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New U.S. Palestine Policy Causing Despair Among Dp’s. Ort Leader Reports

April 7, 1948
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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A report on the anti-Semitic atmosphere prevailing in Germany and affecting the life of the displaced Jews there was presented here last night by Jacob Olsiski, director of the ORT trade schools in the U.S. zone of Germany, at a meeting arranged by the American ORT Federation at the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel. The American reversal on Palestine has caused bitter disappointment among the displaced Jam in Europe and has filled them “with fear and despair,” he said.

George Backer, president of the World ORT Union, told the gathering that “the present change of attitude of the United States towards Palestine, which decreases the chance of large-scale emigration into that country within the near future, confronts American Jewry with a new situation and increased responsibilities. The ORT expected to see the greater part of its program in the displaced person’s camps completed in 1948. However, the present situation will necessitate ORT’s prolonging its program in the DP camps and in the European countries, and at the same time expand its activities in the countries of the Middle East, where about 800,000 Jews–some of the most depressed and oppressed Jews in the world are in great need of vocational training.

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