New York U.J.A. Honors People of France for Aiding Jewish Refugees

The people of France were honored today by the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York for aid to Jewish refugees over the years, in a ceremony at UJA headquarters.

Raymond Laporte, Consul-General and Minister Plenipotentiary of France, received a scale replica of Michelangelo’s Moses which cited the people of France for “distinguished service in aiding homeless Jews to dwell in freedom.” The presentation was made by Sylvan Gotshal, honorary chairman of the board of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York, who is a member of the French Legion d’Honneur.

Mr. Gotshal called attention to the humanitarian understanding with which France has welcomed the cooperation of the American Joint Distribution Committee and United Hias Service, beneficiary agencies of the United Jewish Appeal and of French Jewish community organizations in aiding Jewish refugees over the years. He pointed out that although UJA agencies have assumed the tremendous financial burden of caring for thousands of Jewish refugees in France, that nation and her people have had to shoulder substantial costs of providing educational, health and other vital facilities to these people in their hour of distress.