The budget for France of the Joint Distribution Committee has been increased by more than 1,000, 000 francs ($205, 000) above the 1961 expenditures to meet the emergency created by the influx of North African and other Jewish refugees, Charles H. Jordan, JDC director general in Europe, told a press conference here today.
He said that the budget would include projected increases for the normal needs of the settled Jewish population in France. He added that the 1961 expenditures for Jewish needs in France was the highest for any year in the past decade.
“The JDC recognized the fact that the emergency needs created by the new influx could not be met by the local Jewish population alone and that world Jewry must provide aid,” he declared. Therefore, the JDC had assumed since 1958 full responsibility for providing cash relief to the group, which included East Europeans and refugees from Egypt as well as those from North Africa.
The normal budget for France is met through a pool to which the Fonds Social Juif Unifie and the JDC have contributed varying percentages from year to year. Mr. Jordan said JDC and Fond participation in the period immediately after World War II had been as high as 80 percent.
Since 1958, a separate budget for service to new refugees has been added to the normal budget, he reported. Overall funds contributed by the JDC for operations in France reached a total of $3,000, 000 in its last budget, he said.
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.
