[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 25, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1089-E1090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            KOSOVO REFUGEES

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. STEVEN R. ROTHMAN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 25, 1999

  Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I am submitting today for the Record the 
enclosed article written by Mr. Leonard Cole of Ridgewood, New Jersey. 
Mr. Cole, who serves as the distinguished chairman of the Communal 
Unity Committee of United Jewish Appeal Federation of Bergen County and 
North Hudson and as vice chair of the Jewish Council for Public 
Affairs, recently returned from refugee camps in Tirana, Albania. In 
his article, Mr. Cole eloquently illustrates the remarkable 
humanitarian efforts being made by the Jewish Agency for Israel, the 
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, in association with the 
United Jewish Communities, to assist refugees displaced as a result of 
the conflict in Kosovo. I am confident that all of our colleagues will 
find much food for thought in this well written article.

                [From the Jewish Standard, May 14, 1999]

                      Finding Kindness Amid Chaos

                          (By Leonard A. Cole)

       Nearly 15 years ago, on a two-day mission to Israel, I 
     witnessed lines of bedraggled Ethiopian Jews emerge from an 
     El Al airplane. They had suddenly been transported from a 
     14th-century existence in Ethiopia to a 20th-century life in 
     Israel. Last week, during another two-day mission, I 
     witnessed a sad obverse. In the company of Israeli and 
     American Jews, I visited refugees in a camp in Tirana, 
     Albania, whose lives have been reduced to primitive survival. 
     Among the

[[Page E1090]]

     800,000 ethnic Albanians booted out of Kosovo, 5,000 were 
     crowded into this Tirana camp. Living eight and nine to a 
     tent, able to bathe once a week, they are uncertain where or 
     if they have a future. The only heartening similarity between 
     the experiences of the Ethiopian Jews and Kosovar Muslims has 
     been the rapid humanitarian response by Jews and other caring 
     people around the world. And none have shown more caring than 
     the people of Israel.
       For seven weeks, out of noble intention, NATO has been 
     pounding Yugoslav targets with bombs and missiles. The 
     attacks were intended to stop Yugoslav President Slobodan 
     Milosevic's policy of murder and deportation of ethnic 
     Albanians from his country's province of Kosovo. Milosevic's 
     penchant for ``ethnic cleansing'' is too reminiscent of 
     Hitler's war against the Jews for the Jewish people not to 
     support intervention. But diplomatic and military 
     miscalculations have become painfully apparent: the failure 
     of NATO's firepower quickly to stop Milosevic's actions; the 
     depressing likelihood that the bombing actually accelerated 
     the deportations; the destruction of unintended targets, 
     including the Chinese embassy, a hospital complex, and 
     convoys of refugees. The unanticipated calculus was 
     underscored for me by the sight of scores of U.S. helicopters 
     sitting idly in Albania's major airport. Although touted as 
     especially effective against ground targets, none has yet 
     been used, apparently in fear that Serbian firepower was 
     still too threatening to these low-flying craft. Exactly how 
     the military and politicial issues will be resolved remains 
     uncertain. What is clear, however, is that the victims of the 
     conflict need immediate attention.
       In the early hours of May 5, our plane, chartered by the 
     Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), was preparing to take off 
     from Ben-Gurion airport. We were beginning a two-day 
     whirlwind of visits to Albania, Hungary, and back to Israel. 
     We would be traveling through a thicket of suffering, but 
     also witnessing efforts to alleviate that suffering. Under 
     the auspices of the newly constituted United Jewish 
     Communities (UJC), some two dozen representatives from North 
     American federations had come to bear witness. Described by 
     the UJC as a ``rescue mission,'' our venture really was more 
     a search--a search for information, for meaning, and 
     ultimately for ways to help.
       ``Leave the last 12 rows empty,'' the stewardess 
     instructed. Along with other blear-eyed passengers, I 
     squeezed into the forward section. Our weight was needed as a 
     balance for the supplies that had been loaded into the rear 
     cargo area. Like 23 previous flights from Israel, eight of 
     them chartered by JAFI, the main purpose was to deliver 
     supplies obtained from contributions by Israelis and Jews 
     throughout the world.
       At the refugee camp, we watched as carton after carton was 
     unloaded from trucks that had transported them from the 
     plane. In orderly fashion the boxes were opened and the 
     contents were distributed by representatives of various 
     humanitarian groups, including JAFI, the American Jewish 
     Joint Distribution committee (JDC), and Latet, an 
     Organization of Israeli volunteers.
       And it is well to remember that JAFI, JDC, and other 
     helping agencies, in association with the UJC, are truly the 
     point organizations for the rest of us. the money and 
     supplies have come from federations and from individual Jews 
     around the world. Israeli citizens alone have contributed 
     more than $1 million in food, blankets, towels, diapers, 
     soap, toys, and more. The Israelis built and staffed the 
     first field hospital in a refugee camp.
       Delivering supplies to the Albanian Muslims was only part 
     of the humanitarian effort we witnessed in that part of the 
     world. We next flew to Hungary, where we met dozens of Jews 
     from Serbia who fled the bombings and were now guests of the 
     Hungarian Jewish community in Budapest. On the second day of 
     the war. Asa Zinger, head of the Jewish community in 
     Belgrade, Yugoslavia, phoned his counterpart in Budapest, 
     Gustav Zoltai. When told of the distress among the 3,000 Jews 
     of Serbia, Zoltai quickly arranged for his community to 
     receive as many of them as possible. both leaders, now in 
     their 70s, are Holocaust survivors. ``For us,'' said Zoltai, 
     ``it would be difficult to know of such suffering by a Jewish 
     community and not to help.''
       About 400 Jews from Serbia have become guests of the 
     Budapest Jewish community. Since males between 14 and 65 
     cannot leave Serbia, families are now being split. In come 
     cases, mothers have come with their children to Budapest; in 
     others just the children have been sent.
       But that is not all. Israel is also playing host to Muslim 
     and Jewish refugees from the fighting areas. In fact, when we 
     flew back to Israel that evening, 32 Yugoslav Jews who had 
     been staying in Budapest came with us.
       Some were coming as visitors, and others to make aliyah. 
     All these efforts are also being assisted by JAFI and the 
     JDC--that is, through resources provided by Jews everywhere.
       In Israel, we visited with several of the hundreds of 
     Kosovars and Serbs--Muslims and Jews--that the state is 
     hosting.
       Each had his own sad story, though all expressed gratitude 
     for the kindness extended by Israelis and other Jews. Perhaps 
     the most memorable exchange occurred when a member of the UJC 
     delegation asked a Jewish family from Kosovo what they had 
     expected before arriving in Israel. Anita Conforti, 22, 
     translated her mother's answer into English: ``Warm deserts 
     and cold people.''
       What did you find after you got here?
       ``Paradise.''

       

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