A warning that 500,000 Jews in European countries would die in the very near future unless the United Jewish Appeal drive exceeds its quota was voiced at a press luncheon at the Hotel Commodore today by Morris C. Troper, European director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, who is leaving shortly to resume his work abroad.
Troper outlined the work the J.D.C. was engaged in throughout Europe, cited the obstacles encountered chiefly as a result of the war and appealed to the Jewish and the Anglo-Jewish press to make every effort to keep American Jewry continuously informed of the situation.
Revealing that he had made 27 separate trips to all parts of Europe not closed by war conditions, Troper warmly praised the role in refugee-aid played by such governments as the English, French, Swiss, Belgian, Netherlands, and Lithuanian. He cited particularly the Belgian Government’s aid for 15,000 refugees, whom they were aiding by an allocation of 8,000,000 francs for 1940.
Troper disclosed that Isaac Giterman, J.D.C. Warsaw director who escaped from Poland during the war only to be apprehended by the Nazis while en route from Lithuania and interned in a German concentration camp, has been released and returned to Warsaw.
Edward M.M. Warburg, chairman of the Greater New York campaign of the U.J.A. and Alexander Kahn, vice-chairman of the J.D.C., presided.
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.
