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50 CHAPTER 3 Case Closed FROM AGENCY SUPPORT TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY  The American Jewish community provided affidavits that brought 140,000 refugees to the United States. But sponsorship did not stop there. The Jewish refugee agencies also set forth an ambitious agenda to see the DPs through the complicated process of acculturation. The February 1950 issue of New Neighbors summed up the goals of the United Service for New Americans (USNA) program: United Service does not consider its task completed after it has received a Jewish DP at one of our ports of entry and moved him to the local community to which he had been destined. That is merely one phase of our job. We must then work with the local Jewish communities to help them meet the many problems which each newcomer presents during his initial months in our country. The problems vary with each person and we must be prepared to extend the guidance and make available the facilities which will bring about the immediate solutions to these problems.1 This was an enormous and complex task. Did the agencies achieve what they set out to do? Jewish leaders certainly believed that they were extraordinarily successful in reaching their goals and expressed praise for their programs widely. In 1950, USNA president Edwin Rosenberg lauded American Jewish communities for making possible “an era of magnificent accomplishment .”2 And indeed, in many ways, the Jewish institutional response to the New Americans was far reaching and radical. Never before had cooperating communities been called upon to participate in this manner: to accept refugees into their midst, offer financial aid, locate housing, find jobs, provide social casework services, extend medical care, advise on immigration laws. It is not surprising that USNA considered itself to be at the forefront of progressive, humanitarian immigrant care—and, in many ways it was, at least on paper. Survivors, however, experienced the process very differently. The intent of the agencies’ approach may have been innovative and well meaning, even in light of their recognizing that survivors “had suffered the unspeakable brutalities of Hitler’s death camps.”3 What was delivered, however, often fell short of newcomers’ expectations and left them wanting. When the hosts were confronted with these New Americans, the essential fact that they were unlike any preceding immigrants often eluded those who were committed to helping them. The Jewish agencies insisted that they were addressing many facets of the DPs’ adjustment. In actuality, the focus was on finding work and getting the refugees off of relief. The belief that employment was the first necessary step in the road to becoming productive Americans was widely accepted and deemed both practical and effective. As Arnold Askin, NYANA president, announced at its second annual meeting in 1951, “I think it is significant, as a measure of the speed with which the immigrant can become part of the mainstream of our economic and cultural life, to point out that of the 38,000 people who have received NYANA’s help during the past two years, 31,000 have become fully independent, self-sustaining members of the community.”4 Mr. Askin and his constituents basked in the glow of both NYANA’s and the refugees’ apparent success in becoming acculturated. Mr. Askin’s remarks are telling, however, both because of what he chose to emphasize and what was left unsaid. His statement certainly describes NYANA’s perceived accomplishments. But Mr. Askin did not mention that speedy acculturation also furthered other agency goals. It minimized the DPs’ financial and emotional dependence on NYANA and guaranteed that no refugee would become a public charge. Also unsaid was the New York agency’s policy that limited financial help to one year. Once a newcomer was selfmaintaining —and the sooner the better—the file ended with the words “Case Closed,” marking the end of the agency’s relationship with the client. NYANA was not alone in placing work above all other goals. Nor was it alone in emphasizing that this tack was best for the newcomer. The majority of agencies stressed independence and self-sufficiency through employment. This became the focus of their assistance to the refugees and the standard by which they deemed acculturation to be successful or not. In turn, this was the message that was communicated in the media and that fueled the myth of the survivors’ triumphant postwar return to life. But the Case Closed 51 [3.15.156.140] Project MUSE (2024-04-26...

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