The Joint Distribution Committee, which helped some 17,000 Jews migrate to Western Hemisphere countries last year, anticipates that it will be called upon to aid the migration of nearly 10,000 Jews this year, it was reported here last night at the 37th annual meeting of the organization. Of them, about 5,000 will come to the United States and the remainder will go to Canada, Australia and Latin America.
The meeting re-elected Edward M.M. Warburg as national chairman of the J.D.C. for the seventh successive year. It adopted a 1952 budget of $23,507,300 for aid to Jews in more than 20 countries. Over 40 percent of this sum is to be allocated to Malben, the welfare program which the J.D.C. operates in Israel. The Joint Distribution Committee has spent almost $525,000,000 since V-E Day, it was revealed at the meeting.
Mr. Warburg, in addressing the 300 delegates at the gathering, cited the advances scored by needy Jews abroad as a result of the aid provided by American Jewry since V-E Day. “We can be proud of what we have achieved during the past six-and-a-half years, “he said. However, he stressed that nobody can foretell what new emergencies 1952 may hold. “It must be clear that today it is the American Jewish community which is virtually the only source of aid, wherever needed,” he emphasized.
“The history of the past few years has shown that we do not dare to relax our efforts,” Mr. Warburg pointed out. “There has been no time when we could feel that the emergency was over–instead, crisis has followed crisis, on a world-wide scale. Never at any time, even during the most successful campaigns of the United Jewish Appeal, have we had enough funds to meet all of the demands upon us. Within the limits of our resources, any new emergency anywhere in the world has meant cutting and scrimping somewhere else in order to meet the most critical and immediate problem.
AMERICAN JEWRY LAUDED FOR PROVIDING AID
“We have taken from the not-so-hungry and the not-so-ill to feed the starving, to minister to the critically ill, to evacuate those in momentary danger of programs. American Jewry has shown its understanding of these problems, and its willingness to share the responsibility for meeting them. In the year ahead, we must continue to call upon those who have helped in the past, knowing that even today the lives and the future of hundreds of thousands overseas are in danger.”
Moses A. Leavitt, J.D.C. executive vice-chairman, and Moses W. Beckelman, director general for overseas operation, reviewed in detail the achievements of the organization during 1951 and outlined the needs for the current year. In addition to the Malben program in Israel, which will care for about 11,000 in a network of 80 hospitals, sanitaria, custodial care centers and old age homes, the major activities of the J.D.C. during 1952 will include;
1. Aid in the emigration of nearly 10,000 men, women and children to the United States, Canada, South America, Australia and other countries. The termination of the International Refugee Organization, which formerly helped to defray transportation expenses, will greatly increase J.D.C.’s financial burdens in this area. 2. Increased supplementary assistance–food, clothing, medical care and educational opportunities–to some 25,000 in Germany, Austria and Italy. 3. Continued help to thousands in other parts of Europe, including Hungary, where some 34,000 Jew are on J.D.C. relief rolls; France, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Greece and Yugoslavia. 4. Increased assistance programs on behalf of 100,000 Jews, principally children, living in Moslem lands, particularly in the field of child-care, feeding and medical aid activities.
Judge Maurice Bernon of Cleveland, chairman of the J. D. C. National Council, reported that the Council had been the chief link between J. D. C. and Jewish communities throughout the United States during 1951. “In 1952, ” he told the delegates, “J. D. C. must continue to look to the members of its National Council as the basic and primary means of bringing to every community the story of the still large-scale need overseas. ” In addition to the re-election of chairman Warburg the meeting re-elected all national officers for another term.
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.
