From: pshane@andromeda.rutgers.edu (Ana M. Shane)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Help for new olim form Yugoslavia
Summary: Please help new olim from Yugoslavia
Keywords: help, jews form Yugoslavia
Date: 14 Sep 92 03:49:31 GMT
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

Dear friends,

I have recently received the following letter. I have already
passed it to all my friends and acquaintances. Please help as
much as you can, and pass the letter further.

Thank you!

Ana Marjanovic-Shane
pshane@andromeda.rutgers.edu


------------------------------------------------------------------------
     ASSOCIATION OF YUGOSLAV JEWS IN THE UNITED STATES, INC.
                130 East 59th Street, Suite 1202
                       New York, NY 10022
                       Tel (212) 371-6891
 
                     ** S. O. S.   APPEAL **
 
         **  EMERGENCY FUND  -  NEW OLIM YUGOSLAVIA  **
 
 
Dear friends, 
 
Among the people in the ex-Yugoslav Republics who either had their
homes already destroyed, their lives disrupted, their towns
shelled, who are hungry, miserable and without medical supplies,
there are even some of our brothers and sisters - the Jews.
 
Some of them succeeded under the most awkward and difficult
circumstances to escape from war torn regions.
 
They are not fleeing under a Jewish Agency umbrella, they just
somehow succeeded in reaching Israel, where nobody knows that they
are coming, when nothing is prepared for them. Most of them arrive
only with clothes on their back or at best an overnight bag with
few necessities.
 
Women with babies in their arms and no diapers; children whose
parents are still in wartime hell and they cannot even communicate
with them by telephone or mail; there are youngsters who,if they
had not "deserted", would have been forcibly drafted into the
respective republics' armies to fight and kill their brothers or
cousins; old ladies. They all are confused and still cannot believe
that they are still alive and even in safety.
 
Since nobody knew of their arrival, it takes some time by the
Israeli government to house them, to give them a little money to
survive the first few weeks and to start studying Hebrew.
 
I just came from Israel, but instead of sitting down and cry, I was
going to get some money together or die!!.
 
We established an Emergency Fund and as soon as we have some funds
collected, the money will go to our sister Association in Israel
who will use the money to make it possible for the new Olim to
survive the first difficult weeks in their new homeland.
 
This is S. O. S.  - there is no time to lose. By now 500 of them
have arrived and more are trickling in daily.
 
The Jewish organizations here in this country have drives for the
Russians, the Ethiopians, even the Syrians who have not even left
the Middle East. But the Yugoslav Jews are the "forgotten" human
beings.
 
Please help! ! And put yourself in their situation. They, until
yesterday, had a nice apartment or a house, a job, money and were
"somebody". Now they surely must feel like beggars, as I felt when
I arrived in the United States without money, without relatives or
friends here, and in 1941 when I came, there were not even any
Jewish committees organized to help us upon arrival.
 
This is a desperate appeal. Help has to be tended 
** I M M E D I A T E L Y ** and without fail.
 
Thank you, thank you, thank for any amount you can spare and the
good will which will surely accompany even the smallest
contribution. And, please, pass this letter onto your friends and
relatives. 
 
 
                                   Yours truly
 
                                   Mary Levine
                                   President
 
 
Checks should be made out to:
 
"Association of Yugoslav Jews in USA"
 
Mark on check: "for Emergency Fund" and mail it to the above
address
 
Xref: sparky soc.culture.jewish:15586 soc.culture.polish:2472