The eleventh annual meeting of the New York Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies was held yesterday afternoon at Temple Emanu-El. The ninety-one constituent societies and thirty thousand subscribers were represented at the meeting.
Budgetary allotments to the ninetyone affiliated institutions of the Federation for 1927 will probbly be kept within the limits of last year’s awards, Sol M. Stroock, president of the Federation, declared in his report. The total allotment by the distribution committee for 1926 was $4,679,067.
A plea for cooperation in philanthropic affairs by the agencies of various denominations with an inter-denominational community chest as the ultimate object, was made by former United States Attorney General George W. Wickersham, who delivered the principal address.
“Just as I long to see the government of my country united with those of other lands in making perfect the work of peace,” he declared, “so I fain would see all lines of race or creed united in the great work of stimulating support of every agency established for the betterment of the condition of the poor and of suffering humanity.
“I have deep respect for the splendid record of Jewish charities,” Mr. Wickersham continued, “and for that spirit of mutual helpfulnes which universally is recognized in the common saying that the Jews always take care of their own poor and afflicted. It is sometimes gained toward that great balance of competition and cooperation that so many different organizations for charitable effort can submit themselves to the guidance, direction, restriction and often the criticism or even censure of the governing board of a federation. May the Federation long continue to be for each and all of you a source of great and justified pride.”
Col. H. A. Guinzburg, treasurer of the Federation, in the annual treasurers’ report, announced that for budgetary and non-budgetary funds the Federation had received $5,130,987.81 in 1926 and had expended for the same period $5,137,508.48. The non-budgetary items represented in this amount were $137,284.60 in receipts and $175,256.74 in disbursements.
The following eight trustees-at-large whose terms expired yesterday were re-elected to office: David A. Ansbacher, Mrs. Sidney C. Borg, Judge William N. Cohen, Dr. Harry G. Friedman, Pecry C. Straus, Manny Strauss, Sol M. Stroock and Ludwig Vogelstein. Other trustees-at-large include Walter E. Beer, Eli H. Bernheim, Col H. A. Guinzburg, Arthur Lehman, Herman Lissner, Max D. Steuer, Cyrus L. Sulzberger, B. C. Vladeck, Maurice Wertheim, Z. D. Bernstein, Joseph L. Buttenwieser, Benjamin K. Feiner, Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Jonah J. Goldstein. I. Edwin Goldwasser, Henry F. Samstag and Felix M. Warburg.
Mr. Stroock announced that a memorial fund had been created as a tribute to Leo Sulzberger, member of the Federation board of trustees, who died on the day of the last annual meeting, January 31, 1926 and that a Leo Sulzberger Memorial Room would be set aside in the proposed Federation Building. Frederick Brown, general chairman of the Federation campaign for the last two years, is arranging for an oil portrait of Mr. Sulzberger to hang in the room. Other members of the board of trustees to whose memory Mr. Stroock paid tribute included Emil Carlebach and Lee Kohns, who died within the year.
Plans have been prepared for a new Federation building to be erected at 67 to 71 West Forty-seventh Street, the $500,000 site being the gift of Frederick Brown. The work of demolishing the old buildings has been finished and actual construction is about to begin. Mr. Stroock announced that a special fund for the erection of the building is being raised and that in order not to delay work in the meantime, Felix M. Warburg, S. W. Straus, Eli H. Bernheim and Samuel Keller Jacobs have underwritten a further substantial sum. The new home will be a sixteen-story building and will contain central offices for the Federation as well as the administrative offices of many of its constituent agencies.
Reporting on the recent $4,720,000 campaign for funds conducted by the Federation, Mr. Stroock congratulated Frederick Brown on the success of the drive and also cited Ira M. Younger, campaign manager for his volunteer services.
“So large a percentage of the contributions to the Federation represented by donations are not recurrent,” explained the report, “that at the end of 1926 we found ourselves in the position of considering the budget of 1927 and again facing a deficit.” Mr. Stroock recommended that continued efforts be made to increase the sums received as recurring annual subscriptions, rather than as special one-time donations. Special mention also was made of the $50,000 gift during the year to the Federation by John D. Rockefeller, the largest amount ever donated to a local Jewish movement by a non-Jew.
Affiliated institutions were urged to defer making plans for additions to buildings or substantial alterations until the Jewish Communal Survey, undertaken by the Bureau of Jewish Social Research at the request of a non-partisan citizen’s committee, completes its work. The survey, with Dr. Lee K. Frankel as chairman of the executive committee, will evaluate the work of existing agencies in the five boroughs to determine what changes and additions in institutional work need to be made.
The Junior Federation was praised by Mr. Stroock in his report for its volunteer social service program and for its campaign of education in philanthropic matters among the young men and women of the community. Special tribute was paid to the Young Women’s Hebrew Association one of the constituent agencies of the Federation, which has just completed twenty-five years of service. It also was made known that a building extension program is being considered by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Ninety-second Street.
The growth of the Jewish community in New York from a handful in New Amsterdam days to perhaps 1,700,000 today, is described in the introduction to the book. “Fifty Years of Social Service.” which comes off the presses tomorrow.
The book, which has as its sub-title, “The History of the United Hebrew Charities, now the Jewish Social Service Association,” recounts the development of social service among the Jews of this city and traces communal development from year to year.
Through the first stage when the Spanish-Portuguese Jews arrived here, and the subsequet settlement by the German-Jewish group in the early nineteeenth century and by the Eastern European groups a half century later, runs the story of Jewish philanthropy.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
