J.D.C. Observes Forty Years of Existence; Spent $525, 000, 000

The American Joint Distribution Committee, which is now observing its 40th anniversary, has spent more than $525, 000,000 in 70 countries of the world during the 40 years of its existence, it was reported today by Moses A. Leavitt, JDC executive vice-chairman. During the current year JDC help went to more than 150, 000 needy Jews in 22 countries, he stated.

Mr. Leavitt prepared his report for the 40th annual meeting which is taking place tomorrow at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Pointing out that 1954 was a year in which there were great political upheavals throughout the Moslem world, Mr. Leavitt said: “Though in most cases these did not directly evoke anti-Jewish violence, a growing uneasiness pervaded the lives of the nearly 700, 000 Jews living in the vast expanse between Morocco and Iran. It was a year in which the JDC enabled more and mere of those whom it was aiding in Europe, in Moslem lands and in Israel to re-establish themselves–through emigration, through reconstruction loans, through vocational training and medical rehabilitation.”

But the numbers requiring aid did not fall, and the emerging picture indicated that many would continue to need assistance for long periods to come, Mr. Leavitt emphasized. “Of all aspects of the JDC’s operations during 1954 perhaps the most remarkable was that despite the millions who had been aided, and despite the expenditure of such vast sums in their behalf, there should still remain more than 150,000 in vital need of aid, including many for whom this assistance was literally the only hope of survival,” he declared.

$20, 000, 000 APPROPRIATED DURING 10 MONTHS OF 1954

Reporting that during the first ten months of this year the JDC appropriated more than $20,000, 000 for all kinds of aid as compared with $18,271, 000 for the same period last year, Mr. Leavitt especially stressed that during 1954 the JDC continued to attack the problem of the so-called “hard-core” through a variety of emigration schemes, hoping to achieve a final solution to the tragic circumstances in which so many still found themselves in Central and Western Europe. From January to August more than 2, 000 persons were aided to emigrate.

“The continued importance of the JDC’s medical welfare program for aged, sick and handicapped newcomers to the Jewish State, known as Malben, is indicated by the fact that nearly 52 percent of the JDC’s total appropriations for the first ten months of the year – $10, 720, 985 – was spent in Israel, ” Mr. Leavitt stated. “In its network of more than 100 old-age homes, custodial care centers, hospitals, sanitaria, clinics, sheltered workshops and other installations throughout Israel, through its out-patient clinics and the provision of prostheses, through rehabilitation loans and other forms of reconstruction assistance, Malben aided 26,000 men, women and children during the year. “

Other parts of Mr. Leavitt’s report are devoted to the aid given by the JDC to Jews in Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Iran, and various countries of Europe. More than 68 percent of the $25,610,000 which the JDC appropriated for its 1954 operations came from the United Jewish Appeal. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany provided $6, 724, 000, or about 26 percent of the JDC’s total budget. The remainder came from Jewish communities in Canada, Latin America and other countries outside the United States.

The most significant of the JDC’s achievements during the year, Mr. Leavitt reported, was the continued expansion of its program of care for the aged. An agreement was reached between the JDC and the Jewish Agency, under which Malben took under its care the more than 2, 000 aged and invalids in the reception center at Pardess Hanna. As a result of this agreement and because others were still waiting for JDC care, Malben is now engaged in a building program which will raise the total of beds for the aged to 2, 660, in eight localities, during the next two years.