The 1.35 million Jews of Western Europe find themselves in a paradoxical situation. Living in free, democratic societies, they struggle against a “spiritual Auschwitz” — loss of identity through intermarriage, small families, and aging population, it was reported here by Nicole Goldmann, executive director of the European Council of Jewish Communities.
In an address at a session of the 52nd General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations here, Goldmann said the Jews in France and their institutions have come under vicious attack from anti-Semitic elements, especially since Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in June, 1982. She pointed out that the attacks require that up to five percent of the Jewish community budgets be expended for sophisticated security devices.
According to Goldmann, the 750,000 French Jews participate in all areas of the country’s economic and political life, not only in commerce, arts and the professions, but also as factory workers, and in government posts from Cabinet Ministers to members of the police force.
But because the economic downturn in Western Europe has forced reductions in government subsidies at a time when the need for social services and Jewish education is expanding, new burdens have been placed on the French Jewish leadership and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. To meet these needs, Goldmann stressed the importance of building bridges to the North American Jewish community and to Israel.
JDC ASSISTANCE OUTLINED
Ralph Goldman, JDC’s executive vice president, told the same session that bitter memories still haunt European Jewry who live on the same soil where Nazis decimated Jews four decades ago.
He reported that JDC now provides assistance for those in need among 34,000 Jews in Rumania; 80,000-100,000 in Hungary; 13,000 in Czechoslovakia; 6,000 in Poland; and 6,000 in Yugoslavia. This includes clothing and cash assistance; 1.3 million hot kosher meals annually; and Jewish education and religious support ranging from school subsidies to prayer books, rabbis and ritual slaughterers. Over 65,000 packages were sent to 160,000 people in Eastern Europe through JDC’s relief-in-transit operations, Goldman said.
Henry Taub, JDC president, said that 31 percent of the agency’s $43 million budget was expended in Israel in 1982; 40 percent in Eastern Europe; 10 percent in Western Europe; 14 percent in Arab lands; and 4 percent in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
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.
