J.D.C. Gave $8,923,700 During 1939 to Aid Sufferers in 50 Lands

The Joint Distribution Committee appropriated $8,923,700 in 1939 for Jewish relief in more than 50 countries, according to the J.D.C. annual report, marking completion of 25 years of activity on the part of the major American agency for aid to distressed Jews overseas.

Joseph C. Hyman, in his report as executive vice-chairman, said pledged income of the J.D.C., however, amounted to only $8,150,000 as its share of the United Jewish Appeal.

In his resume of services rendered during the first six months of 1940, Hyman declared the J.D.C. appropriated $4,477,500 for that period.

Analyzed on a functional basis, the largest expenditure during 1939 was $3,251,900 for relief work among refugees. An additional $2,366,600 was expended for emigration service to refugees permitted to enter Palestine, Latin American countries and other overseas lands for permanent settlement. Emergency assistance for others than refugees received grants totalling $1,000,000 while other large sums were expended for vocational training, medical aid, child care and economic assistance.

These services were rendered to Jews in Greater Germany, Poland and other East European lands, and to refugees throughout the world. Describing the work in Greater Germany , the report declared: “In expending $2,240,000 for aid to the Jews of Greater Germany (old Germany , Austria, Bohemia-Moravia, Slovakia, Danzig), the J.D.C. enabled the emigration of fully half of the 148,000 refugees who left left German territories from 1933 through 1939 was 432,000. With the aid of J.D.C. funds, 113,100 Jews in Old Germany, Austria, Bohemia-Moravia, Slovakia and Danzig benefited from relief and welfare programs conducted by the local committees in the respective countries.”

For activities in behalf of the Jews of Poland, the J.D.C. expended $1,300,000 during 1939, a considerable part of this sum after the conquest of Poland by Germany. Prior to the war, the funds were applied to constructive programs of economic aid, vocational training, child care, medical aid, assistance to refugees who had fled from Germany into Poland and to cultural and religious institutions.

Referring to the work in behalf of refugees from Germany, the report declared: “The number of refugees on the European continent grew from 96,000 to over 175,000. At the same time, intensification of anti-Jewish policies in countries like Italy, Hungary and Rumania, deprived large numbers of additional Jews of the right to earn a livelihood. For all types of aid to refugees from Germany in European countries of asylum, the J.D.C. appropriated $2,859,300 during 1939. The war naturally increased the J.D.C.’s burden in conducting these programs by limiting the possibilities of local contributions, increasing the cost of food and other commodities and necessitating stricter government control of refugees and other aliens. Approximately 10,000 refugees were enabled to emigrate from European countries of asylum during 1939. The J.D.C. contributed $454, 250 to emigration agencies for these services.

“Programs of refugee aid were conducted in about 20 European countries of asylum; the major expenditures were made in Belgium, France, Holland and Switzerland which harbored a combined total of about 100,000 refugees. In France, the problem was complicated after the outbreak of the war by the internment of male refugees, the necessity of evacuating refugee children, and the aggravated relief needs of East European Jews living in France.”