J.D.C. Ships Emergency Passover Supplies to Refugees in France

The Joint Distribution Committee shipped an additional 30,000 pounds of matzoh to France to enable newly arrived Jewish migrants and refugees to observe the Passover holidays, it was announced today by Edward M. M. Warburg, JDC chairman. This brings the total of Passover shipments to France to more than 101,000 pounds, most of it sent earlier this year.

In all, JDC has distributed nearly 220,000 pounds of special foods to needy Jews throughout the world for the observance of Passover, which starts Wednesday night, April 18. The new emergency shipment to France is in addition to 71,323 pounds of matzoh ordered by the JDC office for France last December and shipped to the country sometime ago, Mr. Warburg declared. “There has been an influx of newcomers into France recently from many countries of Europe and North Africa, unsurpassed since the period immediately after the war,” he said.

“The extra shipment of Passover supplies underscores the fact that many of these new arrivals are in desperate need of help, not only for provisions for the holiday season, but for the basic necessities of life during the difficult days ahead,” he added.

Jewish communities to which shipments of Passover foods have been made include those of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Yugoslavia, as well as Latin American countries. In Poland, matzoh is baked and sold by the Kehillah, the official Jewish religious body, with equipment provided originally by JDC, which also pays for distribution to those Jews who cannot afford to pay. Jews receiving help from JDC in Israel and the Moslem countries of North Africa and the Near East are given special cash grants to enable them to purchase locally the extra supplies needed for observance of the holiday.