J.D.C. Annual Meeting to Discuss 1952 Budget; $23,507,300 Sought

A proposed budget of $23,507,300 to meet the essential needs of Jews in Europe, the Moslem lands and Israel during 1952 will be discussed at the 37th annual meeting of the Joint Distribution Committee, which will take place this Saturday evening at the Hotel Astor, it was announced here today by Edward M. M. Warburg, newly re-elected general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal and chairman of the J.D.C.

The achievements of the Joint Distribution Committee in helping Jews in various parts of the world during 1951 are outlined in a report by Moses A. Leavitt, executive vice-chairman, to be submitted to the meeting. Foremost among the accomplishments of the year were the substantial gains made in meeting two problems previously considered insoluble: the almost overwhelming needs of hundreds of thousands of undernourished, illiterate children, growing up in squalid, disease-infested mellahs in Moslem lands, and the urgent requirements of “hard core” immigrants in Israel for medical care and rehabilitation service.

“It can be confidently stated that in 1951 nearly 100,000 Jewish children in Morocco, Tunisia, Tripolitania, Iraq and other countries of the Arab world were helped to emerge from the primitive Middle Ages and move a sizeable step close to 20th-century living. “Mr. Leavitt says in his report. “The headway they were able to make furnished ample evidence that J.D.C.–through feeding programs, medical care, educational and vocational assistance–had made a sound beginning in its fight against hunger, ignorance and premature death.

“In Israel, 1951 witnessed solid progress in J.D.C. ‘s Malben program for the care and rehabilitation of handicapped newcomers, “the report continued. “For during the months just passed, a network of institutions–TB hospitals, centers for chronic sufferers, old-age homes and other installations established, equipped and staffed by J.D.C.–had provided hope and opportunities for recovery for thousands of incapacitated immigrants.

“But these two vitally important programs were only part of J.D.C.’s varied activities. The year opened on a scene of large-scale Jewish need. By year’s end, some 270,000 men, women and children in all areas of operation had received J.D.C. aid–food, clothing, medical care, educational opportunities, assistance to work or to emigrate. The level of aid J.D.C. was able to bring was frequently inadequate to meet total needs. But by stretching each available dollar to the limit, supplementary assistance succeeded in holding down Jewish suffering, “Mr. Leavitt reports.

$21,650,000 APPROPRIATED BY J.D.C. LAST YEAR FOR 20 COUNTRIES

The report emphasizes that for its relief, reconstruction and resettlement programs in 20 countries abroad, J.D.C. appropriated $21,650,000 in 1951. With this sum it provided urgently needed food or cash grants to nearly 100,000; medical care to some 70,000, and educational assistance to 80,000. A home and protective service were given to the orphaned children and the helpless aged. The J.D.C. also assisted some 17,000 homeless Jews to reach the United States and other free lands.

Declaring that “Israel was the scene of J.D.C.’s largest operation, “Mr. Leavitt said in his report that in 1951 more than 36 percent of J.D.C.’s appropriations for the year was used to take the “hard core” out of the immigration camps for cure and rehabilitation. “Impelled by the knowledge that thousands of sick and disabled emigrants were suffering acute hardship while they waited in the immigrant camps for available space in Malben institutions, J.D.C. early in 1951 embarked on an assortment of construction projects, “the report says. “With an engineering staff, and material shipped from the United Sgates and Europe, a score of new institutions were erected. By the close of 1951, some 80 installations provided modern medical care for the aged, the sick and the helpless.

“Most important in the building program of 1951 was a 500-bed TB hospital at Be’er Yaacov which, although only partially completed, is already making medical history in Israel. Other institutions included three homes for the aged, a hospital for sufferers from chronic diseases, two custodial care centers for people requiring long-term care, a rehabilitation center for discharged TB patients and a home for retarded children. Of the 11,000 handicapped newcomers served by these and other institutions in two years, some 8,000–73 percent–were Malben’s patients in 1951,” the report points out.

The Malben program is not J.D.C.’s sole activity in the Jewish state. Traditionally, almost since its inception 37 years ago, J.D.C. has supported yeshivoth and refugee rabbis. In 1951 this aid went to 77 yeshivoth with an enrollment of 7,000 students, to teachers’ seminaries, to rabbis’ groups and scholars, all urgently in need of help.

Reviewing J.D.C. activities in the countries outside of Israel, Mr. Leavitt draws attention to the fact that a survey of conditions abroad reveals that the J.D.C. will continue to face large and challenging problems during 1952. For an estimated 250,000 men, women and children in Europe, Moslem and other lands, J.D.C. assistance is still a vital necessity, he declares.