The launching of a major American Jewish effort to save millions of lives in the starving areas of Biafra was announced here today with the formation of the American Jewish Emergency Effort for Biafran Relief.
The top leaders of 21 major Jewish religious, communal, relief and philanthropic bodies are cooperating with Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service, and the United States Committee for UNICEF, all of which have distribution centers that get food and medicine through to the sick and starving.
The announcement was made simultaneously with the appearance of a seven-column advertisement in the New York Times announcing the formation of the group and an appeal for funds. The signatories for the advertisement stressed the need for Americans of all faiths to aid the starving people in Biafra. “Airlifts of food and medicine are possible but extremely expensive,” they added. “This is a race with death. Millions will die if food and medicine do not get through.”
Grand Rabbi Jacob Kaplan of France appealed to French Jewry today to aid the victims of starvation and disease in Biafra, because “we Jews have been the victims of genocide and understand human suffering.”
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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.
