Jewish Claims Conference Meets in U.S.; Assigns $10,100,785 for Aid

The sum of $10,100,785 was allocated to Jewish communities, organizations and institutions in 30 countries throughout the world by the board of directors of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, at the close of its annual meeting held here today.

The allocations represented funds available for distribution this year, and raised to more than $60,000,000 the total sum granted by the Conference since 1956, it was announced by Jacob Blaustein of Baltimore, senior vice-president of the Claims Conference. In presenting the 1959 budget, Mr. Blaustein stated that it contained two major components: $7,911,811 to go in aid of relief, rehabilitation and resettlement projects and $1,773,974 for cultural and educational reconstruction.

The Claims Conference, made up of 23 national and world-wide Jewish organizations, obtains the funds it allocates under the special agreement it reached with the German Federal Government in 1952, by which $107,000,000 is being turned over to the Conference, over a span of 12 years, for the benefit of needy Nazi victims throughout the world.

Mr. Blaustein pointed out that the allocations reached only a fraction of the sums requested from the Conference this year. “More than 400 Jewish organizations have applied for grants exceeding $30,000,000, all told, three times the sum available for allocation, he stated. He announced that $7,911,811, almost four-fifths of the entire budget for 1959, was designated for relief and rehabilitation programs expected to provide 150,000 needy Nazi victims with aid.

The funds will be spent, in Europe principally, by Jewish communal and central welfare agencies and by the American Joint Distribution Committee. Funds will also be used to aid in the emigration of Nazi victims from Europe and for their resettlement, especially in Australia and Latin America. Over nine-tenths of the funds will be expended on the European continent and especially in the lands under former Nazi occupation where needs are most urgent. The relief and rehabilitation of needy Nazi victims now in Latin America and Australia also bear important priorities.

$1,773,974 GRANTED FOR CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION

Allocations of $1,773,974 for Jewish cultural and educational reconstruction will go in aid of six major programs, Mr. Blaustein stated They include education, research and publication, salvage of cultural treasures, upkeep of rabbinical schools, programs for individual scholarships and fellowships, and the documentation and commemoration of the era of Nazi persecution. The programs are addressed to the reconstruction of Jewish institutions and of spiritual and cultural centers ravaged by the Nazis, and for the rehabilitation of Nazi victim who are scholars, writers and teachers.

Over $700,000, the greatest single sum for cultural reconstruction will go in aid of Jewish education. More than one-half of the sum is ear-marked for the construction, repair and equipment of 27 schools in nine countries, the great majority in Europe. “Conference allocations for Jewish education have climbed year by year and have expanded more than threefold since 1954,” Mr. Blaustein said.

In all the categories of Conference grants, Mr. Blaustein pointed out, those for capital investment play a vital role in the rebuilding of Jewish communities that suffered at Nazi hands. The grants cut across programs for relief and rehabilitation, cultural and educational and reconstruction and commemoration and documentation of the Nazi persecution.

For 1959, grants reaching $1,070,000 will go for the construction, expansion, equipment and repair of homes for the aged, hospitals, children’s and youth homes, baby clinics, summer camps, kindergartens, schools, community and youth centers, religious institutions and related undertakings. Those funds will increase to some $6,000,000 the sums allocated for capital investment undertakings since Conference operations began in 1954.