A New York quota of $1,250,000 and a Chicago quota of $350,000 were adopted following the action of the conference of 150 Jewish leaders from thirty states and Canada yesterday in setting a $3,500,000 goal for the 1936 campaign of the Joint Distribution Committee for the aid of German and eastern European Jews.
The conference unanimously agreed that efforts must be redoubled in this country for aiding reconstruction work. Speakers were Felix M. Warburg, honorary chairman of the J.D.C.; Paul Baerwald, chairman; Joseph C. Hyman, secretary; William Rosenwald of Philadelphia; Alexander Kahn of New York, who recently returned from Poland; Solomon Lowenstein of New York, Prof. Joseph P. Chamberlain, American member of the League high commission for refugees and Gov. Henry Horner of Illinois.
Fovernor Lehman of New York, sent a message to the conference. Mr. Warburg declared: “At no time since the beginning of the World War has there been so great a need for service, understanding and giving.
“Given an understanding of their problem,” he continued, “a sympathetic approach from governments and authorities, willingness to give some regard to special difficulties and sufferings that oppress the Jewish elements of the population, I am convinced that progress can be achieved in restoring the Jewish people in all these lands to a position of health and self-support.”
Discussing the termination of the agreement between the J.D.C. and the American Palestine Campaign in the United Jewish Appeal, Mr. Warburg said:
“Some have deplored that next year the J.D.C. and Palestine campaigns will go their seperate ways. I too am sorry in a sense, yet I am glad that as a result of two years of partial contact and partnership, many values in mutual understanding and in good will have developed. These will persist and continue in efforts in many local communities. Whether a locality shall determine to have one drive for both or separate efforts there is today, I know, a more sympathetic understanding, clearer appreciation of needs, than in many years before.
“I might have hoped the united appeal could still continue but I was convinced that in both groups, those who saw in Palestine the major program and those who saw in Germany and Poland the major need, that it was not feasible to attempt to harness these spirited chargers together. They both had the same objective, the same ultimate hope, but they dashed off in separate directions. It was not easy for those who held the reins to keep them together.
“I am proudly convinced that we can part as good neighbors and as good friends. We can help each other as we have in the past. We can work together wherever local circumstances make it desirable and possible. In our programs of activity abroad we can dovetail our work.
“The J.D.C. has long contributed toward the work for Palestine. In this German situation a substantial part of our funds have gone to enable Jews from Germany and refugees to emigrate to Palestine, to train and prepare for life there. Part of our funds have gone to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
“So we will continue as we have from the very beginning of our work in 1914, to include Palestine in our efforts, but we will have to concentrate in bringing aid to German and Polish Jews. In whatever plans we work out we shall think of Palestine in all its possibilities as a means and as a goal toward helping many of our fellow Jews, But we cannot stop with Palestine.”
Mr. Baerwald told the conference that the future prospects of the Jews throughout the world have been strengthened by the institutions established and supported by funds from the American J.D.C. He said:
“No history of contemporary Jewish life would fail to record the evidences of American contributions through the J.D.C. All over Eastern and Central Europe, Russia and Palestine there remain tangible and intangible benefits that your contributions have established. Your funds made possible for Jews of all those countries overseas to feel they could go on, keep their organizations functioning.”
Reviewing the conditions of the Jews in Germany, Mr. Hyman declared that at most not more than 15,000 to 20,000 Jews can leave Germany yearly. This means, he said, that measures must be taken to aid the rest.
“We must plan with them,” he said. “We must support their responsible leaders and organizations in preventing panic flights, in stopping mass exodus that will endanger those who flee and that will have serious results in spreading the dreadful poison of anti-Semitism in all those countries in which they seek refuge.”
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