War Orphans’ Exhibit of Joint Distribution Committee to Open in N. Y.

An exhibit of handicraft work produced by Jewish children orphaned by the world war in Eastern and Central Europe will be opened at the Grand Central Palace, New York, on April 5th. The collection is made up of over a thousand articles typifying the range of practical trade and applied art products turned out by boys and girls of all ages who are being reared for productive adult life under the child care program instituted and maintained under the auspices of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

Of 43,000 Jewish war and pogrom orphans registered in Europe at the close of the war, of whom 30,000 were in Poland, 60 per cent came into the care of the Joint Distribution Committee. Over 18,000 of these children are still under the supervision of the Child Care Department of the Joint Distribution Committee.

The War Orphans’ Exhibit was brought together from the various countries at the European headquarters of the Joint Distribution Committee in Berlin, and from there sent to this country. It is arranged in seven rooms, among the most picturesque of which are the “Room of Rugs”, the “Boy’s Manual Room”, showing intricately wrought structural models, the “Girl’s Manual Room”, with sewing and embroideries and the “Room of Jewish Themes”, containing altar decorations and religious objects of beautiful workmanship made by children of Lemberg. The rooms were shipped in sections with the articles in place on the walls. There is also an unusual collection of sculptures and paintings by gifted pupils.

Colonel Herbert H. Lehman, acting chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee in the absence of the chairman, Mr. Warburg, will officially open the exhibit. A feature of the occasion will be a representation of children from Catholic and Protestant orphanages, as well as the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York City.

Mrs. H. B. L. Goldstein who headed the first relief commission sent abroad by the Joint Distribution Committee, is the chairman of the committee arranging the exhibit.

The first Jewish exhibition of plastic art in New York in which only Jewish artists will participate is now being organized by the Society for Jewish Culture of which Dr. Jacob Sonderling is the Director. Twenty-five eminent Jewish artists will exhibit their works paintings, etchings, drawings and sculpture. The exhibition will take place at the auditorium of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, and will be opened Sunday evening, April 3. Professor M. M. Kaplan is the chairman of the exhibition committee.

Paintings and sculptures will be exhibited by William Auerbach Levy, Sol Wison, Aaron J. Goodelman, Ben Benn, Samuel Halpert, Abe Ostrowsky, Lionel Reiss, Abraham Walkowitz and Mrs. Stephen S. Wise.