-
By JOSEPH MEYERHOFF
76,000 were brought to Pales-
tine, the others to the U.S. and
other lands.
In the U.S., the National
Refugee Service devoted the
greater part of its efforts to
integrating into American life
the Jewish refugees who reached
America.
VE Day—May 8, 1945—was a
day of rejoicing. But for the
Jewish people everywhere it
soon gave . way to unparalleled
shock. Of the once vital, cul-
turally-rich Jewish communities
of 9,000,000, some 6,000,000 were
dead. Only 1,500,000 . survived
in Europe, in addition to those
in the Soviet Union. About 60,-
000 living skeletons somehow
remained alive in the concentra-
tion camps, which had been the
charnel-house for millions.
American Jewry responded at
a memorable UJA national con-
ference in Atlantic City in De-
cember, 1945, at which the un-
precedented sum of $100,000,-
000 was set as a goal—and
raised. The following year, with
the rush of Jews into the Ameri-
can Zone of Germany as a re-
sult of the Kielce Pogrom in
Poland, the UJA brought in -the
unheard-of sum of $117,000,000
to provide the Jewish displaced
persons with the necessities of
life, vital welfare service and
immigration assistance through
the JDC and the Jewish Agency.
General Chairman
United Jewish Appeal
Twenty-five year s ago last
Fall, 18,000 Polish Jews suf-
fered without shelter, food or
medicine in a No-Man's-Land
between Poland and Germany-
- "expelees" from Hitler's Third
Reich.
Twenty-five years ago, during
the night of Nov. 10, 1938, Hit-
Hitler's SS troops went on a
rampage against Germany's
Jews.
But before the glass of
"Kristall Nacht" was swept up,
the United Jewish Appeal was
born.
Accordingly, the United Pal-
estine Appeal, the Joint Distri-
bution Committee and the Na-
tional Coordinating Committee
for Refugees decided to pool
. their fund-raising efforts in an
attempt to gear the American
Jewish community to the large-
scale response required to meet
the unprecedented needs. Ed-
ward M. M. Warburg, William
Rosenwald, Dr. Jonah B. Wise,
and Dr. Abba Hillel Silver were
privileged to forge the new uni-
fied fund-raising instrument.
Its immediate effect was felt
in its first campaign: 1939.
With Dr. Wise and Dr. Silver
serving as co-chairmen, the
UJA raised more than $15,000,-
000 for worldwide Jewish
needs, a sum more than
double the amount raised by
the three separate campaigns
the preceding year.
Since that period, the UPA
has become the United Israel
Appeal; the National Coordinat-
ing Committee evolved into the
National Refugee Service, then
the United Service for New
Americans and, currently the
New York Association- for New
Americans and United Hias
Service. Today, the UJA is the
sole fund-raising body for UJA,
JDC, as well as for NYNA. In
addition the UJA allocates funds
to United Hias to assist in the
resettlement of Jews in coun-
tries other than Israel.
With the outbreak of World
War II on Sept. 1, 1939, and
with the subsequent Nazi vic-
tories, Europe became a death
camp for the trapped Jewish
population. After lengthy periods
of agonizing silence, there be-
gan to emerge reports of the
systematic destruction of Jews
at "concentration points" that
were barely identifiable on most
maps: Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen,
Maidenek, Treblinka and many,
many others. So grisly were
these reports that the world
first refused to believe them.
But even if these nightmarish
reports had been fully believed
and if by some miracle the Jews
of Europe could have been
moved out, where could they
have gone?
The Joint Distribution Com-
mittee, founded in 1914, re-
vived all the lifesaving tech-
niques it developed for feed-
ing Jews behind enemy lines
in World War I. New methods
also were invented. Using UJA
funds with the approval of the
U.S. War Refugee Board, it
passed along money, food and
other help through under-
ground channels and neutral
agencies to countless members
in ghettos and in hiding. At
,the height of its wartime ef-
fort JDC aid kept alive at
least a million souls.
But rescue remained the pri-
mary aim. The Jewish Agency,
beneficiary of the United Pales-
tine Appeal, succeeded in bring
ing in thousands of Jews to Pal-
estine despite "White Paper"
restrictions imposed by the Man-
datory Power. A selfless band
of men and women, associated
with the JDC and the Jewish
Agency, developed escape routes.
From 1939 to 1944, with UJA
aid, 162,000 Jews were snatched
from the Nazi death machines:
But as late as 1948 the
great bulk of the 250,000 Jew-
ish DPs continued to languish
in German camps despite the
efforts of the JDC, Hias and
other Jewish organizations to
break through the immigration
quotas and other special provi-
sions laid down by the world's
nations. .
The establishment of the
State of Israel on May 14, 1948,
radically altered this demoraliz-
ing situation. Inspired by the
people of Israel, the American
Jewish community in 1948 con-
tributed the all-time UJA high
—$148,000,000.
Rescue became the keynote
once again in the years follow-
ing Israel's victorious War of
Liberation. Arab rancor made it
imperative to move out large
numbers of the Jews residing
in various Moslem, countries.
UJA funds were used to airlift
practically the entire Jewish
Yemenite population of 50,000
to Israel in 1948-49 in the now
famous "Operation Magic Car-
pet." The next two years wit-
nessed "Operation Ezra and Ne-
hemiah," when the 110,000
Iraqi Jews were flown to Israel.
And thus it continued
through the years. Wherever
and whenever a Jewish com-
munity was imperiled, its
members knew at least that a
haven existed. In every case,
the people of Israel rose up
as one man to welcome those
in flight. By its 25tth anni-
versary, the UJA had raised
$1,435,000,000, which enabled
its agencies to resettle more
than 1,500,000 persons in
scores of lands, including
1,200,000 in Palestine and
Israel.
While the rescue operations
were underway, it became ap-
parent that bringing the immi-
grants to Israel was only "half
the job." What was the point
of transporting people to a land
without homes, j obs, farms,
schools, hospitals and other nec-
essary health and social serv-
ices? And so UJA-financing was
used by the Jewish Agency to
establish housing projects,
farms, reclaim vast land areas
for cultivation, for irrigation
projects, and to develop educa-
tional opportunities. While the
JDC set up its Malben program
to care for the aged, chronically
ill, and handicapped, ORT, us-
ing UJA funds through the JDC,
opened a network of vocational
schools.
In other parts of the world
as well, UJA-beneficiary agen-
cies continued to conduct re-
lief and rehabilitation opera-
tions. Through the JDC aid,
job-training, and rehabilita-
tion, hundreds of thousands of
Jews living in Europe and in
the Moslem countries were
helped to repair shattered
lives, to survive as communi-
ties and as individuals in the
face of postwar economic
hardship and political upheav-
als. In the U.S. some 100,000
Jewish immigrants have been
assisted. In all, UJA funds
have brought direct aid to
3,000,000 persons.
What is to be learned from
these impressive facts and fig-
ures? It becomes immediately
apparent that the UJA has been
fulfilling its primary purpose:
to rescue, resettle and rehabili- -
tate Jewish lives wherever and
whenever necessary. How many
more than the martyred six mil-
lion would we be mourning to-
day—were it not for the UJA?
Another inescapable fact is
that these past achievements
were made possible only by the
warm generosity of the entire
American Jewish community.
Never before, perhaps, has a
voluntary fund-raising agency
reached so large a segment of
the community in its campaign.
On this 25th anniversary, we
of the American Jewish com-
munity rededicate ourselves to
the noble task of contributing
the financial means to enable
the UJA to continue its hu-
manitarian mission, as there
are Jews overseas who need
assistance.
ANIMINS
■
"You shall not harden your heart, nor shut your
hand from your needy brother, but . . . lend him
sufficient for his need."
—Deuteronomy 15:7.
A rich chapter in humanitarianism has been written by
the United Jewish Appeal during the 25 years of its historic
activities to assist the impoverished, to relieve the sufferings
of the downtrodden, to provide homes for the homeless.
A great and an historic edifice has been erected in Israel,
and the immense fullfiment now in evidence in the Holy Land
owes much of its realization to the United Jewish Appeal.
We who have shared in this historic task take pride in
the U J A achievements as this fund marks its 25th anniver-
sary. May the good seeds sown by this great movement re-
dound to the benefit of the great hordes of unfortunates for
whom the U J A continues to provide succor, and may this
movement continue to enhance mankind's highest aspirations.
Officers and Directors of
AMERICAN SAVINGS
MICHIGAN'S LARGEST STATE CHARTERED SAVINGS AND LOAN INSTITUTION
Main Office: Woodward at Congress
1 1—TH E JEWISH NEWS—Secti on B —Frid ay, M arch 15, 1963
UJA's Quarter Century of Life Saving