A resolution calling upon Jews in this country to urge the 84th Congress to repeal or amend the present immigration laws, which have been termed by President Eisenhower as “discriminatory” in some ways, was adopted here today at the conclusion of the three-day annual meeting of the United HIAS Service, the Jewish international migration agency.
U. S. Solicitor General Simon H. Sobeloff, addressing the meeting which was held at Hotel Roosevelt, indicated that the bottleneck in the administration of the slow-moving Refugee Relief Act has apparently been broken and that twice as many visas will be issued under the Act during the next four months as have been granted since the passage of the law 18 months ago.
Ben Touster, president of the United HIAS Service, told the delegates from all parts of the country that there are “thousands upon thousands” of Jewish survivors, in Europe alone, who are currently seeking the aid of his organization to immigrate to countries of permanent settlement.
“Their number,” Mr. Touster said, “is expected to increase. At the last count there were some 15,000 registered with our organization. Many of them are permitted only temporary asylum in the countries of Western Europe in which they find themselves. It is most difficult for these to obtain citizenship or permanent status, and, in many cases, they do not have the legal right to work.”
SETS A BUDGET OF $3,119,385 FOR ITS 1955 ACTIVITIES
Samuel Goldstein, treasurer, announced that the United HIAS Service had set a budget of $3,119,385 for 1955 which includes a $400,000 contingency fund to be used if unexpected projects must be undertaken to move people out of critical areas.
Arthur Greenleigh, executive director, reported that since the organization was created last August through the merger of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, United Service for New Americans, and the migration services of the Joint Distribution Committee, costs have been reduced. He pointed out that in Europe alone 38 offices had been cut to 22.
There are as many as 20,000 Nazi victims in the United States who are eligible for indemnification payments from the German Government and who have not made claims which must be registered by September 30th of this year, delegates to the conference were told by Dr. Kurt Alexander, of the American Federation of Jews from Central Europe.
Simon H. Rifkind, former U. S. District Court judge, who was the principal speaker at a dinner last night tendered by the United HIAS Service to Edwin Rosenberg, Jewish communal leader who played a major role in the HIAS-USNA merger, said if it were not for the policy of unrestricted immigration which prevailed in the United States until 1921, “we might today well be lacking in manpower to mount the prodigious production which is our chief weapon and principal defense in the cold war.”
Others who paid tribute to Mr. Rosenberg, included: Mr. Touster; William Rosenwald, chairman of the National UJA; Mrs. Irving M. Engel, president of the National Council of Jewish Women; Monroe Goldwater, member of the board of directors of the Joint Distribution Committee; Sylvan Gotshal, chairman of the board of the Greater New York UJA, and Julian Freeman of Indianapolis, president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
