U.J.A. Leaders Hear Report on Israel’s Absorption of Refugees

The people of Israel have responded to a current Jewish refugee crisis by putting aside all questions of their ability to absorb more immigrants, and to save lives are taking in newcomers “at a feverish rate,” Rabbi Herbert A, Friedman, executive vice-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal reported today, returning from a visit to the Jewish state.

“By the end of July Israel’s people will have welcomed almost 60,000 new immigrants in seven months and must plan on finding room for 6,000 to 7,000 monthly for the remainder of 1957, “the UJA national executive head told 150 leaders of the UJA of Greater New York, meeting to conduct a “person to person” telephone solicitation for refugee rescue funds.

Rabbi Friedman declared that new Jewish refugees for 1957 are expected to total at least 120,000 persons who must be resettled in free lands. “Israel will provide haven for the vast majority.” The refugee total includes 17,000 Jews who fled Communist Hungary in last winter’s general uprising, more than 24,000 Jews stripped of their belongings and driven from Egypt by Egyptian dictator Nasser; some 40,000 Jews who have emerged to date from areas of tension in Eastern Europe and North Africa, plus 40,000 expected from most of these areas in the next five months.

“Because they once more put the need to save endangered lives above considerations of national well-being, the people of Israel find themselves also engaged in a desperate battle to ward off a great economic crisis,” the UJA leader told the group. He added, “only prompt and full aid, particularly through the UJA, can provide the thousands of housing units needed for the newcomers, can speed agricultural expansion and settlement and accelerate the process of turning needy immigrants into useful, established citizens earning their own way.”