More than 400 Jewish community leaders from the United States and Canada will assemble here tomorrow for the 51st annual meeting of the Joint Distribution Committee, it was announced today by JDC chairman Edward M. M. Warburg. The Jewish leaders, who comprise the JDC National Council, will review the agency’s activities during the past year and will adopt a welfare and rehabilitation program to aid over 400,000 needy Jews overseas in 1966.
The meeting will feature a special survey of overseas needs and a round-up of JDC’s welfare operations in 30 countries around the world by Mr. Warburg. The assembled Jewish leaders will then adopt a budget for 1966 and elect new officers. Following its adoption, the budget will be submitted to the national conference of the United Jewish Appeal which opened here tonight and will extend through Sunday. JDC receives most of its funds from the campaigns of the UJA.
A report on JDC’s activities in 1965, to be submitted to the meeting by Charles H. Jordan, JDC director-general, shows that, despite the loss of almost $7,000,000 in West German reparations money in 1965, JDC has aided more than 413,000 persons during the year. These preliminary figures, compiled in July, include 97,000 in Israel, more than 78,000 in addition, some 175,000 were aided by relief-in-transit programs crossing geographical boundaries.
VARIOUS FORMS OF AID TO 413,000 PERSONS GIVEN BY JDC IN 1965
The aid, the report says, took various forms, including cash relief for 38,515 persons; food for 50,075; medical aid to 33,315; aid to 1,715 in children’s homes and milk centers and 4,555 in homes for the aged, to schools and kindergartens with 44,030 children, and to cultural and religious programs serving 31,040 persons.
Nearly 720,000 pounds of matzoh and matzoh meal were sent during the year to Jewish communities overseas–compared to a total of 370,000 in 1964. The increase, he said, was due almost entirely to the fact that in 1965, JDC was permitted to ship nearly 400,000 pounds of Passover foods to Jews in Eastern Europe. Nearly 125,000 pounds were shipped to Jewish refugees in France. Other countries where Jewish communities were given Passover supplies were Albania, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Yugoslavia.
In Israel, North Africa and Iran, the report states, JDC made special grants to people on relief to enable them to buy matzoh locally. In Poland, where matzoh is baked by the religious congregations with equipment provided several years ago by JDC, grants were made to congregations to provide matzoh to needy families.
Other JDC programs in 1965 included aid to ORT which had enrolled in the first six months of 1965 a total of 28,298 students in JDC-supported ORT vocational schools and courses in Israel, Europe and the Moslem countries; and loan institutions which, in the first half of 1965, included 33 such agencies sponsored by JDC in 17 countries. These agencies granted 2,305 loans amounting to $1,653,611. The report also notes that, during the first six months in 1965, JDC distributed more than 6,500,000 pounds of food contributed by the United States Government under the U. S. Food for Peace program.
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