Third of Warsaw Jewish Population in Need of Help: Jewish Rescue Committee Presents to Government De

The Jewish Rescue Committee has just presented to the Government Commissioner for Warsaw the detailed report giving the complete figures of the number of Jews in Warsaw who are in need of assistance owing to unemployment or inability to earn a livelihood on account of the economic crisis, which was asked for at the recent Conference between the representatives of the Government, and the leaders of the Jewish Rescue Committee (reported in the J.T.A. Bulletin of the 17th. inst.), at which the Vice-Governor of the Warsaw District, M. Alpinsky, stated that the Government would provide a sum of about three million zlotys for the relief of the distressed population of Warsaw during the coming winter, and declared that the Government would also assist the distressed Jewish population in proper measure, but must first be supplied with the exact figures of the number of unemployed and distressed Jews in Warsaw, and their numbers in each particular district. When it had these figures, he said, the Government would know in which districts it was necessary to open large kitchens or small kitchens, and in general how to organise the relief work among the Jews on systematic lines.

Out of the total of about 300,000 Jewish souls in Warsaw (the largest Jewish Community in Europe), no less than 96,400, practically a third of the entire number, are almost destitute and in urgent need of relief, the report of the Jewish Rescue Committee states. 38,000 are unemployed workers, the report explains, 57,000 are people who are engaged in trading, shopkeeping or the professions, who have been displaced by the economic crisis and have no means of earning their livelihood, and about 1,400 are beggars (schnorrers).

The leaders of the Jewish Rescue Committee pointed out at the Conference that the Jews constitute a third of the population of Warsaw, and should, therefore, receive a third of the entire sum to be expended, which would be one million zlotys. They stated that there are 10,000 distressed Jewish families registered with the Jewish rescue Committee, which is prepared to assume responsibility for the work of feeding the needy Jews of Warsaw, if the Government provided it with the necessary funds. They asked the Government to provide for each needy Jewish family a ton of coals, 500 kilo of potatoes, 150 kilo of beet, 150 kilo of cabbage and a certain quantity of flour, fat, etc. If the Hescue Committee would be given these foodstuffs, they said, it would open kitchens in which the needy Jews would obtain meals.