The Joint Distribution Committee adopted today a budget of $24,551,000 for 1968, about $2 million above its actual 1967 expenditures of $22,500,000. In presenting the budget, Samuel L. Haber, executive vice-chairman, told the JDC’s annual meeting here that the increased amount was necessary because last June’s Six-Day War had affected not only Israel but “has produced profound, often permanent, effects upon Jews and Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and the Moslem world.” The JDC will have to aid some 375,000 needy Jews in 30 countries around the world in 1968, he said. The budget will be submitted to the United Jewish Appeal, of which the JDC is a beneficiary, when the UJA holds its annual conference in New York this weekend.
Louis Broido was reelected chairman of JDC for a third term. Jack D. Weiler, of New York, was chosen again as chairman of the JDC national council; and Judge Nochem S. Winnet, of Philadelphia, was reelected vice-chairman of that council. Nearly 400 Jewish leaders from all over the United States and Canada attended the meeting.
“It is clear,” Mr. Haber told the parley, “that in the months ahead JDC will be faced once again with the agonizing dilemma — how to maintain its continuing assistance to Jews in Western Europe and in Israel while, at the same time, attempting to cope with the new or changed needs created by the war and its aftermath in North Africa, in France and in Eastern Europe.”
Almost $7 million of the $24,551,000 budget has been earmarked for JDC programs in Israel. Mr. Haber said. Another $882,000 will go for support of religious and cultural activities, raising the total budget for Israel to close $8 million, almost a third of the total budget. Over $5 million will go for aid to needy Jews in Moslem countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Close to $4 million will be allotted to health and welfare services in Europe.
“In Israel, Europe and the Moslem countries, the relief and rehabilitation programs of the JDC remain indispensable for the sustenance of some 375,000 Jews,” Mr. Haber said. “For many of them JDC aid means survival.” Because available funds in 1968 will “almost certainly fall short of meeting all the needs,” JDC has examined its programs “in terms of the most urgent priorities,” he added.
Reviewing JDC’s activities in 1967, Mr. Haber reported that JDC had assisted approximately 375,000 needy and handicapped persons at a cost of almost $22.5 million. The number aided included 93,000 in Israel, 54,000 in Arab and Moslem countries, 80,000 in Western Europe, 75,000 in Europe, where JDC conducted programs in Poland, Rumania and Yugoslavia; and 5,000 in other areas such as Australia, South America and Asia. There were another 70,000 persons assisted in programs which cut across national boundaries, Mr. Haber added.
BROIDO NOTES CRISES; ADOLPH HELD HONORED
Mr. Broido, who presided at the meeting, noted that there has rarely been a year in JDC’s 53-year history in which it was not confronted with a crisis. “It is seldom possible to anticipate an emergency,” he said. “Our annual budget never sets aside a reserve fund for disasters. Yet there has rarely been a year in the existence of the JDC when there has not been a crisis of some kind, affecting thousands and tens of thousands of men, women and children. Moreover, even if it is not possible to predict the unpredictable, one can be ready for it.”
The delegates adopted a resolution pledging support for the Emergency Fund of the United Jewish Appeal in Behalf of Israel, and support for the regular United Jewish Appeal Campaign for 1968. It is through the regular UJA campaign that the JDC derives funds for its worldwide heath, welfare and rehabilitation programs.
A highlight of the meeting was the presentation of a scroll to Adolph Held, president of the Jewish Labor Committee, who was honored for his five decades of service to JDC. The JDC leaders also heard an address by Dr. William Haber, Dean of the College of Literature, Science and Art of the University of Michigan, brother of Samuel L. Haber; and a report by Josef Konvitz, a student at Princeton University, on the 1967 JDC Student Work-Study Project.
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