Passover, the festival commemorating the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian slavery more than 3,000 years ago, will begin at sundown tomorrow with the traditional Seder in Jewish homes throughout the world.
The Joint Distribution Committee has shipped more than 350,000 pounds of matzoth and other Passover supplies to needy Jews in Europe, it was announced today by Edward M.M. Warburg, JDC chairman. In addition to the supplies purchased to help European Jews, Mr. Warburg said, JDC hospitals, sanitaria, old age homes and other institutions in Israel buy their Passover supplies in the Holy Land. In North Africa and other Moslem countries, communities purchase their own type of matzoh, as well as other Passover necessities, as part of regular JDC financed relief and feeding programs.
The Passover supplies, most of which were purchased by the JDC in Holland, Mr. Warburg indicated, include not only matzoh and kosher wine, but also special items to meet specific community needs. These special items include some 13,200 pounds of kosher sugar for the Jewish community of Greece, as well as 3,500 pounds of kosher fat.
Largest shipments of matzoh and matzoh meal include: France, 48,300 pounds; Germany, 34,200; Yugoslavia, 30,000; Greece, 20,900; Belgium, 16,200 and Austria, 14,500. Other consignments were sent to Jews in Italy, Portugal and Spain, and to the tiny Jewish community of Albania. For Jews in many of these areas, the JDC shipments will be the only Passover supplies available anywhere in these countries.
A special Passover proclamation of the Synagogue Council of America issued today made an urgent plea for support of the 1955 nationwide United Jewish Appeal as “the best means of aiding the hundreds of thousands of victims of war and oppression who have found a haven in the reborn State of Israel.”
The proclamation was forwarded to 2,300 Orthodox. Conservative and Reform rabbis throughout the nation along with a request that they make pulpit appeals to their congregations during the period of April 6 to April 17 for generous support to the current United Jewish Appeal campaign. The Synagogue Council of America is the central national agency representing the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbinic and congregational bodies of Judaism in the United States.
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