Evening star., 1925-09-20

THE biggest national appeal ever
yet undertaken by the Jews
of America has been officially
Il launched by a resolution ap
proved at the end Of two
day ratification session by over a thou
sand delegates representing every
phase of Jewish communal, philan
thropic and religious organization in
this country, assembled in q huge
nationwide conference in Philadelphia
last Saturday and Sunday. The new
effort will create a SIS. 900 900 "over
seas chest" for constructive Jewish
relief undertakings in various couE.
tries abroad.
The enacting resolution sealed the
accord of all sections of Jewish opin.
ion represented at the conference
which had been called by David A.
Brown of Detroit, internationally
known commander-in-chief Of the $14,.
100000 national campaign for relief of
Jewish war sufferers in 1922. Julius
Rosenwald of Chicago. whose previ,
GUS gifts to ameliorative causes, both
Jewish and non-Jewish. have been
among the largest ever made in this
country. was the first to offer his con.
tribution. with pledge Of $1,000, 900.
This was matched by another million
by Felix M. Warburg Of New York,
chairman Of the American Jewish
The committee which drafted the
resolution included on the one hand
the acknowledged leaders of the ex-
tensive undertakings for Jewish relief
and rehabilitation in central and east
ern Europe In the war and postwar
years, who were at the same time the
proponents Of the American-wide ap-
peal. with specific emphasis on fur
ther1ng the present spontaneous back
to-the-soil movement among the Jews
of Russia. With them were Joined
the foremost American leaders Of the
Zionist endeavor for the development
of Palestine as future haven OF
Jewish resettlement.
While the Appeal Is Needed.
The plan of agricultural aid for Rus
sian Jewry, which Is to be the mai jor
feature of the worldwide program for
which the $15,000,000 chest is to be
created, Is. as pointed out by Mr.. War
burg at the conference, in actuality
continuation of the work begun in
Russia in the famine period of 1920-21
by the American Relief Administration
under the direction of Herbert Hoover,
with an appropriation of $22 .000, 900
voted by the Congress of the United
States. The American Jewish joint
distribution committee, acting as the
agent Of the American Relief Admin
istration in the conduct of the Amer
lean feeding stations set up in White
Russia and the Ukraine, spent ten
millions of total fund of $50, 900 900
raised by Jewish contributions in
America in the non-sectarian effort TO
save both the Jewish and non-Jewish
populations from starvation. The di-
rector of the joint distribution COM
mittee's work in Russia, DIR. Joseph
A. Rosen. acting as its representative
on the American relief administration
staff under Col. Haskell, its chief In
Russia, is the man whose introduc-
ton of American farming methods and
American Indian maize into Russia
broke the fatal famine of that year in
the Volga region.
It was DIR. Rosen's initial expert
ments in rehabilitating Jewish refugee
families on farm holdings in Russia,
undertaken as an accompanying phase
of the emergency relief effort, that
gave impetus to what has now become
a wholesale rush into land-tilling
occupations among the Jews of Rus
sia. The unprecedented mass pro-
portions Of this unexpected new de.
velopment. in the opinion of authorita.
tive observers, has led to situation
among the Jews of Russia today