An urgent appeal for immediate assistance for the Jewish Free Employment Bureau was issued here today by Dr. A. Schmerler, who stressed the terrible poverty of the Austrian Jews and the rapidly increasing number of Jewish unemployed.
“Jewish public opinion must be made to realize,” he declared, “that many who apply to our office have been out of work for years, are unable to provide for their families and are going to bits mentally and physically.
“The number of Jewish unemployed grows like an avalanche. Jewish businesses crash and their owners and employes are added to the ranks of those seeking work. Added to this there is the flood of young people leaving school who are thrown prematurely on the labor market, since the higher institutions of learning are closed to Jews.
“Artisans, chauffeurs, mechanics, painters, weavers, chemists, bakers, academic workers and professionals report daily to our office in the hope of finding employment.
“Their circumstances are beyond description. Everything valuable pawned, constant fear of eviction, children in unheated dwellings, the sick without food or care, everybody going hungry, not a penny for coal, and medical treatment almost impossible to obtain. Still many refuse to become a burden on the community and beg desperately for work.
“The most disquieting features of this situation are the fact that increasing numbers of the Jewish middle class are thronging our offices and that most of the applicants are highly trained professionals and technical workers.”
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.
