The Daily News Letter

Warsaw.

With appeals for financial assistance for Poland’s suffering millions of Jews under way now in England, it is of interest to note that Polish Jewry is not just sitting back and waiting for help from abroad but is working and struggling to do as much as it humanly can for its stricken members.

One aspect of its self-help measures was recently described at a press conference by M. Giterman, representative of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Poland and one of the leading figures in the Association of Jewish Loan and Savings Banks of Poland. The association includes 70 banks, operated on sound financial lines, supplying credit to the Jewish population.

“It is impossible to estimate the immense achievements of the hanks,” Mr. Giterman declared, “but a few figures will give some idea of the scope of this self-aid activity.

“The turn-over capital of the 700 affiliated banks amounts at present to over 10,000,000 zlotys. Almost half is the capital of the depositors themselves, and fifty-two per cent composes contributions and loans from the Joint Distribution Committee. During the last year the banks issued about 150,000 loans to the amount of 14,000,000 zlotys, which benefited over 130,000 poverty-stricken Jewish families. To the bulk of these economically ruined Jewish families, the loans are the only capital with which they are able to carry on their trading activities and earn their livelihood. The figures show that fifty-one per cent of the borrowers were merchants and small traders, thirty-three per cent artisans and sixteen per cent belonged to other occupations. These figureh indicate what an important work the loan banks are doing as a relief apparatus for the unemployed, destitute Jewish population.

“The work extends much further, however, than the granting of loans,” he said. “There are about 1,000 Jewish social workers active in the banks, devoting much work to rescuing from their economic despair the Jewish families who have been ejected from their economic positions and are suffering from the crisis.

“The work of the banks is strict-non-partisan. Many of them are headed by the local rabbis, and the administration comprises all sections of the Jewish population.

“Lately the banks have devoted themselves to the question of productivization and vocational reconstruction of the declassed Jewish population, and do not provide, these with immediate relief, but concentrate on constructive assistance. The work along these lines was started spontaneously by a few of the banks: it spread and recently the central administration of the association has taken up the question, and a large number of activities have been started with a view to opening up new sources of livelihood for the Jews of Poland.

“The view is taken that if it is possible to open up several auxiliary occupations for Jews, this would largely assist in salvaging tens of thousands of Jewish families from want. The work of creating auxiliary vocations is a very broad one. The most popular of these branches of work are silkworm breeding, cultivating herbs, breeding rabbits for wool, etc. The association has carried through many experiments which have showns that, if the work is properly organized, new branches of work can be provided for the Jews in the small towns.

“The association has also interested itself in the situation of the Jewish orchard gardeners, who number tens of thousands in Poland, and the many other village Jews, and has also drawn up plans for establishing home industry among the Jewish population. The inquiries made by the association have shown that various crafts are being practiced among the population in many of the Jewish towns, but provide very small earnings, ranging from eighty groschen to one zloty a day. In view of this small pay, Jewish home industry, if properly organized, can do a good deal of export trade, which would somewhat alleviate the distress of the desperate Jewish masses.

“The big campaign for self-aid in Polish Jewry has been proclaimed,” Mr. Giterman said, “under the slogan of collecting the necessary funds for shifting the occupational strata of the Jewish population and productivizing the declassed Jewish masses who have been pushed out of their old economic positions.

“The association has submitted a detailed memorandum on the subject to the State Labor Fund, asking it to provide new opportunities of employment for the impoverished Jewish population of Poland. The memorandum points out that the fact that the Jews, who constitute twenty-five per cent of the urban population in Poland, are undergoing an exceptional economic crisis, cannot be a matter of indifference to the State. It proposes a number of plans adapted to the local conditions in various cases which would be able to alleviate considerably the distress among the Jewish population.

“We hope,” Mr. Giterman said, “that this important intervention will have positive results. Till now, the Jewish loan and savings banks have been assisted by the government by means of an annual subsidy of 75,000 zlotys. This is in no relation, however, to the vast activity that falls upon these banks. Now when it is a question of undertaking a large-scale productivization work, we are sure that the subsidy will be considerably increased.

“In addition, there are considerable hopes of a certain amount of financial help from foreign Jewry to assist this campaign. But the most important work is that of the Polish self-aid campaign in Poland itself. Polish Jewry must raise within the course of the campaign at least 1,000,000 zlotys in order to save Polish Jewry from utter economic annihilation.

“The Jewish Loan and Savings Banks Association has, as a result of its representations with the government, received authority to collect among the Jewish population certificates of the National Loan, and it is hoped that great numbers of these National Loan certificates will be presented to the self-aid campaign of Polish Jewry.”