(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
A demonstration of Jewish unemployed took place here yesterday. Several hundred unemployed workers gathered at the entrance to the Kehillah Council and demanded that the Kehillah allot the sum of 25,000 Zlotys for immediate relief. Leaders of the Kehillah promised to consider the demand.
Cable despatches received from Miss Irma May by David A. Brown, national chairman of the United Jewish Campaign, made known yesterday, depicted the situation of the Jewish unemployed in Lodz, Poland.
“There are 20,000 Jews registered here as unemployed, which means that about 80,000 people are without means of support, and their suffering is unspeakable,” the despatches stated. “Eighty-five per cent of the small traders in Lodz are doing no business, due to the closing of the factories and the lack of credit. The remaining fifteen per cent are in agony. Due to the idleness of the artisans in Lodz, five thousand families, say another 20,000, men, women and children are in terrible want.
“There is a fifty per cent decrease here in commerce. Only 10,000 Jewish merchants have taken out commercial licenses this year, compared to 20,000 last year. Approximately 40,000 people are already affected and breadless because of the collapse of commerce, and the rest, those who are trying to keep their heads above water, are doomed to bankruptcy in the very near future.
“There is grave danger of the outbreak of typhoid and other epidemics caused by hunger, and the communities are without means for safeguarding themselves against this peril. One hundred per cent of 4,000 school children examined for filth diseases have been found to be infected.
“To sum it all up, 230,000 Jews in Lodz and its environs are doomed unless immediate relief is sent. Please inform the American people that ten cents a day will save a human life.”
Soup kitchens and bread lines have already been established in Vilna, which is the center of a Jewish population of 222,000, another cable from Miss May to Mr. Brown reports.
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