Four million dollars will be asked of the Jews of Greater New York as their contribution toward the $15,000,000 which is being raised in this country by the United Jewish Campaign in order to enable the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to continue the relief and reconstructive aid of destitute Jews in Eastern Europe.
This decision was arrived at during a conference Monday at the Hotel Biltmore, called by David A. Brown, after the public statement was issued by the Joint Distribution Committee.
Mr. Felix M. Warburg informed the conference that the reports received by the Joint Distribution Committee during the past month, and especially those from Jewish communities in Poland and Bessarabia revealed a situation far worse than the Jews of Europe found themselves in during the worst period of the World War.
“Help,” Mr. Warburg said, “dare not be delayed a single moment and unless New York raises the $4,000,000 required of it, a desperate situation, unparalleled in Jewish history, would result.”
Mr. Brown reported to the conference that he had already succeeded in organizing 30 states for the campaign and that during the next three weeks he will cover 14 additional states and bring them into line for the $15,000,000 overseas chest. Chicago has already raised the first million for the overseas chest and local drives would be held within the next few weeks. It was necessary, he said, for New York to swing into action immediately.
James N. Rosenberg moved that New York’s quota of $4,000,000 be accepted and Col. H. A. Guinzburg moved that Mr. Warburg and Mr. Louis Marshall be empowered to proceed at once with the organization of New York’s campaign. Both motions were unanimously adopted, and the wish was expressed at the same time that the fund-raising machinery of the New York and Brooklyn Federations of Jewish Charities be utilized as far as possible in the actual conduct of the campaign, for which the date will shortly be fixed.
Mr. Marshall brought the conference to a close with a short address in which he paid tribute to Mr. Brown who, he said, had won the gratitude of the Jews of the world by his unselfish efforts in this and previous campaigns for the relief of suffering European Jewry.
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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.
