James Zellerbach, United States Ambassador to Italy, last night lauded the welfare programs supported by the United Jewish Appeal as helping to “transmit to the needy the message that the American people are their friends. Ambassador Zellerbach was guest speaker at a dinner here given by the Joint Distribution Committee, in honor of members of the 1960 United Jewish Appeal Study Mission, who arrived here last week for five days of briefings before proceeding to Israel.
Renzo Levi, vice-president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, traced the history of JDC aid to the Rome Jewish community. The JDC, he said, helped bring life and hope to Italy’s stricken Jews even before the end of the Second World War. Aid by the JDC did not cease with the end of the war, Mr. Levi said, but continued long after when the welfare agency stepped in to help Egyptian refugees arriving in Italy during the Sinai campaign crisis in 1956.
Charles Jordan, overseas director of the JDC, in a report on the agency’s activities since the end of the war, noted that “because of this unstinting generosity, Western European Jewry was on the way toward re-establishment on a firm, healthy basis.” UJA national chairman Frederick Forman expressed appreciation for JDC’s accomplishments, and pledged continued support of the agency’s program.
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.
