Jews from all over the world have rallied to the support of the small 6,000-member remnant Jewish community in Poland, according to a report by Ralph Goldman, executive vice president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
The JDC report noted that the agency had been in continuous contact with the Jewish community of Poland and was continuing to extend its aid to approximately 2,000 heads of families, mainly old and ill Holocaust survivors, who are on its social welfare roles. However, JDC noted that the current shortage in Poland required that aid be augmented by special shipments of food and medicines.
According to the JDC report, a truckload of 925 packages of supplies departed from Frankfurt for Warsaw on January 6. Two other shipments are scheduled, one of 465 parcels for the Jews of Katowice and another of 410 parcels for the Jews of Wroclaw. A delivery of supplies for the kosher kitchens JDC supports is also planned, as are a gift of the German Jewish community and other European Jewish communities through the European Council of Jewish Communities and were organized by JDC.
The JDC recently resumed the provision of direct services to the Jews of Poland after a 14 year interruption begun in 1967, following the Six-Day War.