The Joint Distribution Committee may have to reduce its relief and rehabilitation program for Jews in Western Europe unless sufficient funds are forthcoming from the United Jewish Appeal to meet pressing needs in North Africa and Israel, Moses W. Beckelman, director-general of the organization, told the fifth annual conference of J.D.C. representatives here.
He warned that cuts in these activities, made at a time when the Western European communities have not yet been able to rebuild their war-shattered community resources to the point where they can meet their own needs, would result in “serious hardships.”
Mr. Backelman praised the Jewish communities of Belgium, France, Holland and Italy for undertaking their own fund drives to meet part of their local needs, but pointed out that the six years that have elapsed since the end of the war have not been sufficient to enable them to rebuild from the Nazi wreckage. He reported that tens of thousands of Jews in Western Europe, particularly institutionalized “hard-core” cases, were dependent on the J.D.C. for food and relief.
“Only now are these communities beginning to assume financial and administrative responsibility for meeting their own welfare needs,” Mr. Beckelman declared, “but the Joint is faced with desperate calls for help from the Jews in North Africa and Israel and we must reduce Western European assistance before these communities are fully ready to meet their own needs. Only if U.J.A. funds are immediately available can this threat be averted.”
The conference turned today to the situation in the Moslem countries, with J.D.C. officials from the Moslem countries scheduled to report on conditions there.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
