“The Jews of Europe have come a long way on the road to revival, but ahead still lies the tortuous path which they cannot travel alone,” Edward M.M. Warburg, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, emphasizes in his official review of the agency’s activities during the past year, which was released here today. The report will be presented to the 2,000 delegates from all sections of the United States who are expected to attend the 34th annual meeting of the J.D.C. at Palmer House in Chicago this week-end.
Declaring that the establishment of Israel “acted as a beacon of hope to tens of thousands of Jews in European countries and brought promise of the end of homelessness,” Mr. Warburg predicts that the abnormal existence in the DP camps of Germany, Austria, Italy and Cyprus will end for a large number of Jews in some foreseeable future. “Today, three-and-a-half years after liberation, there are no signs that Europe’s Jews are slowly but surely coming out of the shadows and moving–even if at snail’s pace in some areas–toward recovery,” he declares.
One of the favorable factors contributing substantially to the improvement of the Jewish position in Europe was the program of economic aid provided by the J.D.C. in an effort to help the Jews to help themselves, Mr. Warburg’s report points out. It reveals that while in the period following liberation, 1,000,000 Jewish survivors in Europe looked to the J.D.C. for help, today the number of those who depend on J.D.C.–chiefly for help toward self-support and emigration–has decreased to 700,000.
“The hopes of large numbers of Jews in many countries are concentrated on emigration,” Mr. Warburg emphasizes. “The government of Israel has fired its absorptive potential during these unsettled days at 120,000 for the year–a monthly quota of 5,500 from the DP camps, 4,500 from Eastern lands. These men and women on the threshold of a new life must be equipped to embrace the opportunities within their grasp. The same obligation holds true for that group, smaller in number, which may come to the United States, Canada and other lands. They, too, must be prepared through education, training and work opportunities for favorable adjustment in new homes. This responsibility is in addition to J.D.C.’s ever-expanding emigration operations,” Mr. Warburg stresses.
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.
