Page Fourteen

THE JEWISH NEWS

.\

Friday, September 12, 1941

.

Planning and Reconstruction
Mark Community's Progress_

Welfare Federation's Director, Surveying Detroit's Achievements in 5707,
Says Jews Can Be Proud of Effective Aid They Gave
To Refugees Overseas and the Needy at Home

By ISIDORE 1 SOBELOFF

F

O

Executive Director, Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit
-
culture and its institutions, sharing in working with the JDC and with the occupied with other problems, the 1,500,-
Jewish in Europe had one outstanding
common with their fellow Americans the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid 000
ISIDORE SOBELOFF
source of hope to sustain their morale and
privileges and obligations of American Society, secured visas and passage to to nourish their faith in the future—the
ROM relief to reconstruction, democracy. In addition, American Jews America for them.
readiness of the Jews of America to en-
have certain religious or spiritual, cultural

and ittnii immediate crises to long-
range planning — these were the
major seeps in the progress of De-
troit s dewisit community during the
year 0*(07 towards the unity of spirit
and action with Jews throughout the
world. This is the culmination of a
greater understanding of social ser-
vices that has brought us from what
one Jewisn leader has called the Age
of Charity into the Age of the Corn-
munity, the era of mutual helpfulness
and the common cause.
Surveying the world and local
picture at the beginning of another
fateful year for Jewry, the plight of
the European Jews remains our grav-
est concern, but we know now our re-
sponsibilities for 5708, and we know,
too, how to relate the overseas needs
to the necessity for constantly
strengthening and improving our
local services.

This year we can speak first of our local
community as a reminder to ourselves
that we have a system of social service
that has held its ground and developed
during the European disaster. Our com-
munity has had the good sense, the will
and the resources to carry forward social
work. All the important services—care of
the aged, recreation, health, education,
family relations, career guidance for our
youth, and community relations—have
not only been maintained, but expanded
to meet changing needs.
Unprecedented Funds Raised
During the past few years, the tragedy
in Europe has been relieved at least by
the heartening response with which
American Jews met the emergency. At
the same time, the Federation campaign
in New York, where local agencies are
supported through a drive separate from
the United-Jewish Appeal, raised unpre-
cedented funds to help "plan again and
build again." In Detroit, where the co-
ordination of all of our communal services
through a single welfare fund has enabled
us to see the total picture simultaneously,
our local community services have also
profited from the new awareness of De-
troit Jews that every Jew is a member of
the community, benefitting from its ser-
vices. owing to it his support.
This enriched community spirit has al-
lowed for a new approach in dealing with
our senior citizens, for example. We have
come to realize that old people must have
access to medical and social resources and,
that they need modern skills to make
their old age comfortable and useful. Our
Jewish Home for Aged is one of the most
up-to-date institutions of its kind in the

DPs Gather Strength
The year 5708 finds Europe's Jewish
survivors on the road to economic reha-
bilitation and self-support. Everywhere
Jewish men, women and children are be-
ginning to regain health and strength, are
training and developing skills that will
fit them for productive careers either on
the continent or in the lands of their even-
tual settlement. Here the consolidation of
efforts between the JDC and the ORT (Or-
ganization for .Rehabilitation through
Training) has insured the greatest effici-
ency in utilizing the resources for voca-
We can be proud of our achievements tional training of the DP's.
in 5707, not only locally, but internation-
Yet at the same time, hunger and suf-
ally. During the past year, the promise fering are rising sharply throughout the
continent.
The surviving Jews would face
of haven in America became a happy re-
defeat in the battle against hunger
ality for 20,000 Jewish refugees who had certain
and exposure, if it were not for the Jews
suffered the terrors of Hitlerism and the of America, in communities like Detroit,
bitter waiting in DP camps and other who realize that upon the survival of
way-stations to freedom. The Joint Dis- these first fighters against fascism depends
everything important to us.
tribution Committee in Europe gave the survival of
America Hope of DPs
food, clothing and medical care to bring
In the midst of reductions in inter-
the survivors back to health and hope; governmental assistance, in the midst
the United Service for New Americans, of the growing indifference of a world pre-

and socjal needs which are not met by
American society. Like other ethnic
groups, American Jews have created
a variety of institutions to gratify the
spiritual wants and interests that are dis-
tinctly Jewish. These institutions, here in
Detroit the member agencies of the Jew-
ish Welfare Federation, are designed to
provide cultural sustenance, medical care,
support for Jewish family life and infra-
Jewish activities for members of the Jew-
ish community and within the traditional
patterns of Jewish communal life.

country, and its program is aimed to
provide the spiritual and physical comforts
that go with this superior physical en-
vironment.

Assistance to the Young
Our very young, too, have had the

interest and assistance of the community.
Whether it be the "problem" child, the
physically ill child, or the normal child,
our local services are prepared to meet
his needs. The Jewish Social Service
Bureau, the North End Clinic, Fresh Air
Camp, United Hebrew Schools, Yiddish
Schools and Jewish Community Center
are planning together and working to-
gether to give our children the secure
homes, the strong bodies, the pleasurable
leisure and the cultural foundations that
are their birthright.

But what remains to be done? To name
but a few projects, the Jewish Hospital,

final plans completed. will soon be ready
for construction, Jewish Community Cen-
ter extensions will have to follow the
spread of our people to the Dexter and

the Northwest neighborhoods.
Our existing and our future social ser-
vices will be maintained within the stand-
ard Detroit's Jewish community has al-
ways set for its agencies, and with a view
toward the guiding principles of Jewish
social work, principles probably best
enunciated by Dr. Oscar I. Janowsky in
his recent Jewish Welfare Board Com-
mission Report.
American's Jewry's Integration
As Dr. Janowsky points out, American
Jews, while distinctive culturally, are part
and parcel of American life, and are iden-
tified and integrated as Americans with
every aspect of America—its ideals, its

gage in a heroic relief, rehabilitation and
resettlement effort through the United
Jewish Appeal ana its member agencies;
the JDC, USNA, and the United Palestine
Appeal. It is a tribute to the maturity and
understanding of American Jewry that it
has become commonplace that our destiny
is bound up with that of the European
Jews. A World that does not provide the
necessities of living today and a reason
for hoping tomorrow will not allow secur-
ity for us and our children.
of us that
It is a source of anxiety to all of
as the year 5708 begins, there are still
some 250,000 Jews in DP centers in
Europe, there are still hundreds of thous-
of Jews in eastern Europe facing the
dangers of starvation, there are still Jews
desperately seeking to And a haven in
Palestine and other lands.
But whatever the problem that con-
fronts our people, whether in Europe, in
Palestine or here at home, there will be
no despair as long as we, the Jews of
Detroit, remain united with the Jews of
America in the resolve to give of our
means and of our energies in the spirit of
brotherhood with the Jews of the world.

