Existence of J.D.C. Influences European Powers’ Attitude Toward Jews, Waldman Says

That there is such an organization as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which, as the representative of the Jews in this country, is vitally concerned with the situation of the Jews of Eastern Europe has a decided influence on the attitude of governments toward them, is pointed out by Morris D. Waldman, secretary of the American Jewish Committee in a report to the Allied Jewish Campaign, made public yesterday at its national offices, 415 Lexington Avenue.

The Joint Distribution Committee, Mr. Waldman says in his report, creates confidence in the minds of the struggling European Jewry masses that their determination to win out will be backed up by the Jews of America.

“The Joint Distribution Committee has taught the Jews of Eastern Europe the value of organized effort on their own part for the solution of their economic problems,” Mr. Waldman says in his report. “The development of cooperatives, in spite of many disheartening experiences, into national systems covering a number of East European countries, has raised the Jewish morale in those lands, and at the same time has added to their ability to resist the complete demoralization that otherwise would, in all likelihood, have resulted from their dreadful poverty. This is all the more noteworthy when it is taken into account that before the war there were comparatively few Jewish credit cooperatives anywhere in Europe, and that when the first broached, large numbers of Jews in Europe resisted the project, including many who are now beneficiaries of the system.

“There is another influence which the J. D. C. exerts on behalf of the Jews of

Eastern and Central Europe which is of the utmost importance,” Mr. Waldman said. “I should not like to call it political, because that would be to create a misconception, in some quarters, of what the J. D. C. is endeavoring to do. But, the very fact that there is such an organization as the Joint Distribution Committee, which, as the representative of the Jews of America, is vitally concerned with the situation of the Jews of Eastern Europe, has a very decided influence on the attitude of governments toward them. The strength of that influence is, naturally, measured by its expression in the form of actual financial support by the governments and municipalities of the Jewish institutions and organizations in those countries.”

From that standpoint, as well as from the economic standpoint, Mr. Waldman says, in his report to the chairmen of the Allied Jewish Campaign, the work of the Joint Distribution Committee must continue.