No more than 170,000 Jewish children in Europe below the age of 18 survived the war, as compared with, the 1939 estimate of 1,500,000, it was reported today at the European conference of directors of the Joint Distribution committee. Practically all of them are being aided by local child-care programs financed by the J.D.C. in all parts of the Continent.
Despite their war experiences, the children’s mental and physical health were described as exceptionally good. About 40,000 of them are still living under abnormal conditions in camps for displaced Jews, it was revealed. However, it was emphasized that the birth rate among Jews in the DP camps of Germany is 60 per 1,000 population–the highest in the world–while the infant mortality rate is the world’s lowest.
The Joint Distribution Committee, in line with its intensified reconstruction program for Europe’s Jewish survivors, has extended 63,000 loans totalling $5,000,000 ##o Jews throughout the Continent to aid them re-establish themselves economically, it was reported at a press conference arranged in connection with the parley.
Moses Beckelman, deputy director in Europe, and Noel Aronivici, director of the J.D.C.S reconstruction program, reported that 25,000 Jews have been helped to become self-supporting in the first three months of this year. Pointing out that the J.D.C.’s aim is “to put itself out of business in Europe,” Beekelman asserted that one of the agency’s primary objectives is to aid would-be emigrants become self-supporting.
Main features of the reconstruction program, it was revealed, are the J.D.C.- supported vocational training projects producers cooperatives, loan banks and work projects. More than 37,000 Jews are at present receiving vocational training in ORT schools, while 245 producers cooperatives–chiefly in Poland, where the government has given priority ratings to raw materials assigned to the Jewish cooperatives–are being maintained throughout Europe.
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