Faced with increasing problems as a result of the rising age level of refugees in the United States and other conditions, the National Refugee Service is expanding its services, according to the report of Acting Executive Director Arthur D. Greenleigh, issued as a 32-page booklet under the title, “Refugees…1940.”
“The National Refugee Service and the American Jewish community may well be proud of our achievements in 1940,” the report said. “NRS helped thousands of refugees to find new homes, to find jobs, to become real Americans. It is a tribute to its efficiency that the refugee migration, which many believed might bring disaster to the American Jewish community, has been handled calmly, quietly, unostentatiously.”
Greenleigh warned, however: “The refugee problem is not solved. Tens of thousands of refugees are still coming to this country. Other tens of thousands here now will cause grave concern if the services of NRS are not available to them. All that we have achieved in the past few years may be wasted if we abandon the refugees in mid passage.” He urged American Jews to meet the NRS minimum needs budget of $4,342,000.
Stressing the rising age level of the refugee group, the report pointed out that in 1936 only 17 percent of the refugees were over 44, while in 1940, 30 per cent were over this age. This renders employment and resettlement more difficult and has created a more or less permanent relief load for NRS.
To meet the situation, NRS has expanded its vocational retraining program to teach new skills to 1,500 refugees this year and has expanded its Capital Loan Fund to enable older refugees to become self-supporting through establishment of small enterprises. At the end of 1939 the average refugee family receiving cash assistance from NRS was on relief only 5.8 months, as compared with 12 months in January, 1941.
During the fiscal year ending last June 30, 42,424 Jewish refugees reached America. At the end of the year the NRS Migration Service faced the tremendous tasks involved in arranging “change of status” for refugees now in the U.S. on temporary visas who may, by reentry from Canada, Cuba or Mexico, become permanent residents.
Greenleigh reported that the NRS during 1940 provided food, clothing and shelter to nearly 18,000 refugees at a total cost of $2,024,679, resettled, 5,113 out of port-of-entry cities, made 4,935 job placements, granted 211 capital loans totalling $67,000 for business and farms and 700 loans for physicians and for student scholarships and vocational retraining.
A chapter by William Rosenwald, president of NRS, stressed that “only by a generous response can the organization hope to carry on.” The auditor’s statement shows income of $3,174,886 against expenditures of $3,476,693, with a cash deficit for the year of $301,806.
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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.
