The expenditure of over $9,000,000 for assistance to more than 1,000,000 needy Jews in some fifty countries throughout the world is recorded in the annual report of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee which has just been issued, covering the year 1940 and the first five months of 1941. A picture of world wide Jewish distress is given in the report’s country-by-country tabulation of the amounts expended by the Joint Distribution Committee for programs of war and emergency relief, emigration, child care, medical aid, vocational training, resettlement and other forms of help to Jewish victims of war and persecution on four continents.
The text of the report contains a “Timetable of Jewish Tragedy”, listing the major events affecting overseas Jewish populations from January 1940 through May 1941, and showing their repercussions in the field of Jewish needs. The tabulation indicates that Jewish populations which fell under Nazi domination during the period under review aggregated close to 2,000,000.
Despite war and the complications of overseas travel, 75,000 Jews were able to emigrate from Germany and German-dominated lands during the seventeen months under review, bringing the number of Jewish refugees who have left German territories since 1933 to over 500,000.
The report contains facts and figures concerning the status of Jewish populations in each of the overseas countries where the J.D.C. renders aid.
The report, says Edward M. M. Warburg, chairman of the J.D.C., in an introduction, “is the story of an American organization, led by a group of devoted laymen and a small professional staff, which is carrying out the seemingly impossible task of overseas relief and reconstruction during the most turbulent period of modern times. It is the story of how a philanthropic agency, privately financed and administered, lacking official status but propelled by motives of good will and helpfulness, has hurdled obstacle after obstacle caused by war’s chaos in its task of life-giving aid.
Pointing out that the position of the J.D.C. has always been “that none of the funds it expended for humanitarian objectives should be placed where they might benefit the forces of totalitarianism”, Mr. Warburg states that the J.D.C. has been able to continue its operations in Germany and German-dominated countries without sending American dollars into those territories, and without violating the British blockade. Clearance arrangements are employed to help the victims of aggression without helping the aggressors.
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.
