The Jewish communities of Europe, after 15 years of ploughing, planting and tilling the field of human and community rehabilitation, are now ready “to reap the harvest of new life and hope,” Edward M. M. Warburg, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, said today in opening the 15th annual JDC overseas conference here.
The New Yorker told the conference that the Jewish communities in Europe had made such strides that they were no longer solely dependent on the JDC, but had become partners in the work of bringing health, welfare and educational programs to the needy Jews of We stern Europe. This new situation, he pointed out, was reflected in the fact that the phrase, “Assembly of European Jewish Communities,” had been appended to the conference name. “We have shared the struggle together,” he declared. “Now, we may begin to share the victory.”
Charles Jordan, overseas director of the JDC, told the session that it had to consider areas in Moslem countries where mass needs continued to exist, and Israel where the JDC still operated a direct relief program for the aged, ill and chronically handicapped newcomers.
Mr. Jordan said the JDC program functioned in 25 countries and declared total expenditures in 1960, for 226,000 men, women and children, would exceed $29,000,000. He pointed out that the JDC, in addition to funds from the United Jewish Appeal in the United States, also received funds from other sources life the Canadian Jewish Congress, the South African Jewish Appeal, the French Jewish Appeal and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
A working session of the conference today was told that 95 percent of the Jewish children in Morocco, to the number of 45,000, attended Jewish schools supported by the JDC. In Iran, it was reported, nearly all the Jewish children of the country were attending school. JDC day-care programs for pre-school children, it was disclosed, serve over 6,000 children in the Moslem countries.
In Poland, it was stated, a small but permanent economically integrated Jewish community was taking root. In Israel, it was pointed out, the JDC-aided health and welfare facilities were so constructed that they could be permanently woven into the fabric of Israeli society.
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.
