United Hias Service Aided 6,360 Migrants and Refugees to Resettle in 1969

United Hias Service assisted 6,360 men, women and children to leave Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Cuba and to be resettled in the United States and other free Western countries. It was revealed today by Gaynor I. Jacobson, the agency’s executive vice president, in releasing his 1969 annual report. In addition, the agency helped some 55,000 others in such areas as: aid to aliens in the United States; location of relatives in the U.S., Israel, Soviet Union, and other countries; resettlement assistance in Latin America to migrants who arrived in prior years; and pre-migration services in the U.S. and Latin America to relatives and sponsors of prospective migrants. “Our most important program in 1969 was that of assistance to the thousands of Polish Jewish refugees who continued to pour into Western Europe.” Mr. Jacobson stated. During 1969, 5,144 Polish Jews came to Vienna, of whom 3,411 were transferred to United Hias Service by the Jewish Agency for Israel for resettlement assistance. An additional 3,000 went directly to Denmark and Sweden, some with United Hias Service help. The intensification of the campaign in Poland against “Zionism” reached a crescendo last year and was made the pretext for more stringent measures, designed to expel the small remnant of a Jewish community which, before the Holocaust, had numbered almost three and a half million. “The curtain was being closed.” Mr. Jacobson stated, “upon the thousand year history of Jewish life and creativity in Poland.”

The plight of the thousands of Jews remaining in Arab countries continued to deteriorate, according to the report, and the security of those in Moslem countries became even more threatened. United Hias Service made intensive efforts to secure emigration rights for the 4,000 Jews in Syria, the 3,000 in Iraq and the 1200 in Egypt. The agency resettled more than 1,600 refugees from the Middle East and North Africa last year. “The plight of Soviet Jewry remained a constant priority of United Hias Service throughout the year.” Mr. Jacobson noted. Despite innumerable difficulties, the agency was successful in reuniting 182 Soviet Jews with their relatives during 1969 as compared with 96 in 1968. United Hias also reported a registration of more than 3,000 Soviet Jews whose relatives in the United States are seeking family reunion. Last year, the agency assisted 419 persons from Czechoslovakia, 172 from Cuba, 170 from Rumania, and 105 from Hungary to emigrate and resettle. The majority of these have found new homes in the United States. The report indicated that during 1969 the agency’s expenditures totaled $3,052,831. This was nearly $500,000 more than had been budgeted and was due primarily to heavy and unanticipated expenditures in assisting Polish Jews. Harold Friedman, president of United Hias Service, in commenting on the annual report, stated that since its inception in 1884. United Hias Service has assisted in the migration and resettlement of close to four million men, women and children.