T-H J
. - ge Fourteen •
J. D. C Faces the Future
By JOSEPH C. HYMAN
Executive Vice-President, American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee
Created in answer to the agonized pleas of suffering
Jews during the first World War, the AMerican Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee has dedicated itself in the three
decades which followed to the relief, rescue and rehabilita-
tion of distressed Jews in 52 countries. Through thirty
troubled years, its only aim has been to feed the hungry,
shelter the needy, protect the
weak and rebuild the lives of elusively from 'the United States
'Jews. • Today, as at the time and Canada. Today we are dis-
of its inception, JDC belongs to tributing funds entrusted to us
all Jews and serves all Jews by the Jews of England, South
Without distinction. It is the Africa, Australia, Sweden, Pal-
'agent of aroused American Jews estine and several Latin Ameri-
intent upon the survival of their can countries.
tortured fellow Jews.
Aftermath of War
The JDC, major American
Iti the light of • new tragic
agency for relief to distressed Jewish conditions uncovered by
Jews overseas, has been concern- our armies in the liberated parts
ed only with the -competent, ef- of Europe, JDC's program, which
ficient, complete _discharge of had hitherto been thought ex-
its trust. Its guiding philosophy, tensive, appeared insignificant.
in simple form, has always been JDC was prompt to act. In the
"to help the Jews overseas who first two months of 1945, JDC
need help—for survival, for es- has allocated $5,364,740, a fourth
cape, and for the rebuilding of more than what was spent last
their broken lives." In so doing, year.
the JDC has been forged into a
Current estimates indicate that
'unified instrument of American 1,500,000 of Europe's six and a
Jewry.
half million Jews, outside of
Russia, have survived. This
An Awesome Future
Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, vice- million and a half is in direct
chairman of the JDC and•nation- poverty. The people need food,
al chairman of the JDC Cam- clothing, medicines and shelter
. paign for 1945, said on the oc- immediately.
During the years of occupation
casion of JDC's recent 30th an-
niversary, "We are going into a these people learned to look to
new decade, a decade of hope, the "Joint" for help. Even dur-
of the rebuilding of Judaism in ing the occupation, JDC. contin-
the new commonwealth of the ued in its mission. Local com-
world."
mittees in the occupied countries
The rehabilitation of the tor- used JDC credit to obtain funds.
tured survivors of a great Euro- Food packages were sent, even
pean Jewry will be an under- into the concentration camps.
:taking far greater than Jews all These despairing people had only
over the world have ever before one hope— that rescue and relief
faced. The surviving Jews of would reach them through the
Europe are broken in • body and "Joint" before it was too late.
spirit. We must help them re- Today, they look to us still .. .
gain their health. They are de- and we must not fail them.
void of possessions. Their homes
Cooperates with WRH
have been devastated, their busi- Over 70 percent of the JDC
-messes have been destroyed, their grants in 1944 were for res-
only personal possessions are cue work. Part of this sum
the rags on their backs. We was used to rescue 8,000 Jews
Must help them rebuild their from Hungary, Bulgaria, and
communal organizations, regain Romania and send them to
their economic security, re-edu- Palestine, a migration from
cate their children. JDC laces torment into freectom, super-
this awesome future enriched vised by Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz,
With the experience of thirty Chairman of the JDC European
years, supported by the confi- Council. JDC has worked in
dence of American Jews.
closest cooperation with the War
Cfeated in 1914
Refugee Board and allotted
JDC • was created in - 1914 in $9,894,000 for rescue work in
response to an urgent cable from cooperation with the Board.
Henry Morgenthau, then U. S.
Large Parcel Shipments
Ambassador to Turkey, pleading
Strong emphasis • has also been
that American Jews send funds
immediately . to save 60,000 Jews
..in Palestine. The groups which
answered this • appeal,- the Cen-
tral Relief Committee . and the
American Jewish Relief Com-
': mittee, soon fused into one body
—the Joint Distribution Com-
mittee.
,Interisive rescue and relief
- operations during the war were
followed by all-out efforts for
the rehabilitation of Europe's
devastated Jewish population.
JDC rebuilt homes, shops and
stores. It restored schools and
organized credit . cooperatives,
loan societies, trade and techni-
cal schools. It originated health
societies throughout Central and
Eastern Europe, created nurses
training schools and financed
hospitals, clinics and sanatoria.
Through the post-war depres-
sion, the years of. reconstruction,
the years of famine and disaster,
and the years of the Hitler Scour-
ge; the JDC succored Europe's
Jews. Tens of thousands of them
were .rescued through JDC's ef-
forts. :
JDC Spent $150,00,000
Even with the increased diffi-
in arranging transporta-
. tidn, some 24,000 of them have
been brought out of the hell of
Central Europe since Pearl Har-
: bor. arone. Maintenance for ad-
ditional thousands safe in Allied
and neutral lands has been pro-
vided by JDC. Even in the oc-
cupied countries, our committees
throughout the world have con-
tinued their work.
Since its inception JDC has
spent over $150,000,000 to relieve
the suffering of European Jew-
ry. Until recently, funds placed
at our disposal came almost ex-
.
S
z
Friday, March 16, 194S
NE WS
placed on the rescue of children
from occupied France. • HundredS
were , brought into Switzerland
and about 90 more were taken
to the haven of Spain. Between
10,000 and 11,000 French and Bel-
gian children were maintained
in hiding throughout the occupa-
tion. Of these, 2,000 have al-
ready been reunited with their
parents, and an additional ' 500
have been placed with one par-
ent. About 2,500 or 3,000 have
been . placed •fh JDC financed
children's homes.
Relief was sent to all the _oc-
cupied zones, whether in. sup-
plies or funds, in.order to keep
alive the Jews in concentration
camps, ghettos, 'forced labor bat-
tallions. To Theresienstadt alone,
for. example,- 18,000 parcels
monthly were dispatched from
Portugal and Switzerland with
the cooperation of the Interna-
tional- Red Cross.
Out work in the neutral coun-
tries, Switzerland, S w e d e n,
§pain and Portugal, has included
the maintenance of refugees to
these -havens: In Turkey, along
With " assistance to refugees and
the- purchase" of supplies for oc-
cupied Romania and Czechoslo-
vakia, the JDC has given relief
to repatriated Turkish nationals
and to the local Jewish commun-
ities practically ruined by dis-
criminatory levies on minority
groups.
Stimulating Growth
In Palestine and the near East
these were the highspots: chan-
neling of aid to needy refugee
rabbis and scholars; support of
70 educational and cultural in-
stitutions, 25,000 students; relief
and medical aid to Aden for 2,000
Yemenite Jewish refugees from
Yemen; allocations to Alliance
Israelite Universelle schools in
Iran.
JDC continues its relief and
rehabilitation program in Cen-
tral and South America, but on
a constantly decreasing scale
since the local communities are
becoming better able to assimi-
late and care for the needy in
their midst. In these areas, JDC
is stimulating the growth of lo-
cal responsibility. Many of these
communities are now themselves
collecting funds for overseas re-
lief.
Liberated Countries
JDC's work in the liberated
countries has received the great-
est immediate attention because,
as territories were freed, new
tragic conditions were revealed.
In North Africa and liberated
Italy, efforts are being directed
to the rebuilding of community.
organizations.
In France after liberation it
was found that about 160,000
Jews of the pre-war population
of 300,000 survived. It was esti-
mated that 60,000 need help.
Large . quantities of food and
clothing have already been ship-
ped into France, and $250,000
monthly has been appropriated
for the first two months of 1945.
In Poland, Soviet authorities
have permitted MC to ship 250
tons of food and clothing into
Lublin from Teheran. An addi-
tional $500,000 worth of food
and clothing has also been pur-
chased for Poland, Romania, Bel-
gium. Greece, Bulgaria and
Yugoslavia present similar
problems of great need which
Must be met. If Ame,rican Jews
fail to provide this relief, addi- .
tional thousands of Europe's
Jews must perish.
Mention must be made of the
10,000 parcels which are sent
monthly from Teheran to Polish
refugees in. Russia. JDC ap-
propriations for this work
amounted to $1,200,000- in 1944.
Occupied Territory
Since the outbreak of World
War II, the rescue of Jews in oc-
cupied territories has continued.
Every possible means of saving
lives has been utilized. Where
it was not possible to rescue
Jews, a variety of methods was
employed to send them relief.
Some of these are: local borrow-
ings on JDC credit against re-
payment after the war; actual re-
mittance of local currencies
through underground channels;
shipment of food and medicine in
the form of individually address-
ed packages to internees in camps
and bulk shipments distributed
through the International Red
Cross. JDC's appropriations for
rescue and relief in occupied
countries during 1944 totalled
$9,894,000 via cooperation with
the War Refugee Board. An es-
timated 500,000 to 600,000 Jews
are still trapped in Hungary,
Italy, Czechoslovakia and Hol-
land.
JDC Looks Ahead
What faces JDC, the organiza-
tion representing the broadest
humanitarian impluse of Ameri-
can Jews? In the liberated coun-
tries, excluding Russia, where
approximately a million and a
half Jews survive, it is estimated
that more than two-thirds look
to JDC as their only hope. The
situation overseas is so fluid that
it is virtually impossible to state
what the needs will be. We can
say with certainty, however,
that the Jewish survivors in
Europe are in a desperate con-
dition.
In estimating the 1945 budget,
JDC officials considered especi-
ally the two major categories of
JDC work:. the program - referr-
ing to the regular continuing
activities of the JDC at a cost of
$6,870;000, and the larger pro-
gram dealing with immediate
emergency needs as well as with
the long-range reconstruction
phase , of the work in behalf of
surviving Jews in liberated and
soon-to-be liberated areas. For
these needs the JDC has been
asked for an estimated $40,000,-
000—making a combined figure
of over $46,000,000 for 1945.
JDC will have to provide basic
help until and while the organ-
ization and operations of UNRRA
are set up. JDC will have to
provide supplementary help to
meet the special needs of Jews
who have suffered more than
their non-Jewish neighbors. JDC
will have the heartbreaking task
of reuniting families who have
been scattered across the con-
tinent.
Special Needs
No private agency can handle
the whole problem. Major res-
ponsibility belongs to the gov-
ernments themselves, to UNRRA,
to the Intergovernmental Coin-
mittee • on Refugees and similar
organizations. JDC has worked
in close cooperation with these
and other agencies in the field.
JDC, secure in its relationship
with all governments and agen-
cies, secure in its friends over-
seas, secure in its 30 years of- ex-
perience, is spurred on in its un-
precedented tasks by the fresh
memory of the gas chambers of
Poland, the crematoriums and
warehouses filled with the re-
mains of massacred Jews, the
slaughtered martyrs of Poland,
France, Belgium, Holland, Slo-
vakia, Hungary, Greece and
Italy.
It is made strong by the up-
lifting faith and support of
American Jews who are resolved
in these darkest of days to save,
to rebuild and to restore their
stricken brethren overseas.
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taly delicious dessert means so much
10 a fine meal that during March our
Home Service Advisors are demonstrating
• nothing else at our popular, informal
sessions each Thursday and Friday
afternoon in the Home Service
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are making their bow at that time
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