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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 1963)
THURSDAY, AUGUST IS. 1963 Refugee Problem Worse for Jews Now Than in '45 By PHILO J. ROBINSON United Preis International Paris - UIPD - In the para doxically named Paris slum of Belleville (beautiful city) a Jewish Tunisian family of seven huddles in a squalid 8-by-8 foot room with one bed, no lights, no water, no 1 t63. lurtau of MveftMn ANM MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON window. Now, lamentably, there is heat in their casbah like hovel. In winter there is none. This family is a symbol of the "July crisis" and the sta tistics of France's new, near ly doubled Jewish popula tion. In just two years France gained the world's fourth largest Jewish population, be hind the United States, the Soviet Union, and Israel. The mass exodus from North Af rica increased her Jewish census from 350,000 in 1961 to 510,000 - more than 40 per cent - bringing with it all the special problems of these religious and primarily Ori ental people. France also has a large Jewish transient population that trickles in from Eastern Europe. One social worker who her self lived in Nazi concentra tion camps and escaped death in Germany said the refugee problem for the Jews is worse today than in 1945 when she was received here. A high percentage of the 160,000 Jews who fled to France from the Arab coun tries of Algeria, Tunisia, Mor occo and Egypt since 1961 are without minimal standard housing, without religious fa cilities, rabbis and kosher butchers and kitchens. While all of France's pop ulation increased by only two per cent from Algerian re patriation, the Jewish com munity's increase of 40 per cent cannot be absorbed fast enough. The "July crisis" is the sudden elimination, of French aid. Almost the entire bur den is now on American Jew ry for their co - religionists. Some 800,000 persons (Euro peans and Jews included) fled Algeria in a 40-day period of June-July 1962. The French government granted a 19 month aid of 450 francs ($90) a month to each married cou ple. The problem is general among the families who fled Algeria, but in the case of the Jews there is a special problem of assimilation, Jews, Oriental Aa the end of 1961 there were 120,000 Jews in Algeria, a year later there wete only 9,000. A large part of the Jews, though of French cul ture, are actually Oriental rather than European. Their families had lived in North Africa for 2,000 years and their religious practices have stayed with them. The problem is heightened by the fact that the 40,000 Jews who fled Morocco and Tunisia were never entitled to the French grant. Ameri can Jews have been provid ing most of their means through the American Joint Distribution committee (AJ- DC). Last year the AJDC pro vided $7.5 million from funds of the United Jewish Appeal in America, but this year's needs are an estimated $10 million. There are Jews living in 34 FTench cities which never had a Jewish community, no rabbis or synagogues or kO' sher facilities. An ADJC demographic map of France shows that in 1961 there were 175,000 Jews in Paris and a year later 250,- 000; in the southern port of Marseilles from 12,000 to 60,' 000. Thanks to a loan from ADJC and the salary of the small income of the head of the Belleville family - the father is a tailor - the fam ily will move out of its 8-by-8 box into a two-room flat. The family had live in the room since 1961. Another family, said Jewish social worker, is ea gerly awaiting the right to take the vacating family's place in the hovel. This new family will be moving from a refugee camp and the pri vacy of the box will seem heaven-sent. Welfare Tenants To Face Eviction Monmouth - (IT! - The op erator of a nursing home here has announced he will evict his public welfare tenants -14 persons ranging in age from 60 to over 90. K. E. Draheim, operator of the Madonna Nursing Home said Wednesday that he had ordered the tenants to be out by noon today. He said that he could not give the patients the care they should have under the operating rules of the Public Welfare Administration. Fees w ere listed as another reason like looking for someone who doesn't read newspapers Very hard to find. 99 million people in almost 9 out of every 10 homes read newspapers. It's the most sought after, often bought, eagerly consumed, intensely depended upon product in the world. The reason is obvious. We can't do without it. The need to know about the news and events that touch and shape our lives is deep, intense, unending. And the need to know is now. Today. So it's not very hard to figure out why more advertising dollars are spent in daily newspapers than in TV, magazines, raaio, ana outaoor comDinea. More People Do More Business With Newspapers! for the eviction.
