JDC Annual Meeting Told 1969 Outlays for 300,000 Needy Jews $23.3 Million

The Joint Distribution Committee expenditures for 1969 on behalf of some 300,000 needy Jews in 27 overseas countries will reach $23.3 million, Samuel Haber, vice-president of the organization, reported Wednesday to its 55th annual meeting. The meeting approved the JDC report for 1969 and began consideration of the budget for 1970. It re elected Louis Broido as chairman for his fifth one-year term and re elected Jack D. Weiler as chairman of its national council for his fourth one-year term.

Mr. Haber told the 400 Jewish leaders from the United States and Canada that one-third of the JDC expenditure went for programs in Israel, with Malben, the health and welfare service for newcomers, accounting for the major share. He said that about 8,000 transmigrates, mainly from Eastern Europe, received food, shelter and medical care through JDC in Austria, France and Italy while awaiting departure to countries of fin al resettlement. The cost of this program, he said, was about $1.65 million-four times the amount budgeted at the beginning of the year.

Reporting on plans for 1970, Louis D. Horwitz, JDC director-general of overseas operations, warned that frequently, “history intervenes” to disrupt a carefully prepared budget. He cited three main areas of responsibility for JDC during the coming year: rescue-“to help other Jews from countries where they are in danger and to provide for their care and maintenance until they can resettle elsewhere; secondly, “help those Jews who must stay behind”; and third, “to help strengthen Jewish communal resources and security in the countries where the refugees go-Western Europe, Scandinavia, above all, Israel, in order to hasten their integration and thereby strengthen the totality of Jewish life.”

JDC’s role in Jewish rescue and survival, particularly in the critical years following World War II, was described and praised in the principal address at the dinner session of the meeting by Max M. Fisher, president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. He noted that at one period JDC was aiding almost a million people at a cost of $75 million a year, supporting 326 children homes, 63 homes for the aged, and 380 hospitals, clinics and sanatoria.

“Over the years 1914 to the present,” he said, “JDC has spent close to 1 billion for Jewish relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation and has helped Jews in more than 80 countries around the world. I think it fair to say that JDC has helped between four and five million individual Jews in its long, magnificent history.” The Jewish leader paid warm tribute to the “devoted corps” of JDC workers including Charles Jordan, who lost his life in Czechoslovakia. He said that “JDC’s 55 years have produced a small army of men and women whose names deserve to be remembered by Jews everywhere-with love and pride-for the manner in which they have given their energies, their creative powers, their health and sometimes their lives to saving their fellow Jews.”

President Nixon, in a message to Mr. Fisher, praised the work of the JDC. The message declared that “When you address the 55th annual meeting of the American Jewish Joint Distribution, I hope you will convey my warm greetings and admiration for all who participate. I have long valued and appreciated the humanitarian commitment which this fine organization has carried out throughout the world for more than five decades. In reaching out to assist the less fortunate, the homeless and those who seek spiritual comfort and encouragement in their daily lives, its members have enriched a time-honored tradition and earned the gratitude of all men of good will. As I express my congratulations for their enviable record of achievement, I also send my best wishes for their continuing success.”