Preparations for the observance of the Passover festival beginning at sundown tomorrow were made in Jewish communities all over the country today. Special efforts were made by national and community bodies to provide Passover foods for Jewish servicemen in U.S. armed forces at home and abroad and for needy Jews overseas.
Agencies supported by the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York shipped more than a half million pounds of matzoh and wine abroad, according to Morris L. Levinson, UJA president. He said the beneficiary agencies involved were the Joint Distribution Committee which sent Passover provisions and made special allocations of funds for local purchase of such supplies in 12 countries, and the National Jewish Welfare Board, which aided in Passover arrangements made by 320 rabbis acting as full-time or part-time military chaplains.
The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York announced that it has prepared Passover observances for client institutions in New York City, Long Island and Westchester.
The National Jewish Welfare Board said it began shipping Passover supplies last December to enable Jewish servicemen in Vietnam and at more than 600 other overseas posts and domestic military installations to observe the holiday. Supplies also went to Jewish patients in Veterans Administration hospitals and other Federal facilities.
In Washington, D.C. the Jews for Urban Justice, a group of young Washingtonians committed to ending racism, announced that an interracial, interfaith “Freedom Seder” will be held in the capital Thursday to emphasize the struggle of Jews and Negroes against oppression and discrimination. The day is the anniversary of the slaying of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Negro civil rights leader. The service will be highlighted by the reading of a new version of the Haggadah which stresses the common interests of the black man and the Jew as they seek liberation from “the modern Pharaohs.”
Twelve Jewish refugees from Egypt were scheduled to arrive here tonight at Kennedy airport on the eve of Passover. They and 12 other refugees were being brought to a new life in the United States with the aid of the United Hias Service, which arranged their transportation, and the New York Association for New Americans, which is responsible for their resettlement. Four of the Jewish families were expelled from Egypt since the June, 1967 Six-Day War. Three of the refugees came from Rumania, Czechoslovakia and Lebanon.
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.
