United Hias Service to Help Resettle 12,000 Jewish Refugees in 1958

The United Hias Service expects to help resettle about 12, 000 Jewish refugees in the United States, Canada, Australia and South America during 1958, it was reported here today at the 74th annual meeting of the organization by Murray I. Gurfein, president. Mr. Gurfein said that last year United Hias helped some 19,000 Jewish refugees find new homes in these countries.

The meeting was told that the organization will need $3,548,762 for its 1958 operations as compared with $3,020,495 spent last year. Max Ornstein, treasurer, emphasized that the transporting of emigrants who are now leaving Poland, Hungary, Egypt, and other countries of Europe and North Africa will entail large expenditures on the part of United Hias this year. In 1957 many of the refugees, including Hungarian escapees, were transported by ships and planes provided by governmental and intergovernmental agencies.

The meeting adopted a resolution urging that major revisions be made in the basic U.S. immigration and nationality laws, in accordance with recommendations made by President Eisenhower. The meeting also saluted the State of Israel on the occasion of the Tenth Anniversary of its founding, and heard a message from Israel’s Consul General in New York, Simcha Pratt.

The United Hias Award of Honor, presented annually to the man adjudged to have made the greatest contribution to the cause of immigration, cited President Juscelino Kubitschek of Brazil for “his exemplary leadership in providing homes in the Great Republic of Brazil, for refugees, escapees, expellees, and displaced and stateless persons of all faiths, who were forced by circumstances to seek new homelands where they may live new and productive lives amid peace and security. “

Mr. Gurfein, in making the presentation, an engrossed scroll, pointed out that Brazil last year accepted some 60, 000 immigrants of all faiths, “which is more than the combined total taken by all other 20 Latin American countries.” Brazil’s Ambassador to the United States, Ernani do Amaral Peixoto, accepted the award in behalf of his President.

President Kubitschek, in his message, said the award “acknowledged” his country’s service to a “noble cause, a cause which honors civilization, the cause of the fight against all shades and hues of racial prejudice, tyranny, injustice, persecution, and malicious injury to the dignity of human beings. ” He stressed that “by keeping the gates of Brazil wide open to all those seeking to build their new homes on our land, I did nothing but to act in conformity to something which lies deeply rooted into the soul of my people, a pervading feeling of human solidarity.”