The Joint Distribution Committee provided assistance in 1957 to 195,490 needy Jews in Israel, Europe and the Moslem world, including thousands of refugees from Egypt, Hungary, Poland and other countries, the JDC reported today. Nearly 100,000 were Jews from Moslem countries.
In a foreword to the report, Moses A. Leavitt, JDC executive vice chairman, noted that “while during the two or three years ending in 1956, JDC had been dealing mainly with the settled population, in 1957 nearly 16 percent of the beneficiaries from JDC activities were transients; that is, new victims of persecution or those in search of new homes in more hospitable lands than the countries of their residence.”
The report indicated that JDC programs are currently being conducted in some 25 countries. The report, prepared by the JDC Research Department under the direction of Dr. Boris Sapir, also indicated the continued large-scale assistance provided by Malben, the JDC welfare program on behalf of aged, ill and handicapped newcomers to Israel.
In 1957, JDC aided more than 36,670 persons in Israel, of whom 17,461 were aided through a Malben network of old-age homes, hospitals, sanitaria, sheltered workshops and other institutions throughout the Jewish State, as well as through reconstruction loans. In addition to 9,276 persons who received institutional care through Malben, the program also provided out-patient aid, medical appliances grants for aged persons, nurses training courses, on-the-job assistance in sheltered workshops and help to place handicapped immigrants in suitable employment.
Also in Israel, more than 12,000 persons were assisted through JDC’s cultural and religious programs, and some 6,700 received vocational training in the workshops of ORT. In all, JDC help provided vocational training through ORT to more than 25,500 in a dozen countries.
Other JDC assistance included the distribution of U.S. Department of Agriculture surplus foods to a monthly average of 111,450 men, women and children. The distribution included a total of more than 12,000,000 pounds, valued at over $1,000,000. Since the end of the war, JDC has shipped more than 260,000,000 pounds of purchased and contributed commodities to needy Jews in all parts of the world.
Mr. Leavitt also noted that “In Europe, JDC efforts have been directed at laying a solid foundation for a sound Jewish communal life. ” He cited as a major aspect of these endeavors the establishment of community and youth centers in cooperation with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Some 47 of these centers were undertaken between 1954 and 1958, at a total estimated cost of $3,396,000. Sixteen of these centers were in France, with others in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
Countries in which needy Jews received JDC aid during 1957 included Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia in Europe; Algeria, Iran, Morocco, Tunisia and other ares in the Moslem world; and Israel.
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