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.