The amount of $300,000 has been appropriated by the Joint Distribution Committee for the continuance of cultural activities in East European countries during 1928. This sum will be distributed to the various institutions on a gradually decreasing scale, so that the local committees can adjust themselves to their gradually increasing responsibilities and prepare to meet their own requirements, a statement issued from the headquarters of the United Jewish Campaign anfounced yesterday.
Beginning with 1921, when the cultural work of the J.D.C. was organized as a separate activity, under the supervision of the Cultural Committee with Dr. Cyus Adler as chairman, and through 1926, nere was spent in various countries broad for the school systems there, over $2,500,000. In 1927, the sum of $541,000 has spent, making a total of $3,041,000 pent on Jewish education during the pe?od 1921-27.
Over 2,000 cultural institutions were ubsidized by the Joint Distribution Committee and over 300,000 children received.
Jewish education in these institutions the figures for Poland show, for 1926. 82 schools having 22,347 children which were supported by the J. D. C. through the People’s Relief Committee. These schools had a thousand teachers, 57 evening courses and 70 libraries.
Through the Central Relief Committee the J. D. C. distributed support to 69 ?almud Torahs and other religious schools; 240 evening courses, and 100 Yeshivas, totalling 108,000 pupils. Through the American Jewish Relief Committee, the J. D. C. subsidized 191 Hebrew schools having 24,000 pupils ?048 teachers, and 241 evening classes. About 200,000 adults and children were pupils in the various cultural institutions supported by the J. D. C. in 1926.
During the same year, the J. D. C. ?ided in Lithuania 47 Talmud Torahs with 4,700 children; 3 Yeshivas with 475 pupils, the support being forwarded throught the Central Relief Committee. Through the People’s Relief Committee, 17 Jewish schools with 2,000 children and 14 evening courses were supported. Through the American Jewish Relief Committee 118 Tarbuth schools were aided with 12,350 pupils.
In Latvia, the figures show the support of 81 elementary schools; 46 Talmud Torahs with 15,000 children, and 21 high schools with 24,000 children. The same support was extended to the schools of Greater Roumania with a capacity of 120,000 children; in Bessarabia with 16,200 children; in Sub-Carpathia, with 5,000 children; in Austria, with 2,000 children; and in Hungary with 11,000 children.
In Germany, about 50 institutions were aided by the J. D. C. where the German Jewish youth and Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe received a Jewish education. Special support was also extended to the Beth Hamidrosh Haelyon, a higher Jewish educational institution. In Palestine where, during the war, all the cultural institutions were supported by the J. D. C. there are now a number of Orthodox institutions aided by the Central Relief Committee.
“As in the case of other activities of the J. D. C. it was the aim of the cultural committee during those years to strengthen the institutions and to help them to such a financial status that eventually the entire responsibility for their existence will be taken over by the respective communities,” the statement declared.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
