Describing the plight of the majority of the 1,500,000 Jewish survivors of Europe as “indescribably bad and considerably worse” than it was a year ago, Mrs. David M. Levy, who returned last week from a mission in Europe and Palestine on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal, declared today that the future of Europe’s Jews hinges on the success of the $170,000,000 UJA campaign.
Reporting on her visit to the DP camps in Germany and Austria, Mrs. Levy told a press conference at her home that “it is criminal that the physical hardships, the lack of privacy and the absence of any creature comforts should prevail so long after liberation. But these people represent the toughest core of the survivors of Hitler, and refuse to succumb to despair.”
She said that Jews were still leaving Poland because of the fear that they may become the “scapegoat” of anti-government forces. “The Jews who remain feel that they are living in a graveyard,” she said. “They feel that they have no future or any assurance of security and they are eager to go to other lands, especially to Palestine.” But those Polish Jews who are seeking to rahabilitate themselves, she pointed out, are receiving a large measure of help from the JDC.
On the subject of Palestine, Mrs. Levy emphasized that although the activity of the “terrorists” has created anxisty, “it did not interfere with the daily life of the country any more than an isolated incident of robbery or violence would interfere with every-day life in New York City.” Coming from the misery of Europe to Palestine is like going “from darkness into the sunshine,” she observed. “Palestine is the only country in the world where Jews are wanted.”
She announced at the press conference that she has accepted the chairmanship of the National Women’s Division of the United Jewish Appeal campaign to raise $170,000,000 for the relief, rehabilitation and resettlement programs of the Joint Distribution Committee, United Palestine Appeal and United Service for New Americans.
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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.
