French Jewish Workers and Artisans Need Immediate Aid, Paris Ort Conference Told

The need for the speedy reintegration of Jewish artisans and workers in their previous occupations, and action to save Jewish youths and children from further demoralization was stressed here by Dr. Aron Syngalovski, vice-president of the World Ort Union, addressing the first national conference of the French ORT since the liberation of France.

Dr. Syngalovski declared that thousands of artisans and workers could again become self-supporting if they were enabled to rent workshops and obtain tools and machinery. He warned, however, that it was “a pernicious illusion to think that the reconstruction of ruined Jewish life can be realized by Jewish means and organizations alone.”

According to reports delivered at the conference, groups of artisans and workers are already being aided by the ORT in Paris and provincial cities to rent shops and obtain machinery. Special committees of the ORT have been established to work with representatives of trade unions and artisans associations.

In large towns where the unemployed used to manufacture clothes, shoes, linen and other articles, the ORT has established workshops to fill the requirements of charitable institutions. A large work shop to manufacture spare parts and to repair machines and tools of artisans free of charge has been set up in Paris, and a similar service is planned for Marseille, Lyon and Grenoble. ORT labor exchanges are operating in three cities and trade schools have been re-established in Grenoble, Lyon, Marseille Nice and Toulouse. Handicraft schools will be opened in Jewish children’s homes and two agricultural schools have been organized on ORT farms.

The conference voted thanks to the American Ort, and American and South African Jewry and welcomed the re-establishment of the organization in Rumania and Bulgaria