Eastern Europe

For some time past, suggestions have been made to the American Jewish Committee and to the Joint Foreign Committee in London that the personal visit of an officer of those committees to Eastern Europe would be welcome.

Emphasis was put upon the distressed condition of the Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe and the feeling which has grown up that they had been forgotten, and that the German Jewish crisis had served further to remove an appreciation of their difficulties.

In response to this sentiment, Mr. Morris Waldman, secretary of the American Jewish Committee, on his recent visit to Europe, made a tour in Austria and in Poland which was followed later by a longer visit made by Mr. Neville Laski, president of the Board of Jewish Deputies of England, to these countries.

After a complete survey of the Jewish situation in Poland, in Austria and in Danzig, Mr. Neville Laski returned to London with the following recommendations:

1. Visits should periodically be made by Western European and American Jews to Central and Eastern European Jewries for the purpose of making contacts with these Jewries and also with the Governments of the countries concerned.

2. An effort should be made to survey the Jewish position in those countries from a legal and statistical point of view so that any representations to governments may be based upon well attested facts.

3. Every encouragement should be given to the occupational redistribution of Jews.

4. The extension of the loan bank system in Poland is urgently desirable so that outlets may be provided for new industries.

5. Polish Jewry should make earnest efforts for internal unity, and strive to achieve a better balance between their religious and secular activities.

The conclusions to which Mr. Laski came show how serious the legal and economic position of the Jews in Poland and Austria is. The seriousness of the situation is substantiated especially by the press reports from Warsaw and Vienna this week.