J.D.C. Will Have to Engage in Increased Emergency Aid This Winter Says Hyman

The coming winter is certain to be one of great hardship for large masses of Jews in Roumania, Poland, and the border countries and it is quite clear that the Joint Distribution Committee, in the coming year will be called upon to engage in an increased amount of emergency aid, stated Joseph C. Hyman, Secretary of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee yesterday in an interview with a representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

“Unless we can contribute support and sustain the morale of many of the local European organizations, they will not be able to continue their work through the winter,” he said.

Mr. Hyman’s views are the results of a first hand study of the situation in Europe whence he returned last week.

While abroad, he conferred with Dr. Bernhard Kahn, European director of the work of the Joint Distribution Committee, and both of us, he said, are agreed that the miserable plight of the Roumanian Jews, in particular, “defies expression.

“There have been no improvements in the economic conditions of the Jews of Europe as compared with last year,” stated Mr. Hyman. “On the contrary, their condition has been so much weakened that many of the welfare organizations believe that in a number of actions, mass feeding will have to be resorted to, particularly among the school children and in child-care institutions.”

While abroad, Mr. Hyman attended meetings of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency; the Reconstruction Foundation of the Joint Distribution Committee; the trustees of the Palestine Emergency Fund and the Board of Governors of the Hebrew University. At the latter meeting he served as proxy for Felix M. Warburg and Dr. Cyrus Adler.

Mr. Hyman did not visit Germany, but from reports which have reached him, he said that for the first time in many years German Jews are applying for aid to the American Jewish Reconstruction Foundation of the Joint Distribution Committee. “A fact,” he emphasized, “that is a true indication of the plight of the German Jew.”

Discussing the meeting of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency, Mr. Hyman said that “many of us felt happy that despite differences of opinion, there was a growing feeling of the necessity of unity among all groups connected with the Palestine movement.”

A committee has been appointed to give close study to the structure of the Jewish Agency and is scheduled to prepare a report to be submitted at the next meeting of the Council of the Jewish Agency, he said.

It was generally acknowledged at the Administrative Committee meeting, Mr. Hyman stated, that strenuous efforts must be made in order to secure financial support for the work that must be continued and that a large proportion of these funds will have to come from America.