A national campaign committee to plan and direct the appeal of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for funds with which to continue its emergency relief and rehabilitation activities during 1933 among the Jews of Eastern and Central Europe is now being formed, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, National Chairman of the Fund-Raising Committee, announced.
The committee, when completed, will be composed of outstanding Jewish leaders, representative of all sections of the country, who will sponsor the appeal, Dr. Wise said.
The decision of the committee to intensify its appeal, announced last week, followed receipt of a report from Dr. Bernhard Kahn, European Director of the Joint Distribution Committee, which pointed out that American Jewish assistance is vitally necessary to prevent the collapse of Jewish self-help institutions and rehabilitation agencies. Hundreds of pleas from Jewish communal leaders and organizations overseas have been received at the offices of the committee here, within recent months, stressing the acute needs of the Jewish population.
Local campaigns for the Joint Distribution Committee are now under way in several cities throughout the country, Dr. Wise said, and several more are scheduled to open during February and March.
“Despite conditions here and the requirements for local relief needs,” Dr. Wise declared in a statement, “we are finding the Jews of America keenly aware of their obligation to assist their suffering brethren overseas and willing to participate in the important task of maintaining the morale of these people by a concrete display of their sympathy and interest.”
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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.