The American Jewish world. [volume] (Minneapolis ;) 1915-current, 1922-02-10
sUPPoSk
YOU
we're STARVING

While countless thousands of lives
have been saved in Eastern and
Southeastern Europe through the eff
forts and generosity of Americans
the real aims of the most difficult
and unusual task in modern history
are yet to be achieved, according to
j. H. Schanfeld, State director of the
$14,000,000 appeal for Jewish war
sufferers toward which Minnesota is
raising quota of $35O,OO0. And the
American public, which has already
given $47, 100000 for the tremendous
work already accomplished is entitled
to know what has been done, said Mr..
Schanfeld.
Feeding and clothing the starving
is, of course, the first duty. However,
the Joint Distribution Committee has
broadened it's scope and includes med
ico-sanitary measures against cpl
denies, and child-care and training
work and to help bring these suffer-
ers to an ability to help themselves.
From the beginning of the great
wharf.-the Joint Distribution Commit
tee was organized in December, 1914
up to very recently in most cases,
any effort to carry on from any given
points along what was formerly the
Russian border was as futile as an
attempt to stay an ocean tide. Emerg-
ency conditions arose here and there,
and the primary duty was to give re-
lief. Was food needed? 1t was di-.
rected there in such quantities as
could be secured. Was medical relief
called for? Medical unit members
were sent so far as the limited per-
sonnet of this group permitted.
Emergency hospitals were estab-
lished temporarily in literally hun
dreds of places, only to move on when
the immediate need was met. Some
times these latter moved under pres
sure, as, for instance, Kiev. When
the Polish army went there, commit
tee workers took along quantities of
indictments, only to leave supplies
behind when the precipitate retreat
came. The refugee problem kept the
committees representatives on the
jump from the Baltic States to South
ern Roumania; and child caring work
was often compelled to be as mobile
as other types of Service.
'Now as peace is being restored
in some of the countries, the work is
taking on a more permanent charac-
ter. Refugees are being handled in
two great classifcations, orphanages
are being built, supplemented by
schools in which industrial training is
given, medico-sanitary work organ
lied on educational and preventative
lines by communities, and rehabilita-
ton work is taking the form of estab-
lishment of loan organizations to help
the artisan and small trader back to
his feet.
"When it comes to refugees, the
problems are two-fold. One arises
from those former residents of parts
of Russia which are now independent
states and who fled into the interior
of Russia when armed invasions came
to their provinces. The task for these
is to help the refugees to prove their
identity, and to care for them in
concentration camps while action per-
hitting their repatriation is being
taken. In the Ukraine the situation of
the large Jewish population is pitt
able in the extneme. Constant coun-
ter-revolutions, guerilla warfare and
banditry have resulted in the deaths
of scores of thousands, including 2O0,-
900 heads of Jewish families. The
survivors are broken in body and
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