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Rosh Hashonah
For the
By MOSES A. LEAVITT
In my capacity as executive vice-
chairman of the Joint Distribution
Committee, there have been many
occasions when I have found myself
far from the shores of the United
States as the High Holy Days ap
proached. I have seen the beginning
of the new year in Israel, in the
Great Synagogue in Paris, in the
company of the handful of Jews
still remaining in Barcelona, Spain,
in an ancient Sephardic synagogue
in Agadir, French Morocco, To all
of these had my work on behalf of
JDC’s far-flung overseas programs
brought me, and in every case I
was welcomed as a distinguished
guest, given an honored place and
an honored role in the services.
But the truth is that it was not
me, for myself alone, whom the
Jews of Agadir and of Paris and of
Barcelona were honoring — but
rather JDC, to which they all freely
acknowledged their debt, for JDC’s
aid, particularly in the difficult
post-war years, had meant survival,
hope, a chance for a fruitful life and
a future.
I am spending Rosh Hashonah of
5714 in the United States. But I
cannot help but think of those other
members of JDC’s staff who will
be observing the holiday this year
in the nearby 20 countries of JDC’s
operations. And I share their pride
and gratification, because in many
of these countries, in many of the
institutions where they will be
present, there could be no obser
vance of Rosh Hashonah and Yom
Kippur without JDC’s aid.
Neediest
In Israel, for example, there will
be observances in each of the 100
institutions financed by Malben, the
JDC’s program on behalf of aged,
ill and handicapped newcomers to
the Jewish State. In this network
of hospitals, sanitaria, old age
homes, custodial care centers, shel
tered workshops and other installa
tions, thousands of men, women
and children who arrived in the
Holy Land after May 15, 1948, have
found a peace and security of which
they never dared to dream.
Since the founding of Malben, at
the close of 1949, more than 35,000
new immigrants have been aided —
through reconstruction loans,
through medical and hospital care,
through prosthesis and through
clinical care and treatment by an
agency which is now second in size
only to Kupat Holim, Histadrut
medical agency, in all Israel.
In the' field of tuberculosis alone,
Malben has built the largest TB
hospital in the Middle East at Be’er
Yaacov which has 520 beds avail
able for TB’s. This figure becomes
even more impressive when you re
call that in 1949, when Malben was
founded, there were only 300 beds
in all of the Holy Land.
Picture for yourself what Rosh
Hashonah will mean to the 930 TB
patients now under Malben’s care.
And then imagine what Rosh
Hashonah is like in such Malben
institutions as Kfar Uriel, the Vill
age for the Blind near Gedera.
where 85 blind men and their fam
ilies are now supporting themsel
ves through their own efforts, or in
Kfar Zkenim, near Tel Aviv, the
recently-established Malben Village
for the aged. Picture these and you
will begin to understand the mean
ing of JDC’s aid to the thousands
who could not have survived with
out such assistance.
It is perhaps natural for me to
think first of Malben because this
program looms so large in JDC’s
current operations and planning, Of
the total of $35,491,000 which JDC
has requested as a minimum from
the 1953 campaigns of the United
Jewish Appeal, some $12,100,000 —
nearly 50 percent — has been allo
cated to Melben alone.
But JDC’s aid this Rosh Hasho
nah will be just as vital to tens of
thousands of Jews in other areas —
in Iran, French Morocco, Tunisia
and other countries of the Moslem
world; in the DP camps of Ger
many. Austria and Italy; in France
and other parts of Western Europe.
In the synagogue in Agadir, I
noted with some surprise that the
machzor which I was given was
printed in the small island of
Djerba. some 1,200 miles away. I
had visited the small printing shop
of Djerba where this machzor was
printed. I had seen how much
JDC’s help had meant in the revival
of Jewish life not only in that small
isolated community, but throughout
North Africa. For the Jew of the
Moslem world is not only proverty
— stricken almost beyond descrip
tion. but his life among the Arabs
has been for years a life on the
edge of a volcano. He had all but
given up hope — until JDC came
to him. For JDC brought not only
feeding programs and medical care
and reconstruction aid and loan
funds and educational assistance —
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