The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-29
Committee Plans to Raise $1O,OOO in Birmingham
 for War Victims
CHURCHES TO MAKE
 SPECIAL DONATIONS
Meeting to Be Held Today at Which Details of Weeks Cam paign Will Be
 Completed

The general committee in Birmingham representing the American Jewish relief committee will meet today at 12 o'clock at Steiners bank for the purpose of conl- pleting the details of the campaign to raise in Birmingham $10,0O0 to be used in sending food and clothing to the suf- fering Jews in Poland. This was decided at a meeting of the committee last night at Temple Emanu-El. The campaign is hardly under way. but contributions to the total amount of almost $5000 have been received and the committee is very much encouraged. The members of the com mttee which meets today are Dr. Morris Newfield, l.. Piztz, A. Leo Oberdorfer and Leo K. Steiner Dr. Newfield an- nounced last night for the committee that an active campaign would be waged during next week, and that collections continue to come in in gratifying amounts.
 The churches of Birmingham or most of them, will ask for special donations to the cause for which the committee is working, and Bishop J. H. Mccoy stated yesterday that he would request every minister of every Methodist church in the Birmingham district to make of this collection a special event of Sunday. The Independent Presbyterian church already had announced that it would take spe- cial collection for the fund, as had the Church of the Advent
 Dr. Newfield asked that the public be notified that all contributions would be acknowledged through the press as soon as the committee could get the list of names complete.
 The total amount reported to last night by the local campaign committee work ing to raise funds for war-str1cken Jews of Poland was estimated at a figure slightly above $4500. The subscriptions of large size reported yesterday include:
 P. B. Bowers, $200.
 Louis Saks, s100
 J. Blach, $100.
 John l.. Kaul, S100.
 Robert Jemison Jr., $50.
 V. M. Robertson, $50.
 s. Smollian, $50.
 And Dr. Newfied said that there were any number of subscriptions of from $25 to $50 each, making a total of nearly $5O00
 committees began work. As matter of fact, practically no canvassing was done yesterday, and the work of organizing the work and getting it into concrete shape was not started until last nights meet ing at Temple Emanu-El. This morning and next week canvassing in an organized manner will be made, and the business section of Birmingham will be given an opportunity to contribute of it's fullness a mite to save lives in Russian Poland.
 The following messages 70 The Monthly Bulletin the publication of the Ameri- can Jewish Relief committee were fur nished The Age-Herald by Rabbi M. New of the Jews in the war-stricken territory. It is for these people that the committee is appealing to the Birmingham public.
 The messages:
 'Ten thousand Jewish families in the city of Kovno and adjoining provinces were driven out of their homes upon a few hours notice. We are wandering from one place to the other with our old ones women and children, the sick and the starving. No tongue is able to express the greatness of that misery-no pen sharp enough to write it down.
 Ut is true that with the German occu- patton of Poland and Kurland, the Jews were not subjected to Russian cruelties, but through the local German prohibit tion of trading, hundreds of thousands or us are facing starvation. Under the Russian administration, Jews were per- mitted to engage in trading and indus try, but today this is prohibited, cutting off the income of thousands of Jews who were thus engaged We appeal to all American co-religionists to have pity on us and hurry to our help.