More Than 100 U.S. Institutes Study Post-war Problems, Jewish Conference is Told

There are more than 100 institutes in the United States at present devoted to post-war research, the 700 delegates at the National Conference of Jewish Social Welfare were told here today by Abraham G. Duker, editor of the Research Institute on Peace and Post-War Problems of the American Jewish Committee. Five of these institutes are Jewish and no two of them have the same political program or outlook, he said.

“There are, however, two points on which all agree,” Mr. Duker continued. “These are the restoration of equality to the individual Jew and the insistence upon an international Bill of Rights to protect all national minorities everywhere.”

Louis Kraft, executive director of the Jewish Welfare Board, speaking at the seminar on Jewish war-time, problems, said that the new fields of Jewish social work opened up by the war situation need not be regarded by social workers as added burdens. “In a very real sense they represent new values and the social worker can be instrumental in assisting the transfer of these values to peacetime, as permanent gains for the American society,” he stated.

SITUATION OF REFUGEES IN SHANGHAI DESCRIBED BY HYMAN

The situation of 21,000 Jewish refugees in Japanese-occupied Shanghai was described by Joseph C. Hyman, Executive Vice-Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, speaking at an informal meeting of Welfare Fund executives convened in conjunction with the Conference.

“Although the situation of the refugees in Shanghai is certainly precarious,” Mr. Hyman said, “we know for a fact that at this time the Japanese are permitting relief work to continue.” The work is being supervised by Laura L. Margolis and Manuel Siegel, both Americans, who represent the J.D.C. in Shanghai. Both Miss Margolis and Mr. Siegel refused to leave Shanghai before the beginning of Japanese-American hostilities, although they had ample opportunity to escape when war seemed imminent.

Relief is today being given to nearly all of the 21,000 refugees in Shanghai, marking a three-fold increase from pre-war days, when two-thirds of the European Jews who had found asylum in Shanghai were able to earn modest livings, Mr. Hyman reported. The work is financed by funds borrowed locally, against a J.D.C. promise to repay these debts when possible to do so without aiding the enemy.

Benjamin Fox of Brooklyn, executive director of the Bensonhurst Jewish community House, today was elected president of the National Association of Jewish Center Workers. The Center workers and educators joined the social workers at the memorial meeting for Dr. Solomon Lowenstein, whose death this year ended the career of one of America’s leading social workers. “We mourn the loss of a dear friend who understood and gave expression to friendship: the passing of a great-hearted courageous counselor and guide,” Mr. Hyman told those assembled.