First Jewish School Since World War Ii Dedicated in Greece

The first Jewish school to be built in Greece since the Second World War was dedicated here yesterday. Marco Osmos, president of the Athens Jewish community, hailed the new school as providing the first opportunity available since the end of the war “to promote Jewish cultural and religious values for our children while providing them, at the same time, with a thorough Greek education.”

Charles Jordan, overseas director of the Joint Distribution Committee, represented both the JDC and the Conference for Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which, together with the Central Board of Greek Jewish Communities, the Athens Jewish Community and the Salonica Jewish Community, financed the building of the school, which now becomes the property of the community. The school will serve 250 children in primary grades and 80 children in kindergarten.

Referring to the long delay in building the school, Mr. Jordan declared that the agencies he represented were dedicated to the rehabilitation of Jewish life and institutions destroyed by the Nazis. “Devoted as we are to the preservation of Jewish spiritual values, we had to devote ourselves first to the material welfare needs,” the JDC official declared. “Before we could preserve Jewish life, “he said, “we had to save Jewish lives.”

Mr. Jordan revealed that the JDC spent $2, 000, 000 in Greece since the end of the war. “When we came into Greece at the end of the war. ” he declared, “we found a pitiful remnant numbering 10, 000–only 13 percent of the original 75, 000 Jews, They suffered from malnutrition and disease. They had no families to turn to, no near ones to take care of them. Our job was to feed them, clothe them, heal them and to help them rebuild their lives, It was only after this Job was well started that we could begin to think of their need for things of the spirit.”