Jlc Medical Team Recommends Unified Program in Palestine to Prepare for Cyprus Jews

The establishment of a coordinating executive body by the major Jewish institutions in Palestine to provide a unified program for meeting the needs of the Cyprus interness when they arrive in Palestine is recommended in a report of a J.D.C. paychiatric group which studied the visaless Jews on the Mediterranean island for two months this summer. The report, released today by the J.D.C., is signed by Dr. Paul Friedman, chief of the mission, and Mildred J. Buchwalder and Sadi Oppenheim, both prominent psychologists and members of the research team.

The report also recommends that the Palestine Jewish organizations preparing for the refugees should draw up a comprehensive program of education and information to assist the Cyprus DP’s adjust themselves to their new life in Palestine, and that several mental hygiene units be formed to assist in the adjustment of young people as they arrive in the country.

In reference to improving conditions before the refugees are permitted to complete their migration, the psychiatric team suggests that vocational training activities already begun by the J.D.C. should be extended in cooperation with the Jewish Agency; that housing, sanitation, furnishings and other physical requirements be improved in the internment camps. The team also endorses previous recommendations, since accepted by the British, that priority in immigration be given to children under 18.

After its study and work on the island, where it also conducted classes for group leaders and adult discussion groups, the team proceeded to Palestine where it studied the mental health of some of the refugees who had been permitted to enter from Cyprus. It also made specific recommendations for the organization and operation of a mental health program for the Cyprus Jews after their arrival.