Nyana Reports Aid to 3,200 Newcomers in 1968, Re-elects Howard M. Harris President

The New York Association for New Americans, which aided 3,200 Jewish newcomers to settle in New York in 1968, provided agency services to 1,672 in the first four months of this year, Howard M. Harris, NYANA president, reported to its annual meeting here today. Of these, he said, nearly 1,000 required full settlement and relief services, including housing, initial maintenance, medical and dental care, family counseling and youth services. In all of 1968, 1,200 required such services.

The increased number of arrivals for settlement here was attributed by Mr. Harris to increasing anti-Semitism in some Eastern Europe and Arab countries. Many of the refugees, he said, arrived here without funds or possessions and required immediate financial assistance.

During the first four months of 1969, it was reported, the NYANA vocational services department aided nearly 800 newcomers with job counseling, training, placement and intensive English language courses. During the same period, 240 scholarships were granted as against 213 in all of 1968.

Mr. Harris noted, that while initial settlement costs had risen sharply, the period of dependency had fallen dramatically. In 1949, the average family was dependent on the organization for eight or more months. Today, he said, the average is less than three months.

In its 20 years of refugee settlement work here, NYANA, which is supported by the United Jewish Appeal, has settled 54,029 families, including more than 125,000 individuals here. Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice president of UJA; Louis Broido, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee; Harold Friedman, treasurer of the United Hias Service; and Monroe Goldwater, honorary president of the UJA of Greater New York addressed the annual meeting. Mr. Harris was re-elected to a second term as president.