While the full extent of the disaster caused by the floods in Roumania, particularly in the thickly populated Jewish districts of Moldavia and Jassy, has not yet been ascertained, many thousands are without food and shelter, according to cable dispatches just received at the New York City headquarters of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee from Dr. Bernhard Kahn, European Director of the Committee. Small funds have been rushed to the stricken regions. “Additional funds are immediately required,” Dr. Kahn states, “to bring emergency aid, to make arrangements for the children in the summer camps, and to provide loans for the rebuilding of the destroyed homes.”
Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, National Chairman of the Fund-Raising Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee, in making this cable public said: “This catastrophe, even according to the incomplete reports at hand, appears to be much worse than that brought by previous floods in Roumania. The Joint Distribution Committee cannot answer the tragic pleas for help of these victims, because of lack of funds. These stricken people have no one to turn to, except the Joint Distribution Committee, which has functioned in the manner of an international Jewish ‘Red Cross’ for many years. With thousands of Jews forced to desert their destroyed homes, and lacking the primary essentials of food and shelter, grave danger faces many of them unless help is immediately forthcoming. Not only is emergency relief urgently required, but funds for rebuilding must be made available through Free Loan Societies and credit cooperatives.
“The Joint Distribution Committee appeals to the Jews of America in this emergency to give promptly so that the life-saving work of the Committee can be continued. Unless such aid is forthcoming, the Jewish victims in Roumania will be left to starvation and death. We have never failed when such calls on our generosity have been made, and even in these difficult times, I am confident that the Jews of America will respond as generously as they are able to.”
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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.
