U.J.A. Appeals to U.S. Jews to Meet War Crisis

Declaring that the agencies represented in the United Jewish Appeal must meet wartime needs on a peacetime budget in a year in which many unforeseen emergencies have drained their resources, Chairmen Abba Hillel Silver and Jonah B. Wise, issued a call today to American Jewry to act in a spirit of unity and generosity for the rescue of Jews overtaken by distress and homelessness in Central and Eastern Europe.

The statement emphasized that through the U.J.A. as the central unified channel of fund-raising for the Joint Distribution Committee, the United Palestine Appeal and the National Refugee Service, Inc. maximum resources must be made immediately available for overseas relief and rehabilitation, Palestine settlement and refugee aid. The communities which have already held their campaigns in behalf of the U.J.A. are urged to remit immediately as large funds as can be collected, while communities which have not yet conducted their drives for the current year, are urged to organize their fund-raising efforts as promptly as possible.

Rabbis Silver and Wise emphasized that the present war emergency has greatly increased and not diminished urgent needs of the three groups. Rehabilitation activities are continuing in Germany and Austria and emigration of refugees is proceeding from these centers despite the present conflict. Waves of refugees which have poured into Rumania, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania by the tens of thousands, must be provided with immediate relief, medical aid, food and clothing. Refugee aid in neutral and belligerent countries must also be intensified in view of the fact that local Jewish communities must now concentrate all their efforts and resources upon immediate questions of national security and defense. Immigration into Palestine is continuing in view of the fact that the Mediterranean is a neutral area and no obstacles are being placed in the path of the departure of prospective immigrants from Germany, Austria and the Protectorate.