THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS—Friday, Decem ber 18, 1959-2
JDC Adopts $29,142,000 Budget; Pledges Launch Search for 26,000 Victims
of Nazi Property Confiscation;
to Support ^250,000 in 25 Countries
.
NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
Joint Distribution Committee,
at its 45th annual meeting,
adopted a budget of $29,142,000
for its aid programs in 1960
which provide assistance to
250,000 Jews in 25 countries,
including Israel. More than 400
delegates from all parts of the
country attended the gathering.
The delegates unanimously
voted a resolution pledging full
support for UJA's 1960 cam-
paigns and urged American
Jews "to demonstrate their con-
tinued support by responding
with heightened generosity to
the campaign for funds vitally
needed for live-saving efforts
in Israel and elsewhere."
Edward M. M. Warburg,
chairman of the JDC, lauded
the United Jewish Appeal of
which the JDC is a major part-
ner. He said that the UJA has
helped make possible the physi-
cal survival of the great flood He cited the improved economic
West Germany Awaits Claimants
position of many of America's
Direct JTA Teletype Wire
Bonn authorities had agreed
Western allies; the adverse
to The Jewish News
to compensate confiscation vic-
trend in the United States'
JERUSALEM. — The Israel tims who met the April 1, 1959,
balance of international pay-
Ministry
of Justice Wednesday deadline for filing claims. On
ments, and "the concern that
our foreign aid programs have launched a worldwide search the basis of the documents, the
not always been wisely admin- for 26,000 victims of Nazi prop- Administrator General filed
erty confiscations for whom claims in the names of the own-
istered.
claims were filed with West ers or heirs to protect their
"While I agree that there Germany.
right to file claims.
may be much merit in intro-
Israel is now trying to locate
These
persons
or
their
heirs
ducing greater discrimination
the
claimants to inform them
are
being
sought
on
the
basis
and judgment into the han-
of
their
right to proceed with
dling of foreign aid policy," of unquestionable evidence pos-
claim-
Klutznick, a former U.S. dele- sessed by the Ministry of Jus- individual claims. While
tice Administrator General's ants can press their claims per.-
gate to the UN General As-
sembly, said, "it would be Office of such confiscations by sonally, the Administrator Gen-
tragic if, under the guise of the Nazis, particularly in Ger- eral is willing to act as attorney
economy, cuts so drastic were many and in Poland. The Ad- if empowered by the individual
made that they destroyed the ministrator General has photo- claimants.
The list of claimants will be
results of our multi-billion graphic copies of the confisca-
dollar investment in raising tion orders and information displayed at various Israel gov-
living standards, in bringing that the value of the confiscated ernment offices, all Israel Con-
the twentieth century to un- property totals 10,000,000- Ger- sulates abroad and by organiza-
tions of Nazi victims.
derdeveloped countries, and man marks.
in creating a climate for the
democratic way of life
throughout the world."
Boris Smolar's
Moses A. Leavitt, JDC ex-
ecutive vice-chairman, reported
on the agency's world-wide wel-
•
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
fare services for 1959, for which
over $28,000,000 was spent. "In
I
Courageous Christian Zionist
Bartley Crum
1959, a year of no great crises,
(Copyright. 1959
Bartley Crum was a good lawyer. He was an even keener no terrible emergencies — the
Inc.)
,Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
observer of events that transpired in the Middle East. He was men, women and children who
a member of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on needed JDC's aid still num- Significant Anniversary
The year now coming to an end marks 30 years of the ex-
Palestine, as an appointee of President Truman, and he was bered well over 200,000," Lea-
istence of the Jewish Agency . . . It was in 1929 that the Jewish
among those who led in the battle in favor of the partition vitt pointed out.
Agency was set up to include. Zionists and non-Zionists as a repre-
of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.
The 1960 JDC budget was
He returned from Palestine a convinced Zionist, and for adopted after a report by sentative body vis-a-vis the British government which was en-
a number of years he propagated the Zionist and pro-Israel Charles H. Jordan, director- trusted by the League of Nations with the Palestine Mandate . .
Since that time the Jewish Agency has undergone basic changes
causes before Christian as well as Jewish audiences.
general for the agency's over-
Detroiters will recall his several -appearances here in sup- seas operations, who pointed in the emphasis of its activities ... The first decade-1929-1939—
port of Israeli causes, in behalf of the Jewish National Fund out that "deteriorating political was a period during which the emphasis was on political work
and at cultural gatherings at which the Middle East questions and economic conditions in . . . It was a decade of fighting, in London with the Colonial
j
Office, and in Geneva in the lobbies of the League of Nations,
.
were discussed.- -
Nerth Africa," particularly in
Communities through -out the laud will remember - Lhim'fati; Morocco and Tunisia, had in- for the •right of - the Jews to establish their National- Home in
his courage in support of a cause that was not too popular creased need among the Jew- Palestine. . . These were ten years in which the Jewish Agency
among many whose minds were poisoned by Arab or anti-Jewish ish population — and reduced was headed by the late Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who was later to
become the first president of Israel . . . The second decade-
propaganda.
the contributions of local gov-
His name will be remembered in the class of Christian Zion- ernments and communities -- 1939-1948—waS marked by the evaporation of the non-Zionists
ists who were determined to atone for the sins that had been resulting in heavier demands from the Jewish Agency, by tens of thousands of young Jews in
- forces -in the fight • against
Committed • against Jewry by an antagonistic world. Thus, his for JDC help.
Palestine joining the
the Germans, and by intense "illegal" immigration in defiance
memory- is blessed in Jewish historical records.
Because the Jews of Moslem of the British determination to keep the gates of Palestine
lands had "the double misf or-1 closed to Jews . . . These were years of war against the Nazi
Dwight Macdonald's Articles on Ellmann's
tune of being an underprivil- enemy, succeeded by years of effort to bring into Palestine as
'James Joyce' and on the Hebraist Persky
eged minority living in under- I many, of the surviving Jews from Europe as possible against the
New
Yorker
Magazine
in
recent
weeks
carried
several
The
developed countries," he said,
to
articles. that were of extreme interest to . Jewish readers. Chief JDC aid is absorbing an in- will of the British authorities, as well as of determination
- of highly ex-
establish
a
Jewish
State
.
.
.
During
this
decade
among them were the features on "The Slave of Hebrew"—Daniel creased share of JDC's annual
Persky—and "A Hero of Our Time," the review of Dr. Richard expenditure. Some 100,000 of plosive activity, the Jewish Agency was headed by David Ben
Gurion, now Israel's prime minister . . . The third period of a
Ellmann's . "James Joyce."
the approximately 500,000 Jews
Both articles were by an able analyst, Dwight Macdonald, in these countries are regular- little. more than a decade — 1948-1959 — was marked by the
-who caught the spirit of the works he analyzed—the men: and ly receiving some assistance, Agency's taking over the burden of bringing into Israel- and
settling there about 1,000,000 Jews from various countries with
their literatures.
he reported.
an expenditure of more than one billion dollars . . . It- was a
Those who know Persky were no doubt delighted with Mac-
Of the Jews who received decade during which Dr. Nahum Goldmann took over the presi-
donald's article. He portrayed the unique man, with considerable
of JDC aid during 1959, more than dency of the Jewish Agency which he still holds today.
e
skill. More than that: he gave a remarkably `fin
Persky's great love—the Hebrew language. "The Slave of He- 104,000 were in Moslem coun- March of Time
The session of the Zionist Actions Committee which takes
brew" is as much a review of the history of the emergence of tries, principally North Africa
Hebrew as the spoken language of Israel and of tens of thou- and Iran, Leavitt said in his place at the end of this month in Jerusalem, will vote important
sands in the Diaspora as it is a profile of an interesting man. report. There were also some changes in the constitution of the World Zionist Organization
The article on Joyce is a great tribute to the scholarship • 56,000 in Europe, more than indicating a new road upon which the Jewish Agency intends to
of the Detroiter, Richard Ellmann, whose "James . Joyce" is 42,000 in Israel and nearly embark . . . It will be a road leading to the bringing again into
winning acclaim not only in this country but in England and 4,600 in such other areas as the Jewish Agency of those elements in world Jewry who have
deep interest in strengthening Jewish affinity, not only through
other English-speaking countries as well. It is an endorsement Australia.
I I philanthropic aid for Jewish immigrants in Israel, but also through
of the efforts of an able student of Joyce whose research
into the man's life and works is so complete that it will no doubt Seminary Cets $180,000 intensive cultural work cementing Jewish unity and strengthen-
, ing Jewish consciousness . . Just as the Israel government is the
remain a classic in English literature for many generations
for Education Research central representative body of the people in Israel, so could the
to come.
NEW YORK, (JTA)—A gift Jewish Agency become within the new decade the central - repre-
of $180,000 for the creation of sentative body of the Jews outside of Israel . . . This is a task
Walter Lippmann's Failure to Visit Israel
a research center in Jewish edu- which may prove to be no less important than the task of the
• As we are indicating editorially, Walter Lippmann could cation was made by Samuel M. Jewish Agency during the earlier years when it represented
have rendered a much better service with his report on his
Melton, of Columbus, 0., to the the will of the Jews of the world with regard to the establishment
recent trip to the Middle East had he also visited Israel.
of a Jewish National Home in Palestine . . . The task of the
It is regrettable that he should have gotten all his impres- Teachers Institute of The Jew- Jewish Agency in the fourth decade of its existence may become
sions from interviews and statements he gathered in Egypt. ish Theological Seminary of even more important should the Soviet Union—as many expect—
He could have brought hack an account of the Suez Canal America.
Melton presented a check decide to open its gates for Jews who may wish to emigrate .. .
Crisis and of the manner in which international regulations
Ten years nowadays represent enough time for historic develop-
are being broken in Egypt's defiance of established world rules from the S. M. and Esther Mel- ments to take place . . . If the East and West came to an under-
by his denial of freedom of passage through the canal to ton Trust to Dr. Louis Finkel- standing on co-existence during the next ten years, then peace
Israeli shipping. But even in the UN there have been only stein, chancellor of the Semi-
between the Arabs - and Israel would be one of the by-products
nary, at a reception in Melton's
faint-hearted condemnations of Egypt's actions.
.. New horizons would then open for Israel, new possibilities
A few days ago, commenting editorially on the request by honor at the Park Lane Hotel would emerge for mass-emigration of Jews from Communist lands,
Egypt's President Nasser for a loan from this country for the here. The reception preceded and new important tasks would then be faced by the Jewish_
widening and .deepening of the Suez Canal, the New York Times the Teachers Institute alumni Agency, in which American Jews are the strongest element .. .
declared:
dinner, which culminated a
"Negotiations have been complicated by the reluctance of long series of events marking Accent on Culture
Entering its fourth decade. the Jewish Agency is now con-
Colonel Nasser to make a commitment to allow unrestricted pas- the 50th anniversary of the In- -
centrating a good deal of its efforts on developing cultural pro-
sage through the canal, even for cargoes to Israel. In the laudable stitute.
grams in the United States and . on building a cultural bridge
struggle for better relations between Egypt and the West this
Reputed' to be the largest con- between American Jewry and Israel . . . American Jewish
is a goal that must not be abandoned."
Yet, the goal is often ignored and may be too readily tribution ever made for the teachers and students have been going to Israel in groups organ-
abandoned unless there is a constant reminder of the injustice study of the curriculum of Jew- ized by the Jewish Agency in New York . . . They return to -the
ish religious schools, the fund United States after several months of Study in Israel and are
perpetrated by Nasser's Egypt.
Israel continues to harp on the issue. She continues to will enable the Teachers Insti- becoming a strong link in the cultural chain • now -being -forged
plead for peace. What she needs is the endorsement to such tute to inaugurate a nation-wide between Israel and_ this country.. . . They are alsZi adding to the
appeals by the world's great powers. Such cooperation has been program that will bring about strength of Jewish education within the United States . .. The
missing. That is why the actions of the United Nations breed more effective methods of trans- Jewish Agency's Department of Education and Culture is at the
mitting to young students a same time providing Jewish schools of all types in this 'country
only trouble and remain ineffective.
Walter Lippmann could have been more helpful in bringing knowledge of Jewish culture with educational material both for children and adults, in English
of Jewish refugees escaping
from dictatorship, anti-Semitism
and hunger in post-war years.
Warburg, who was re-elect-
ed JDC chairman for the
15th successive year, is a
founder and honorary chair-
man of the UJA. He told the
delegates that the establish-
ment of Israel had meant
"new hope" for hundreds of
thousands of Jewish refugees.
He praised the U.S. Govern-
ment policy of extending aid to
the needy of many lands "with-
out insisting that the price they
pay be acceptance of our sys-
tem of government or our way
of life."
Philip M. Klutznick of Chica-
go, chairman of the Interna-
tional Council of Bnai Brith,
warned that three factors were
tending "to turn the American
community inward at this time."
Purely Commentary
Between . You
. • . and --Me'
—
-
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