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Joc Announces Agreement to Assist Hungarian Jews

February 25, 1980
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Donald M. Robinson, president of the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) announced here that the JDC had recently concluded an agreement with the Hungarian government and the Jewish community of Hungary to provide welfare services for Hungarian Jews. JDC executive vice president, Ralph 1. Goldman, who recently returned from Hungary after concluding an agreement with the Secretary of State of the Office of Religious Affairs, Imre Miklos, and representatives of the Central Board of Hungarian Jews, described Hungarian Jewry as “a vital, vibrant Jewish community.”

Noting that there are an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Jews in Hungary today, he said that “JDC is contributing to the establishment of a new Kosher kitchen in Budapest which will provide 350,000 kosher hot meals a year. JDC,” he added, “will also be active in the provision of geriatric support services for the elderly members of the population as well as a full range of social welfare concerns.”

Eighty percent of Hungarian Jewry lives in Budapest, the capital. The Jewish population of Hungary in the late 1940s was estimated at 800,000. The Central Board of Hungarian Jews supports the only Rabbinical Seminary in Eastern Europe. In making the announcement Robinson said, “we welcome the opportunity to be of help to the Jewish people of Hungary with the cooperation of the government.”

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