A budget of $27,878,000 was adopted for 1973 by the Joint Distribution Committee at its 58th annual meeting here today. In presenting the budget Edward Ginsberg, JDC chairman, said that it was the highest in 10 years. Although JDC is not directly involved in the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel, it has had to increase its budget expenditures for related programs, Ginsberg said. Several hundred of the newcomers have already been referred to Malben, the JDC program in Israel, for various services.
As a result of the increased needs in Israel and in Eastern Europe, Ginsberg said, the JDC has had to increase its expenditures for 1972 by $2.5 million over the $24 million it had budgeted at the beginning of the year. “With still more tens of thousands of Jews on the move in 1973, with political unrest placing Jews in jeopardy in North Africa and South America, with inflation and economic reverses deepening the pockets of Jewish poverty in Europe and North Africa and with health and welfare needs growing in Israel, JDC has been hard put to keep the budget at its present level,” Ginsberg said.
He called for full support of the 1973 campaign of the United Jewish Appeal which provides the bulk of the funds for JDC’s worldwide programs. Over 400 Jewish community leaders from the United States and Canada who attended the meeting at the New York Hilton Hotel, re-elected Ginsberg, a Cleveland attorney, chairman for a second term. Jack D. Weiler of New York was re-elected chairman of the National Council and also vice-chairman of the JDC.
JDC AIDED 387,000 JEWS IN 1972
Reporting on JDC programs for 1972, Samuel L. Haber executive vice-chairman, disclosed that 387,000 Jews in 25 countries “benefited from one or more of the rescue, relief and rehabilitation services supported by the JDC.” For the first time, Haber said, JDC has been asked for financial assistance from the Jewish communities of Argentina and Chile.
In Argentina, which has a Jewish population of 500,000, the political unrest and the general economic deterioration have caused great distress among the Jews, Haber noted. To add to their woes, the loss of income from the community’s financially troubled cooperatives threatened the continued existence of the Jewish community schools. JDC has provided financial aid to keep the schools open, he added. In Chile, the Jewish community of 35,000 has been disturbed by the political situation and a serious loss of income from former contributors who have left the country. JDC has given assistance to two homes for the aged and a children’s home which were endangered by the lack of funds, Haber said.
Reporting on the needs for 1973, Louis D. Horwitz, Director-General, said that about 390,000 Jews, mostly in the Middle East and Europe, would look to the JDC for one or more of its broad range of health, welfare and rehabilitation and educational assistance programs.
Other reports noted that: 35,000 persons had benefitted from JDC/Malben services in Israel in 1972 and 70,000 were aided in cultural and religious programs and the JDC-subsidized ORT vocational training program; JDC-financed programs were helping 18,000 of the 100,000 Jews in Rumania; two attempts on King Hassan’s life in a little over a year had caused great anxiety among the 32,000 Jews in Morocco but very little increase in the movement of Jews out of that country; and programs in Iran were aiding close to 20,000 of the country’s Jewish population of 75,000.
Isaac Stern the noted American violinist, was the honored guest at the luncheon session.
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.
