THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Ten
Service
to Jewry at Home and Overseas
Local Scene
HE ARMED forces and war em-
ployment have reduced the ranks
of Jewish transients. In . November 1940
the House of Shelter cared. for 38 tran-
sients. This number decreased to 18 in
November, 1941, and 7 in November, 1942.
Other communities have experienced the
same trend. Kansas City is now studying
the transient program and is trying to
work out a substitute plan. The Detroit
House of Shelter has appointed a study
committee to consider the question.
*
*
Various proposals have been advanced
for the use of the Jewish Children's
once building Which has remained va-
cant for almost a year and a half since
the Jewish Children's Bureau removed
the children from the institution and
placed them in inclivdual foster homes.
The Children's Home board committed
itself to give first consideration to util-
izing the building for a hospital. There
seems to be some sentiment to utilize
the buildng as a special unit of the
Home for Aged to care for chronic sick.
There has also been some talk about
using the building for a day-care pro-
gram for children of working mothers.
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The Hebrew Free Loan Association
finds that as part of the war economy
there is a lessening demand for loans.
The number of loans has dropped from
145 in November, 1937, to 69 in Novem-
ber, 1942. The loans granted in November,
1937, amounted to $14,177, compared with
$9,625 in November of this year. Other
communities have had the same ex-
perience.
* * *
The Resettlement Service program for
refugee familes is experiencing a down-
ward trend. This is due partially to the
fact that for almost a year Detroit has
not received any familes for resettlement
because of the extreme housing shortage.
Many familes who were previously on
relief are finding employment and are be-
coming self-Supporting. In October, 1941,
a total of 91 refugee familes received
relief in the amount of $5,197. In October
of this year there were only 43 familes
receivng relief in the amount of $3,014.
A change in the immigration regulations
may bring about an increase in the
program.
* * *
The care of the aged is increasingly
becoming one of our major local re-
sponsiblities. The composition of the
Jewish Home for Aged population is
changing from one of well, aged in-
dividuals to a majority of bed-ridden
and chronic sick persons. This calls for
more medical and nursing services and
for additional maintenance staff as well
as for other increased costs. There were
126 persons in the home in October of
this year.
* * *
The Jewish Community Center is a
bee-hive of war-connected activity. Since
Pearl Harbor more than 1,000 persons per
month have been coming to the Center
to participate in new war programs, in
addition to the normal clientele. For the
first nine months of 1942 the gross at-
tendance in the building was 300,919 as
compared with a total attendance of 284,-
366 for the same period of last year. At
this rate the attendance for 1942 will
exceed 400,000, an all-time record.
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41!'
Friday, December 25, 1942
The most pressing problem of the Jew-
ish Children's Bureau is the need for
foster homes for the children who are
under its care. Other communities are
also facing this problem. Campaigns are
beitia conducted here and elesewhere in
Service on Many Fronts
A service of real value has been rend-
ered by HIAS to thousands of American
Jewish families by securing and publish-
ing authenticated lists of men and women
whom the Laval regime surendered to
the Gestapo for deportation to Eastern
Europe. These lists were the means of
conveying the first information as to the
fate that had befallen the kin and kith
of the American relatives and friends.
America's Jews are now serving in this
country's armed forces. Through the ac-
tivities of the–National Refugee Service
the knowledge and skill of physicians,
scientists and others are being made
available for wartime use. During the
past year NRS expenditures totaled $2,-
389,000.
For some time the JDC has been
Some interesting HIAS figures for- the
operating
in French Morocco, Algiers,
first nine months of this year . . . 249
and Tangiers through local refugee
steamers carrying passengers were met
committees. Appropriations for 1942
by HIAS workers . . . 8,154 inquiries re-
garding detained immigrants and war-
in those areas exceeded $65,000.
rant cases were directed to HIAS Ellis
Island Bureau . . . 1,712 cases were ar-
gued by HIAS Washington office before
A survey has just been completed of
government bureaus . . . 4,868 persons the refugee situation in Iran as well as
were helped in their applications for cit-
the status of refugees in Turkestan and
izenship .. .
other parts of Soviet Russia. The survey
was
made by Harry Viteles, manager of
A total of $18,000,000 has been spent
the Central Bank of Cooperative Insti-
during the last 12 months by the
Joint Distribution Committee, United
tutions in Palestine, who went to Teheran
Palestine Appeal and National Refu-
at the JDC's request.
gee Service, the constituent agencies
of the United Jewish Appeal . . . The
Possibilities of developing basic chem-
Detroit Allied Jewish Campaign allot-
ical industries in Palestine are being
ted $450,000 to these agencies for the
closely studied in the laboratories of the
curent year . . . Since Pearl Harbor
Hebrew University at Jerusalem, a ben-
some 3,200 communities have con-
eficiary of the Detroit Allied Jewish
ducted campaigns on behalf of the
Campaign.
United Jewish Appeal.
The JDC appropriated $7,150,000 dur-
ing the last 12 months to help more than
795,000 men, women, and children in
Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Despite limited avenues of escape since
our entry into the war, 8,000 persons
were evacuated to the Western Hemi-
sphere and Palestine with the help of
the JDC.
In the last year the JDC spent $400,000
for medical supplies and hopital equip-
ment which have been shipped to Soviet
Russia in an effort to provide desperately
needed medical assistance to some 600,-
000 Polish Jews in Siberia who fled there
in order to escape the Nazi armies.
The ORT Technical School for boys
in Leeds, England continues to train re-
fugee youths in highly skilled trades
which are vital to the war effort. In
Canada ORT provides training to Jews
in Canadian internment camps. Trainees
upon finishing the course, are eleased
from camps to work in war plants.
To Whom it May Concern:
This is to certify that I, Anna Cohen,
hereby . . . No, no!
No formality. Hunger isn't formal. A
pogrom isn't formal. Neither is
sickness. Nor flight. Nor anything
that has happened to me and my
family.
Let me explain.
My little girl once was in a concen-
tration camp. But now, gone are
the traces of rickets, malnutrition,
The JDC has made her a child
again. And I, her mother, every
night say—Thanks, JDC.
The 584,000 Jews of Palestine mobilized
all their resources, with the support of
the United- Palestine Appeal, to help
bolster the position of the United Nations
forces in that sector. Four hundred new
factories, producing various types of war
goods were established. The 271 agri-
cultural settlements founded by the UPA
Representatives of the three Jewish
greatly increased their yield of food sup- national TB institutions, the National
plies for the troops and civilian popula- Jewish Hospital and the Ex-Patients' TB
-tions.
Home, both at Denver, and the Jewish
Consumptive Relief and Ex-Patients'
The refugees who came to the United Tubercular Home of Los Angeles, met in
States in order to escape the Nazi terror Denver on October 29-30 in cooperation
have proved to be a positive asset to with the Council of Jewish Federations
America's war effort. Refugee boys who and Welfare Funds, and adopted a reso-
once benefitted from the assistance of lution calling for the creation of a cen-
tral planning organization to bring about
a systematic and coordinated plan of
order to find the necessary foster homes. service to Jewish tuberculous in the
Persons who may be interested in provid- United States. The meeting culminated
ing a home for a child should get in touch protracted negotiations between the
with the Jewish Children's Bureau, 51 W. Council of Federations and the TB insti-
Warren, telephone CO. 1600. The agency tutions, and marked the first major step
pays a regular weekly rate for this type towards fulfillment of the recommenda-
of care.
tions made in 1938 by Dr. Philip Klein
* * *
after an exhaustive study of the national
New situations arise every day. Social facilities for the institutional and after-
work agencies are sensitive barometers care of Jewish TB patients. The National
of changing social and economic condi- Jewish Hospital and the Ex-Patients' TB
tions. They reflect prosperity and depres- Home of Denver are both beneficiaries
of the Detroit Allied Jewish Campaign.
sion, war and peace.
Good and
Welfare
"In the War Chest is found the begin-
ning of the expression of interest by
American citizens, not only in the plight
of the Greeks, British, Chinese and Rus-
sians, but also of the Jews. As an expres-
sion of awakened interest on the part of
the American people in all of the victims
of our enemies, the War Chest is a most
wholesome influence."—Harris Perlstein,
President, Jewish Charities, Chicago.
* * *
"It should be encouraging to note how
deep and strongly felt is the community
sanction of our normal Federation activ-
ities. The community cherishes them as
institutions through which some of the
most valued ideals of the Jewish faith,
and of the American way of life find
practical day-to-day expression." — Eliot
E. Cohen, Director of Public Relations,
New York Federation of Jewish Philan-
thropies.
* * *
"The impact of the war on the lives
of children and young people is felt
particularly by those children and ado-
lescents who in times of peace came to
the attention of social agencies, because
they are more prone to succumb to
pressures incident to war than others."
—John Slawson, Executive Director,
Jewish Board of Guardians, New York,
former executive director of the Jew-
ish Welfare Federation of Detroit.
* * *
"The fund-raising effort may be a cause
or a result of community organization;
whichever it be, it cannot be denied . that
both are so closely interwoven that the
appearance of one gives promise of the
other; a successful experiment with one
leads quickly to a demonstration of the
other."—Stanley C. Myers, Chairman of
Board, Greater Miami Jewish Federation.
* * *
"We must plan to enable every human
being within our boundaries to realize
progressively the promise of American
life, in food, shelter, clothing, medical.
care, education, work, rest, home life, op-
portunity to advance, adventure and the
basic freedoms." — National Resources
Planning Board.
* * *
"We need to know our own resources
to understand how to use them, and to
plan their full use for the benefit of all
the people. Planning is needed by indi-
viduals, communities, states, regions,
and by the Nation and the United Na-
tions to win this war and the peace that
follows. All of the free people must
plan, work, and fight together for the
maintenance and development of our
freedoms and rights." — Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
* * *
"Volunteers engaged in all manner of
activities from motor corps to consumer
education, are learning to get under the
surface of the jobs they perform. From
the best of social agencies and social
workers they are finding out something
of the essence of social work, with a view
no longer distorted by an aura of mys-
tery. They are beginning to see that social
work is no more than an attempt, or an
efficient, scientific and human basis, to
help people rise above their own Made-
quacies or handicaps—economic, emotion-
al or social—in order to become, in every
sense of the word, free."—Dr. Leonard W.
Mayo, Dean, School of Applied Social
Sciences, Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, Ohio.
In Joy or Sorrow, Federation Needs Your Aid
The Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit -
has issued a statement calling attention to
!existing welfare funds to which contributions
may be made on happy occasions, as well as
-memorials. The statement reads:
"In times of joy and in times of sorrow, re-
member the agencies of the Federation.
"Of all the worthy causes that exist in this
world, none touches our common humanity as
deeply as does the plight of the poverty-
stricken . .. of dependent and neglected chil-
dren who have become destitute . . of the
poor who need material aid, service and medi-
cal care . . . of the aged . . . of the people
of despair and hopelessness.
"To console the bereaved and to pay tribute
to the departed, memorial contributions to the
Jewish Welfare Federation and its agencies
are in keeping with Jewish tradition.
"Commemorate the Yahrzeit of a relative, a
dear friend, a loved one, by contributing to the
Special Occasion Fund of the Federation.
"Honor the confirmand, mark a happy anni-
versary, share the birthday of those you love
with others less for4mate.
"Special occasions may thus be signalized by
sending your contributions to any of the
agencies here listed, or to the Jewish Welfare
Federation, 51 West Warren Avenue.
"Notification is issued immediately to the
persons so honored, or to the bereaved family
of the departed so remembered, and proper
acknowledgment is made to the donor.
"Your gift will be applied as you may
suggest—for child care, vacations, scholarships,
medical aid, relief, refugee work — or any
other of the manifold activities conducted
under Federation auspices."
No matter what phase of welfare activity
you are especially interested in, you will find
in the following list, one or more vital service
that needs your help to carry on its great
humanitarian work. Our local welfare services
include :
Fresh Air Society, 8904 Woodward Ave.,
children's vacation program at Blaine Lake.
Hebrew' Free Loan Association, 8641 Lin-
wood Ave., loans without charge to worthy
applicants.
House of Shelter, 1622 Taylor Ave., food
and shelter for transients.
• Jewish Children's Bureau, 51 West Warren
Ave., former program of Jewish Children's
Home and Jewish Child Placement Bureau.
Jewish Community Center, 8904 Woodward
Ave., the community's club with cultural and
recreational services.
Jewish Home for Aged, 11501 Petoskey Ave.,
residence of 125 chronically ill and other old
folk.
Jewish Social Service Bureau, 5737 Second
Blvd., material relief and service to preserve
family. life.
Jewish Vocational Service, 5737 Second
Blvd., free employment service, vocational
guidance and counselling.
North End Clinic, 936 Holbrook Ave., gen-
eral out-patient medical service.
:Resettlement Service, 5737 Second Blvd.,
material aid and service to refugee families
and children.
United Hebrew Schools, 13226 Lawton Ave.,
daily classes in Jewish education.
. United JeWish Charities, 51 West Warren
Ave., property-holding corporation of Federa-
tion,