The resettlement of 600,000 European Jewish refugees was among the far-reaching accomplishments of the agencies of the United Jewish Appeal in the decade since the outbreak of World War II, it was reported today by Henry Morgenthau, Jr., general chairman of the U.J.A., in a survey of the Appeal’s wartime and postwar relief, reconstruction and resettlement programs.
“More than 1,000,000 people who are today alive and rehabilitated, or on the road to rehabilitation, owe their lives to the unprecedented efforts and generosity of the American Jewish community, as manifested through its all-out support of the United Jewish Appeal,” the report said. Outlining the scope of the operations carried on by the U.J.A. agencies since the last war began, Mr. Morgenthau cited the following figures as highlights of the accomplishments of the United Jewish Appeal:
1. Palestine received and settled 390,000 immigrants with the aid of the United Palestine Appeal. Of these, about 250,000 entered since the establishment of Israel on May 14, 1948. Some 35,000 of the immigrants in the ten-year period were children under the age of 16.
2. One-hundred and forty new agricultural settlements were established in Palestine to house and provide employment for the immigrants, helping to lay the groundwork for the establishment of the Jewish state. These settlements were set up on land of the Jewish National Fund, which acquired 1,603,392 dunams with funds provided by the U.J.A.
3. Approximately 200,000 Jewish refugees entered the United States. Of this number 120,000 were resettled and enabled to become self-supporting by the United Service for New Americans with the aid of U.J.A. funds. The bulk of these have already become American citizens.
4. During the war, when non-military shipping was reduced to a minimum, more than 80,000 refugees were nevertheless transferred to Palestine, the United States and other countries from Allied and neutral nations to which they had escaped from Nazi-occupied Europe. The great majority of the Jewish DP camps and installations in Europe have been emptied as a result of the J.D.C. emigration program.
“These figures,” Mr. Morgenthau stressed, “only cover the highlights of the work done by the Joint Distribution Committee, the United Palestine Appeal and the United Service for New Americans. They do not reveal the heroism of the thousands of men and women who performed incredible feats during the war, and since, in saving as many as possible of Europe’s Jews, 6,000,000 of whom were murdered by the Germans.”
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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.
