A catastrophic decrease in Jewish births in Hungary, a wave of suicides and a great number of conversions were recorded during the past year as a result of the serious deterioration in the position of Hungarian Jewry caused by anti-Jewish legislation, it is stated in the annual report submitted to the general meeting of the Pest Jewish Community.
The report, which covers the first six months of the current year, in addition to 1939, declares that relief activities had to be considerably curtailed owing to the reduced capacity of Jewish communities abroad to come to the assistance of their coreligionist in Hungary. Nevertheless, $400,000 for relief work in Hungary was received from the Joint Distribution Committee last summer. Morris C. Troper, chairman of the European Executive Council of the J.D.C. visited Budapest several times during the period and high tribute is paid in the report to the warm sympathy shown by this organization for the plight of the Jews in Hungary.
Foreign relief was supplemented by a large-scale relief action undertaken by the Jews of Hungary themselves. This organization, known as “OMZSA.” is under the direction of Dr. Geza Ribary vice-president of the Pest Community, and has resulted in a total of 1,150,026 Pengoe being collected for relief work among Hungarian Jews in the first six months of the year.
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.
