Quick Action Needed to Rescue Jews, Congressman Tells J.D.C. Scuthern Regional Meeting

American Jews must act quickly to ensure the survival of hundreds of thousands of Jews in Europe, Congressman Benjamin J. Rabin of New York warned listeners at the Southern Regional Meeting of the Joint Distribution Committee held today at the Ansley Hotel here.

“All Joint Distribution Committee activities in allied, neutral, liberated and occupied territories must continue and be expanded if European Jews are to have any kind of hope for the future,” Congressman Rabin stated. He emphasized that “the $46,570,000 being asked of the J.D.C. by European communities for rescue, relief and rehabilitation work in 1945, although a minimum estimate only, is an unprecedented sum in the thirty years of J.D.C. activity and is the result of unprecedented needs.”

Mr. Rabin, a member of the J.D.C. Board of Directors and newly elected U. S. Representative from the 24th Congressional District of New York, presented to the general session an extensive program of J.D.C. activities in 1945, as based upon estimated needs overseas and upon the experiences of the past year. Mr. William P. Engel, Birmingham, a member of the Board of Directors of the J.D.C., presided at the general session.

Representatives of several southeastern states also heard Max S. Perlman, J.D.C. representative in Italy, who recently returned after fifteen months spent in administering the J.D.C.’s relief and rehabilitation programs abroad. Mr. Perlman detailed his experiences in establishing workshops and training programs for Jewish refugees, enabling them to learn new skills and to become self-supporting.