According to a communication from the New York Tageblatt, the Joint Distribution Committee is about to give up relief work completely and will soon end its work in Europe. Before these lines appear in print, the decision taken by the Joint Distribution Committee regarding this matter will probably be known because a meeting was to take place last Sunday. As it had been officially announced that the purpose of this meeting was to pass resolutions regarding the cessation of relief work in Europe, and as it was also announced that this meeting would be the most important one ever held, we can take it for granted that either it [the meeting] adopted some important resolutions or the meeting was, due to some still unknown reason, postponed and will soon take place.

Until recently, the representatives of the Committee contended that the 2Committee must, and will, continue its work in Europe. But if there was to be another relief drive, everyone felt that the American Jewish relief work would soon end because it had not been as successful as was expected. The Committee gave up direct relief work long ago and has been chiefly occupied with constructive relief work. Today it is an open secret that the so-called constructive relief work has never been constructive for two reasons:

First, the precarious foreign exchange situation did not permit any real work to be carried on in the realm of constructive relief. Second, the men who controlled the relief activities were not capable of carrying out the task. It is easy to distribute money; anyone can do that. But when it comes to reconstructing the life of a people, then those who are responsible for that task, must have some sort of a relationship with the people they are helping, must understand them and their ideals, must respect their traditions. Directing American Jewish constructive relief work were men who are invaluable as men and citizens, but who are not the best sons of our people in so far as 3Jewish ideals, Jewish traditions, and Jewish knowledge are concerned. They were very capable when it was a question of distributing alms, but they were not effective in constructive relief work in Europe. To do constructive relief, one must have a certain amount of love and understanding of Eastern European Jewry. The work could only be done by nationalistically inclined Jews who understand and love the Eastern European Jews, not by individuals who consider those Jews foreigners and total strangers. For this reason, the constructive relief work could not be successful, whereas the general relief work of the Committee was very successful.

The leaders of the Committee feel that they were not capable of such work. They feel that their work of the past eighteen months has been ineffective, and in our opinion, this is the psychological reason behind the Committee's wish to give up constructive relief work.

Objectively the situation is such that we cannot defend the policies of the Joint Distribution Committee. Constructive relief work should not be given 4up because the need of the Jews in Russia and the Ukraine is great and because the question of the orphans and refugees is still not solved. If the men who stand at the helm of the Committee had been nationalistically inclined Jews, the question of the orphans and refugees would have been settled long ago. The Joint Distribution Committee should have raised a fund of twenty-million dollars to transport the orphans and refugees to Palestine. By doing so it would have accomplished two things: first, it would have helped the orphans, and second, it would have helped Palestine. The orphans have not been taken care of, and some of them are doomed to death; the refugees are in a far worse condition today than they were two years ago. Two years ago they could at least expect aid from America. Today they can no longer expect that aid and are actually being driven from country to country, without knowing how long they will have to wander about. Even if the Committee should dissolve tomorrow, it does not follow that the constructive relief work will come to a complete standstill.

If the Committee does not concern itself with the orphans and refugees, the 5Keren Hayesod ["exchequer" of World Zionist Organization] will have to do so, and it will. But it [Keren Hayesod] will not try to invest millions of dollars in the Polish or Ukrainian swamps--it will invest the money in Palestine and it will transport many orphans and refugees to Palestine. The Joint Distribution Committee should have done that. This was its mission after the war, and since it did not do so because it lacked the moral courage and the requisite vision, others will fulfill that mission. Because the Committee was unable to fulfill its historic mission, i.e., to help the orphans, the refugees, and Palestine, and because its work has not been very successful lately, no conscientious Jew will weep if the Committee should completely dissolve.

When it has dissolved, a joint conference should be called by the Central Relief Committee and the Keren Hayesod for the purpose of organizing the work that the Joint Distribution Committee was incapable of doing, viz., to raise a large fund for the transportation of a great number of the orphans 6and refugees [from Eastern Europe] to Palestine. There the orphans will grow up as Jews and will be a great asset to the country, and the refugees will have a haven.