The Joint Distribution Committee will require a minimum of $29,200,000 for its activities in 1956, it was learned here today on the eve of the 41st annual meeting of the organization, which will be held tomorrow at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
Of the JDC’s total 1956 budget, about $15,200,000 or more than 50 percent will be spent on those programs directly connected with Israel for immigration to Israel, for Malben, for ORT training programs, and for cultural and religious programs there, Other major budgetary items will include some $3,700,000 for aid to Jews in the Moslem world; $3,200,000 for other emigration aid and relief-in-transit; $1,540,000 for reconstruction assistance and $3,904,000 for aid programs in 14 countries of Europe.
With theses sums the JDC expects to aid more than 200,000 men, women and children in some 25 countries of the world. These include: 1 Up to 45,000 who must be aided to leave North Africa for Israel, the largest number form Morocco; 2. Nearly 100,000 others in Moslem countries, who must continue to rely upon JDC feeding and medical programs, must continue to seek vocational and educational opportunities, must look to the JDC for aid against the triple threat of poverty, disease and discrimination. 3. More than 30,000 persons in Israel, who must continue to receive medical and institutional care rehabilitation and reconstruction aid, vocational training and cultural, religious and educational assistance. 4. Almost 30,000, including thousands of disabled refugees and their dependents in Europe, to whom virtually all emigration opportunities have been barred.
Edward M.M. Warburg, JDC chairman, said today that more than 500 delegates, representing Jewish communities in every part of the United States, will join tomorrow in adopting the 1956 budget of the JDC, which this year aided more than 160,000 men, women and children in 25 countries of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, including Israel. Speakers at a dinner the same evening will be Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt and Moses A. Leavitt, JDC executive vice-chairman who returned recently from a survey of relief and welfare needs in Europe and Israel. Mrs. Roosevelt was in Israel earlier in the year.
The 1956 budget for overseas assistance will be presented to the delegates by Morris Laub, JDC assistant secretary. The budgetary analysis was to have been presented at this meeting by Moses W. Beckelman, JDC director-general for overseas activities who died suddenly last week in New York. In 1955, JDC spent over $25,000,000. More than half of this sum was spent on the agency’s Malben program in Israel, aiding aged, ill and handicapped newcomers there.
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