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TBI SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
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Friday, October 28, 1M6
Women's Division Honors Retiring Executive Dena Chait
Report From W. D. Leaders
On Overseas Study Mission
Special to Atlanta
ROME— Mrs. Jake Friedman
and Mrs. Israel Wilen, both of
Atlanta, were among 21 members
of the 11th annual United Jew
ish Appeal Women’s Division
Overseas Survey Group which
left here October 19 for Israel
after a week in France and Italy.
They have been studying welfare
and migration needs of over 320,-
000 Jews assisted in Europe and
the Moslem countries by the
American Joint Distribu t i o n
Committee which is one of the
major beneficiaries of the UJA’s
annual fund-raising campaign.
• »•*•••
FIRSTHAND VIEW HAS
EMOTIONAL IMPACT
Even though they had devoted
years of service to fund-raising
drives, for a number of the wom
en it was their first direct con
tact with the refugees and other
needy Jews for whom the over
seas beneficiary agencies of the
United Jewish Appeal provide a
wide range of social services.
“When you actually see the
operations—-and the people, they
have an emotional impact far be
yond what you could have possi
bly imagined,’’ one woman said.
“When you see, talk with, touch
—even kiss the people your mon
ey has been helping, everything
you’ve done becomes so much
more meaningful.
“Yet it is a little frightening
to hear how these people depend
on us” she added. “And there is
a feeling of frustration that no
body has done enough. So much
more is needed. The refugee shel
ters are grim bare places, lines
of washing strung up across the
dormitories, not always too clean.
In France, for example, there
aren’t enough facilities for chil
dren whose homes are broken,
who are emotionally disturbed,
held back in school by the terri
ble experience they went through
in Algeria.”
WELCOMED BY NEW
COMMUNITY IN FRANCE
While in France, the women
visited JDC-supported institu
tions in Paris and a new com
munity in Caen, Normandy,
which is in the process of cre
ating cultural and social services
for its members of North Afri
can origin. The installations in
Paris included a shelter for new
ly-arrived Jews from North Afri
ca who have not yet found a
place to live, soup kitchen, a
clothing distribution center, an
ORT vocational training school
and a children's home recently
re-built on the “cottage” plan.
In Caen they were greeted “as
if we had come from heaven,”
said one member of the group.
“This is what you read about in
Jewish history,” she said. ‘Com
munities are dispersed, destroyed
—then they are built up again.”
She explained that of the 100
Jewish families who lived in
Caen before the war, only five
came back from deportation by
the Nazis; now again there are
125 families, most of whom came
from Algeria, although one man
they met was from Turkey and
the president of the Caen com
munity is a woman from an old
French Jewish family from
Paris.
“It was heartwarming to see
how proud they are of the new
synagogue we helped them
build,” she went on. “Several of
the men had taken the day off
from work just to meet us and
a young medical student cut his
classes at the university to act
as interpreter. They took us to
the hotel for a long French lunch,
then eleven of them—one more
than a minyan—came to the rail
way station to see us off.”
MIGRATION PROBLEMS
REVIEWED IN ITALY
During their three days in
Italy, the group was briefed by
JDC and Jewish Agency staff
members on migration problems
and those of the Italian Jewish
community, especially the need
in Italy for Jewish schools at all
levels.
They were told that Italy is
now a main center for transit for
migrants passing through Europe
on their way to Israel, the U. S.
and elsewhere. While those en
route to Israel remain only a
day or two, the liberal policy
of the Italian government
make* It possible for those
going to the U. S. and other
Western countries to remain in
Rome or Genoa while their emi
gration paper* are being process
ed by the United HIAS Service,
another UJA beneficiary.
The women found the experi
ence </f meeting a planeload of
migrant* about to take off for Is
rael a memorable one. “I will
never forget this day," one woman
said. “At first all of us were ill
at ease and shy. When they came
into the waiting-room, the adults
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These lovely and charming leaders of the Atlanta Jewish Welfare
Fund’s Women’s Division sponsored an appreciation tea recently
upon the retirement of Mrs. George Chait. Leaders and the rank and
file of the Women’s Division Joined in presenting a jeweled pin to
Mrs. Chait In appreciation. “Dena” beaming In front row center,
slightly to the right of the orchid peak on the floral centerpiece, has
helped guide the group’s activities in behalf of the Atlanta Jewish
Welfare Fund for the past ten years.
were obviously frightened when
they saw us taking notes. Some
of the children—and it was won
derful to see so many lovely,
well-dressed children—looked be
wildered. One little girl with
long blonde curls was crying as
if her heart would break.
“But as soon as they heard a
Jewish word, their fears — and
our shyness—vanished. Some of
them knew what the ‘Joint’—as
they call the JDC—had helped
them get here. Some didn’t. They
had been cut off from access to
information so that they only had
rumors to go on and what their
relatives might have written back
from Israel. One man who had
been waiting eight years to come
asked me, ‘Will I really be free?
Will I really have my own apart
ment, be able to work?’ I was so
glad that I could promise him
he would.”
The women also said they were
impressed by the fact that a
group of migrants from North
Africa looked as if they might
have come from any European
city. The newcomers cited diffi
cult economic conditions and
problems of educating their chil-
den as their main reasons for
seeking a new home.
WILL STAY TWO WEEKS
IN ISRAEL
In Israel, the Women’s Division
Survey Group were to spend two
weeks visiting devel o p m e n t
towns, agricultural settlements,
youth care and old age institu
tions maintained with the aid of
UJA funds by the Jewish Agen
cy for Israel and JDC’s Malben
program.
Leading the group, which is
made up of key women leaders of
13 top community campaigns in
the U. S. are Mrs. Jack Karp of
Los Angeles, national chairman
of the UJA Women’s Division,
and Mrs. Harry L. Jones of De
troit, national vice-chairman.
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