J.D.C. Adopts $5,000,000 Budget for First Half of 1942

A $5,000,000 Budget and Program for the Joint Distribution Committee during the first half of 1942 was endorsed and approved yesterday at a meeting convened by the J.D.C. here. Community leaders from all parts of the United States, assembled at the Drake Hotel, heard Joseph C. Hyman of New York, Executive Vice-Chairman of the J.D.C, present an analysis of the agency’s budgetary requirements for the first half of 1942.

Mr. Hyman stated that the J.D.C. had been able to arrange passage for over 2,200 European Jews going to overseas lands since December 7, and that still more than 1,000 persons in unoccupied France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and North Africa are actually in possession of valid visas. The J.D.C. has received licenses from the United States Treasury Department totalling $745,000 to pay for transportation of refugees who sailed from Europe since December 7, Mr. Hyman revealed.

Speaking of relief work in allied or neutral countries, which called for $2,334,400, Mr. Hyman indicated that there was no difficulty in making remittances or continuing direct contact. With regard to continuing programs of vital help in occupied countries, he stated that the J.D.C. was unable, under American war laws, to exercise direct supervision or maintain direct contact. This task, he said, must be left for the duration to the local committees which have been built up and guided by the J.D.C, and which are still in contact with the situation. To make good – when possible to do so without aiding the enemy – the obligations incurred by these local committees, the J.D.C. ‘s Executive Committee has confirmed an appropriation of $1,500,000 out of 1942 funds.