Murray I. Gurfein, president of United Hias Service, said today that the agency is “making every effort to implement the Government’s program of assisting Cuban refugees to come to the United States.”
“In accordance with our Government’s policy to give first priority to family reunion and to political prisoners who may be released by the Cuban Government,” he said, “we have already submitted to the Cuban Refugee Center, in Miami, the names of all parents of unaccompanied Cuban Jewish children and separated spouses. We are working hard to reunite these families.”
He pointed out that United Hias Service is in daily contact with the United States State Department, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and the immigration and Naturalization Service with regard to the Cuban refugee situation. He urged Cuban refugees, who wish to bring their relatives here, to complete an application supplied by the United Hias Service, or its local cooperating agency. “We have already received inquiries which concern more than 500 persons. Their applications have been mailed,” Mr. Gurfein said.
He estimated approximately 2,500 Jews are still in Cuba, out of an original Jewish community which numbered more than 10,000 prior to the advent of Castro. United Hias Service, he said, has assisted in the resettlement of close to 4,300 Cuban Jewish refugees who have been relocated in 88 communities in 29 states in the United States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Included in this figure are 400 unaccompanied Jewish children, 340 of whom have already been reunited with their parents in this country, become of age, married, or joined the United States Army.
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.
