing and otherwise adjusting themselves to their new life, medical aid was extended, and still is being extended to them, language and citizenship courses were established, and above all loans were, and still are being advanced to them to enable them to do into business.

The loans and their repayment are regarded as a sort of barometer of the progress of the newcomers. In 1924, $1,101 was loaned out, and $129 repaid; in 1925, $7,959 was loaned out and $3,309 repaid; in 1926, the loans totalled $22,965 and the repayments $11,005. For the current year $7,436 has been loaned and $4,196 repaid. This makes a total of $39,462 loaned out against which the payments have been $18,641. Of the balance $11,398 is considered good, and the loss is expected to be about 24 per cent.

Between 300 and 400 Jewish families are established in Mexico City, making a decent Hving, “a far better living,” says Mr. Weinberger, “than they made in Europe.” Numbers of Jews have settled in various Mexican cities, and many of them have progressed sufficiently to warrant bringing their relatives over. There is no thought now of crossing the Rio Grande. In fact, as Rabbi Zielonka stated at the conference, some who did go on to the United States have returned to Mexico because they see better opportunities there.

From 1924 to the end of the current year $86,565.09 has been allocated for Jewish work in Mexico, $25,000 by the Emergency Committee and the rest by the I. O. B. B. For 1928 the budget is estimated at $55,000, of which the Emergency Committee will supply $25,000 to be used for loans only. The balance of the budget will be furnished by the I. O. B. B. making possible the continuance of the present major welfare work.

The participation of the Emergency Committee for Jewish Refugees in the work in Mexico is due largely to the survey of the country made by Dr. Maurice Hexter in 1925 for that body.