More than 600 Jewish community leaders from the United States and Canada, who attended the 61st annual meeting of the Joint Distribution Committee at the New York Hilton today, adopted a budget of $33,335,000 for 1976 to cover the costs of a broad range of health, welfare and rehabilitation activities aiding more than 435,000 needy Jews in 25 countries.
Jack D. Weiler, who was re-elected JDC chairman, told the gathering that increasing costs and continued inflation in many countries compelled the JDC to increase its budget $1,700,000 over the 1975 expenditure.
THREE AREAS ACCOUNTING FOR INCREASE
Three areas account for the increases. Weiler said, were care of transmigrants, mostly Russian Jews enroute to countries other than Israel; health and welfare needs in Rumania which has an inordinately large number of sick and elderly Jews; and the Relief-in-Transit program, bringing vital aid to needy Jews throughout Eastern Europe.
More than one-third of the JDC budget is earmarked for programs in Israel, Weiler said. This will provide for both direct and indirect programs including care of the aged, services for the handicapped, assessment and treatment centers for children, for manpower training, for JDC traditional aid to yeshivot and cultural and religious institutions.
“Israel is beleaguered on its borders and under constant attack in the UN,” Weiler said. “Everywhere the Arab machine keeps pushing toward its goal of the destruction of the tiny Jewish State. We, on our part, are determined to continue and increase our aid to humanitarian programs in Israel, programs to which the State cannot give the attention they deserve because of greater needs and because of overwhelming defense needs of the country.”
EUROPEAN PROGRAMS DISCUSSED
Samuel L. Haber, who was elected honorary vice-chairman after having served as executive vice-chairman since 1967, reported that by the end of the year JDC will have aided 430,000 Jews in 25 countries overseas at a cost of $31,603,000. Reporting on JDC programs in 1975, he said that in Israel, JDC aid had reached over 121,000 men, women and children. This included services for the aged, programs for the handicapped, manpower training, community center programs, the Brookdale Institute of Gerontology and Adult Human Development and JDC’s traditional program of aid to 158 yeshivoth.
In Eastern Europe, direct JDC programs are concentrated in Rumania and Yugoslavia. In Rumania, more than 15,000 of the country’s 60,000 Jews received some form of JDC assistance in 1973 with welfare services accounting for two-thirds of the $2,650,000 spent directly in that country. In addition to welfare the JDC program included food packages, winter relief. Passover supplies, distribution of clothing and medication and a feeding program. In Yugoslavia about 600 of the country’s Jewish population of 7000 were aided through the Yugoslav Federation of Jewish Communities.
JDC expenditures in Western Europe reached a new high at $5,353,000, Haber reported. This was due mainly to the sharply increased number of transmigrants, enroute mainly to the United States, who were cared for by the JDC in Vienna and Rome while waiting for immigration formalities to be completed. Expenditures for this program alone almost doubled to about $3 million in 1975 as compared with 1974. In Vienna, Haber continued, the JDC program in 1975 is concerned almost exclusively with transmigrants, virtually all of them from the Soviet Union, going to countries other than Israel.
PROGRAMS IN MOSLEM, ARAB COUNTRIES
“The Jews in North Africa live in uncertainty,” Haber said. “Their plight in some Arab countries is desperate. The one notable exception is Iran where the country’s position has remained stable. And now that can no longer be said about Lebanon.” JDC’s programs in Moslem and Arab countries aided over 32,000 Jews in 1975 at an expenditure of over $3,900,000, he reported. The Jewish population in the Moslem and Arab countries has dropped from about 1,000,000 after World War II to about 100,000 at the present time.
In Iran, the program was directed mainly toward education, school feeding programs, health services and youth activities aiding about 16,500 of the country’s 75,000 Jews. In Morocco about 9500 of the country’s 20,000 Jews were assisted. Here again, the major share of JDC expenditures went toward services for children and young people, Haber said. In Tunisia, about one-third of the 7000 Jews remaining in that country were aided in 1975. More than half of the expenditures went for cash relief, social welfare and medical care. JDC continues to channel funds into Syria and Egypt to aid needy Jews in those countries.
ROBERT GOLDMAN IN NEW POST
Robert I. Goldman, formerly associate director of the JDC’s Malben program in Israel, was elected executive vice-chairman succeeding Haber. Before coming to the JDC in 1969, Goldman was the first executive director of the Israel Education Fund of the United Jewish Appeal. He was also executive vice-president of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and played a major role in the establishment of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Goldman will assume his new post on Jan. 1.
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