Formation of a new committee on reconstruction, to advise the Joint Distribution Committee on activities designed to help Europe’s Jewish survivors to become self-sufficient, was announced during the week-end by Edward M.M. Warburg,, chairman of the J.D.C.
Under the chairmanship of Monroe Goldwater, New York attorney, the Reconstruction Committee, which consists of business executives, labor leaders and economic experts, will develop an expanded program of rehabilitative measures in Europe. A four-point program of reconstruction is now under way consisting of credit societies, producers’ cooperatives, vocational training centers and work projects, Mr. Warburg said. Emphasizing that the program aims to provide opportunities for self-support both for those Jews who plan to remain in Europe and those seeking new homes elsewhere, Mr. Warburg announced that preliminary appropriations of $5,000,000 have been made thus far this year for the reconstruction program already in operation.
Members of the committee include former Governor Herbert H. Lehman, Dr. Isadore Lubin, former U.S. Commissioner of Labor Statistics; Morris Rosenthal, one-time Deputy Administrator of the Foreign Economic Administration; Harold Stein, former head of the office of Mobilization and Reconversion; David Dubinsky, president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union; Jacp Aaronson, vice-president of the New York Central Railroad; Walter Ross; Prof. Emanuel Stein, and Eric M. Warburg. Boris M. Joffe, ex-director of the National Wage Stabilization Board, is secretary pro tem of the body.
The system of credit societies, Mr. Warburg explained, is to aid small merchants, artisans, craftsmen and professional persons to obtain the tools, equipment and other supplies needed for return to their careers and self-support. Vocational training will be carried on in the displaced persons’ camps of Germany and Austria as well as in other European countries in cooperation with the ORT.
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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.