A 1951 campaign goal of $3,160,000 was adopted here today for the HIAS at the annual meeting of the organization held at the Hotel Astor. Delegates from about 4,500 labor, religious and fraternal organizations supporting the HIAS attended the gathering.
The delegates adopted a resolution urging the U.S. Government to introduce legislation to liberalize the immigration law clause by permitting the full use of the 154,000 annual quota, through a system of pooling the unused portions of quotas of any one year to be utilized that year or during the subsequent year for eligible and desirable persons seeking to immigrate to the United States.
Another resolution approved the HIAS’ plans for the expansion of services in Israel “with the least possible delay.” The delegates expressed thanks to the U.S. Military authorities in Germany, to the U.S. Displaced Persons Commission, to the International Refugee Organization and to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service of the Department of Justice for the co-operation they have rendered to the HIAS in its activities.
Samuel A. Telsey, president of the organization, stressed in his annual message to the convention the “plight of some 150,000 Jewish refugees living in Western Europe and looking for the opportunity to emigrate from the countries of their temporary domicile.” He reported that the HIAS program in Israel has been expanded during the past year, in rendering aid to a sheltering project and a loan formed for immigrants. Isaac Asofaky, executive director of the organization, reported that in 1950 the HIAS helped 18,371 Jews to leave Europe for homes in many parts of the world.
U.S. Senator Irving M. Ives, addressing the gathering, emphasized that “assistance to Israel at this critical time is vitally essential.” He also urged “an early revision” of the U.S. immigration laws and the extension for another year of the present authorization for the admission of displaced persons to the United States.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
