Page Six
THE JEWISH
NEWS
Friday, September 29, 1944
nestoration and Behabilitation
In the Period of Liberation
After Eleven' Years of Darkness, the
By HENRY WINEMAN
Road is Open to Give Jews
Vice-Chairman, War Chest
of Metropolitan Detroit
a Status of Self-Reliance
A.
FTER MORE than 11 years
of darkness, the curtain Of tragedy is being raised and
the Jews of Europe are emerging from the despair and
suffering into which they were plunged by the Nazi
Oppressor. • The prison walls of Nazi Europe are being
reduced to rubble, and those who have lived in the
shadow of death for more than a decade are beginning
to find - their freedom. But it is our responsibility to
give that freedom the substance of renewed life and
security. •
As we_ stand on the threshold of the Post-Hitler
era, we must recognize one fundamental fact—and that
is that liberation has at last removed the barriers which
the Nazis had set up in occupied . :Europe, barring the
path to help from the Jews in the United States. Where
we were formerly concerned with emergency tasks in- .
volving the rescue of men, women and children con-
fronted with the threat of annihilation, we are now
faced with problems of restoration . and rehabilitation,.
of bringing a share of the fruits of victory to those who
have suffered most and done most to achieve it.
United Jewish Appeal in War Chest
Today the road is open to us to give the Jews in
almost every corner of the world all the, help that they
need—not merely .help of an emergency character, but
the measure of assistance which Will restore them to a
status of self-reliant, dignified, and respected members
of the communities in which they live. Moreover, we
must also not lose sight of the critical problem of Jew-
ish homelessness which will have to be solved through
constructive and large-scale action. Many of the Jews
uprooted by hatred will not be able to return to the
countries from which they were driven by persecution.
For these Jews, victory and freedom will be empty and
meaningless if they are to be abandoned to a life of
wandering and insecurity which would ultimately make
them once again a target of hate and attack.
These are some Of the thoughts which we must
keep in the forefront of our minds as we take part in
the 1945 campaign of the War Chest of Metropolitan
Detroit. from which funds are derived to meet the
needs of Jews in the process of transition from de-
struction to reconstruction.
The Allied Jewish campaign
which is included in the War Chest
has as its major beneficiary the
KEEP THEM
United Jewish Appeal for Refugees,
TOGETHER!
Overseas Needs and Palestine. The
United Jewish. Appeal is the central
instrument through which Amer-
ican Jews must provide . the re-
sources for the reconstruction, relief,
and settlement programs of the
Joint Distribution Committee, Unit-
ed Palestine Appeal, and the Na-
tional Refugee Service. If the Jew-
ish community of Detroit is to ful-
fill its obligations to the Jews of
Europe, to the Jewish homeland in Palestine, and to
other national and overseas causes, we have a solemn
responsibility to give the maximum service. to the War
Chest campaign.
Joint Distribution Committee voted an emergency al-
lotment of $3,000,000 to proVide for the' relief and
transportation of 8,000 'Jews, Most of whom are to be
settled in Palestine. In the meantime, the Jewish
Agency for Palestine, with funds supplied by the Unit-
ed Palestine Appeal, launched a building program to
construct 2,500 small housing units in Palestine to
shelter the newcomers from Hungary.
. In liberated areas the axiom that the forces of rescue
must march side by side with the forces of freedom is
being daily corroborated through the expanding pro-
gram of relief and rehabilitation assistance supported
by the United Jewish Appeal. When the Allies landed
in southern Italy, they brought freedom to thousands
of destitute refugees who were interned at Ferramonti
where they lived under the most miserable conditions.
Following close on the heels of relief measures by
UNRRA, the J.D.C. arranged for the purchase of- cloth-
ing in Palestine which was promptly made available
to the women and children in the refugee camp. Later
when the Nazis were driven out of Rome, a special of-
fice was established in that city to minister to the needy
among the 9,000 native Italian Jews and 2,000 refugees.
Upon the liberation of the Jews of Rome, the J. D. C.
made an emergency grant of 2,000,000. lira to the Jew-
ish community. The J. D. C. also arranged transpor-
• tation for 570 refugees from Yugo-
slavia, Greece and the Balkans from
liberated Italy to Palestine.
HAVE A
.9
1
HEART!
Food, Clothing Shipped
Although a greater measure of
aid must be brought to Jews in the
liberated areas of North Africa and
Italy, the J. D. C. has been extend-
ing every possible assistance to those
Help tlut Community
in enemy - occupied countries.
WAR CHEST Through neutral countries - and in-
ternational relief agencies, food and
clothing packages are shipped to
various .parts of Nazi-dominated Europe. Help is to-
day reaching Jews in Slovakia and Poland through
these channels. Two months ago when a J. D.•C. aide
escaped from France, it was learned that an extensive
relief program was being carried on in that country
and that the sum of $2,000,000 had been borrowed on
the J. D. C.'s pledge of repayment at the end of the
war for aid to Jews in France.
Continued support is also lAng provided for refu-
gees in Allied and neutral countries. More than 300,000
Jews from Poland who are now situated in Asiatic
Russia are being helped to survive by means of a . pro-
gram of food shipment. The J. D .C. is shipping more
than 10,000 parcels of food and clothing a month to
individual refugees in Soviet Russia. These packages
are prepared and shipped from Teheran where a spe-
cial J. D. C. representative supervises this phase of its
activities. An -agreement recently reached with the
Soviet Government Will also enable the J. D. C. to
ship $500,000 worth of additional food and other relies
supplies to Russia: In Switzerland J. D. C. funds are
needed not only to help maintain 18,000 of the 25,000
refugees in that island of neutrality, but to finance re-
lief assistance to occupied - countries which can be
reached from Switzerland. Although relatively few
14,500 Refugees Brought to Palestine
refugees' are left in Spain and Por- •
The day to day achievements of American Jews on tugal, allotments for aid in these
the rescue front through the campaign of the United
two key transit countries for refu-
Jewish Appeal for Refugees, Overseas Needs and Pal-
gees cannot be reduced.
estine have placed its constituent agencies—the Joint
As \part of its effort to speed
Distribution Committee, United Palestine Appeal and the integration of -the 125,000 Jews
National Refugee Service—in a unique position to deal who have found a haven in Latin
efficiently with the greater needs of the period of lib- America since the beginning of the
eration and peace. We have only to look at their record Hitler regime, the J. D. C.- is now
during the past year to ,comprehend the extent to which
supplying funds for the establish-
their operations have charted a course- of prompt, uni- ment of credit cooperatives- for re-
fied and well-coordinated service to Jewish commun- . settlement, retraining and health
ities in the lands from which the Nazis have been driven. and social welfare services in many
One of the - most significant developments on the
Centill and South American coun-
rescue front was the establishment early* this 'year of tries.
the President's War Refugee Board, composed of the
-
Secretaries of State, War and the Treasury, • for the
Palestine :Most Important Haven
purpose of helping the -victims. of Hitleristn escape an-
Out of a total of $15,577,812 appropriated by the
nihilation. Employing the diplomatic facilities provid-
ed by the State Department, the Board opened the doors J. D. C. in the first eight months of 1944, 70% was al-
located
far rescue- and emigration activities and the
of rescue fop large numbers of Jews in the Balkans
balance for refugee relief and other programs in neu-
and the Iberian peninsula. But, after
trai countries.
the Board had operied the doo'rs, it
In a determined effort -to help save large numbers
became the responsibility of private
of children, the J. D. C. has set aside the sum of
agencies, chiefly to bring the home-
$2,000,000 for the transportation of children from
less Jews out of Europe and to settle
Europe to• havens of safety overseas. Some 6,000 refu-
them in Palestine and -the Western
gee: children have been maintained in France with the
Hemisphere. The Board's activities,
aid of the J. D. C: In three decades of its relief ac-
which centered on •Turkey - as- the
tivities the J. D. C. has spent a total of almost' $150,-
corridor of emigration to Palestine
000,000 in aiding millions of Jews throughout the world.
for many thousands of refugees,
Palestine's pivotal importance as a haven for Jews
greatly, taxed the -facilities of the
Help the Community
threatened with Nazi extermination was dramatically
Joint Distribution Committee, which
demonstrated during the past year as more than 13,000
provided the transportation, and the
WAR CHEST refugees,
mostly from the Balkans, streamed into the
United Palestine Appeal, which ar-
Jewish homeland and were settled there with the aid
ranged for the adjustment and set-
tlement of the refugees following their arrival in ,• the of th. United Palestine Appeal. While thousands of its
Jewish homeland. Through 'this combined actiori,, more Jewish soldiers were fighting in Italy and on other
fronts, Palestine, aided by the United Palestine Appeal,
than 14,500 .refugees were brought into Palestine dur-
manned the rescue front to receive and absorb a con-
ing the past eleven months.
stant stream of homeless men, women and children
fleeing from the Nazi terror in Europe.
Rescue Forces in March for Freedom
A total of 55,000 Jewish refugees have been ab-
Recently when the Hungarian Government an- sorbed in Palestine since the outbreak of the war with
nounced that it would allow all children under the the help of the U. P. A. The great increase in the in-
age of 10 to leave the country and that adults would
flux of refugees during the current year has greatly
be permitted to emigrate to Palestine, the agencies of taxed the resources of the United Palestine Appeal. An
the United Jewish Appeal found themselves confront- acute housing shortage brought on by the large-scale
ed with a major challente. Although the governments
flow of immigration required emergency measures. The
of the United States and of the United Kingdom exerted Jewish Agency for Palestine spent the unprecdented
pressure on the Hungarian government to halt the mass sum of $2,400,000 in the first six months of _1944 for
deportations of Jews, the abandonment of this policy housing and adjusting the more than 10,500 refugees
could bring new hope to the endangered Jewish pop-
who reached the Jewish homeland during that period.
ulation only as a result of large-scale action on the
To speed the integration of the new arrivals and
pe.rt of the Joint Distribution Committee and the Unit- give them an opportunity to rebuild their lives as self- -
ed Palestine Appeal. ,
forty-eight hours after sustaining citizens of the Jewish homeland, the United
the extreme measures against Jews had been lifted, the Palestine Appeal expanded its agricultural settlement
HENRY WINEMAN
program,. with fifteen new rural centers to be estab-
lished this year, bringing the total number of agri-
cultural settlements to more' than 290. At the same
time, the Jewish National Fund has been called upon
to broaden its land acquisition activities to supply the
areas needed for the creation of new settlements by the
Palestine Foundation Fund. During the past six months
the Jewish National Fund acquired 13,952 dunams of
-land, thereby increasing the opportunities for new rural
'development and for the expansion of food production
for civilian and military use.
Palestine's Contribution to Victory
On the industrial and fighting fronts Palestine's
contribution to victory has gained worldwide recogni-
tion, reflecting the determined spirit of the Jews to
help hasten the day of liberation .
for their •ellow-Jews in the prison
house of Europe. The United. Pal-
estine Appeal is extending support
to the dependent families of 'many
of the 50,000 Jewish men and women
who are serving in various branches
of the British armed forces. In ad-
dition, a program of settlement and
reintegration is now being launched
in behalf of discharged servicemen.
Both the Palestine Foundation Fund
and the Jewish National Fund are
jointly working out plans whereby
Palestine's war veterans will be
settled on the land upon being discharged from the
army.
During the six-month period .from Oct. 1, 1943, -to ,
April 1, 1944, the sum of $9,824,000 was spent in Pal-
estine for every phase of the development of - the Jew-
ish homeland by the agencies of the U. .P. A., the
medium through which American Jewry provides the
funds . for financing the programs in Palestine •• of the
Jewish Agency, the Palestine Foundation Fund, the
Jewish National Fund and the Mizrachi Palestine Fund.
This represented an increase of more than $3,700,000
ous year, indicating the greatly increased needs in Pal-
estine for rescue in wartime an91 for reconstruction in
peace.
The adjustment program carried on by the National
Refugee Service in behalf of the 215,000 Jewish refu-
gees in the United States has made them a v_aluable
asset to the American way of life. The N. R. S. bears
important - wartime responsibilities for the interpreta-
tion of the problems of refugees to our government.
Today these refugees , are contributing their special
skills and training as well as their very lives to the
all-out war effort on the hon -ie and battlefronts. The
N. R. S. has created special files to meet government
requests 'for chemists, translators, teachers and scient-
ists. It has granted loans to individuals to enable them
to start in business or settle on farms. It has provided
retaining for - over-age and physically handicapped new-
comers: Refugee physicians are being placed in hos-
pitals in outlying sections of the country where there
is' a grtat need of their specialized services.
Creation of Central Location Index
,
With the establishment of the Emergency Refugee
Shelter at Fort Ontario in New York, N. R. S. is pro-
viding supplementary services for the 982 refugees
from fourteen European countries who are being housed
there for the duration of the war. As the Allies liberate
more territory; N. R. S. Is called upon for information
concerning the whereabouts 'of relatives and friends
overseas.
- To meet this growing need, the N. R. S. has coop-
erated with Other organizations in the establishment of
a Central Location Index which . contains information
about refugees in this country, overseas as well'as their
friends and_ relatives here. This newly created index
will have at its disposal the coordinated facilities of the
International Red Cross and other • resources abroad.
Thus the N. R. S. will be in a position to help ma-
terially in reuniting families scattered as a result of war.
Here briefly we have an outline of the current
needs and activities of three of the major organizations
which Detroit Jewry must support in meeting the re-
sponsibilities of the present critical war transition
period.
We have waited for more than 11 years for the
Opportunity not merely to alleviate suffering, but to
'rehabilitate the Sufferers. That opportunity is here.
Surely those who survived the most ruthless forms of
persecution must not be permitted to fall victims to
distress, homelessness and despair in the hour of vic-
tory. We can signify our spirit of solidarity with our
fellow-Jews throughout the World through . a standard
of service in behalf of . the War _Chest of Metropolitan
Detroit which will do himor to our -place in the com-
munal life of the United Sthtes.
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