The reduction in the total amount of money loaned by Joint Distribution Committee-supported loan funds during 1965 was negligible, despite an overall drop of 11 percent in the total number of loans to needy Jews made by the loan funds, Charles H. Jordan, JDC director general reported here today.
He attributed the smallness of the reduction to world-wide inflationary trends and price increases, which necessitated a further raise in the ceilings on such loans. As a result, he said, the average amount of loans reached an all-time high of $747, up 6 percent over the average in 1964.
He said the total number of loans made in 1965 in 19 countries where JDC funds operate was 4, 613 in 1965, compared with 5, 202 in 1964. He added that “the primary cause for the reduction in the number of loans has been a considerable drop in loan activities in North African countries, where Jewish communities continue to shrink. Also the virtual cessation of loan fund operations in Latin America where Jewish immigration sharply diminished.”
Other factors, he said, were “a fading out of loan activities in Israel, and an upward economic trend in western Europe.”
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.
