United Jewish Appeal Issues Passover Call to Jewish Communities in America

A Passover message to the Jewish communities of the United States, calling on them to be prepared to meet the greater responsibilities that will come with the liberation of Nazi-occupied territories in which Jewish life has been devastated, was issued here today by the United Jewish Appeal under the signatures of its chairmen William Rosenwald, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver and Rabbi Jonah B. Wise.

Pointing out that “while millions of our people are still subject to the peril of annihilation by the modern Pharaoh, the recent victories of the United Nations forces have definitely opened up the road to liberation for our people and for all other peoples who have been the prisoners of the Nazi oppressor,” the appeal says:

“On former Passovers we have stressed survival. Today we must enlarge our activities to include the new responsibilities that have already come and that will come with the liberation of our people. The dangers to our people in many parts of the world have not been removed. But there is reason to rejoice in the fact that the free world is on the threshold of a gigantic effort to break the chains of bondage. Victory and liberation are definitely in sight. What has been accomplished thus far through the agencies of the United Jewish Appeal as the instrument: through which American Jews have helped sustain the lives of large numbers of their people constitutes a solid foundation on which we must go forward to greater achievements to rehabilitate the millions of Jews who have been subjected to the merciless attack of Nazism for ten long years. What has been achieved through rehabilitation and emigration overseas, what has been accomplished in the rebuilding of the Jewish homeland in Palestine and what has been done for the refugees in the United States are inspiring evidence of the fact that American Jews will not fail in the fulfillment of the greater obligations and the greater responsibilities that lie ahead.”