Jdc’s Broido Tells Mission in Israel That 1968 Budget Remains Vital for Jewish Survival

The relief and rehabilitation work of the Joint Distribution Committee in 1968 remains “a vital and indispensable pre-condition for survival in some cases and for minimum well-being in others for 375,000 Jews in Israel, Europe and Arab and Moslem countries,” Louis Broido of New York, JDC chairman, said here yesterday.

Addressing the United Jewish Appeal mission currently surveying the needs of Jews in those countries, he said that the repercussions of the Six-Day War in June had presented the JDC with its most severe challenge in more than a decade, “one which will affect its program and budget for many years to come.” He added that the focal point of JDC activities now was in France and Italy, where many thousands of Jews from the Moslem North African countries had found refuge.

He said that all but a few hundred of the 4,000 Jews in Libya had fled to Italy. He reported that, in France, about 50,000 Jews were in need of some form of JDC help. In the past 10 years, he reported, the Jewish population of France had risen from 300,000 to more than 500,000. He said this had resulted in a lack of such communal services as Jewish schools, synagogues, children’s homes and homes for the aged.

Members of the UJA mission also heard reports on JDC programs in Israel and later toured the home for the aged in Rishon Lezion sponsored by Malben, the JDC-supported agency for the care of the aged and infirm.