William J. Shroder, board board chairman of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, denied today that the proposal for an advisory service on budgeting for national and overseas causes, which the Council is submitting to a referendum of local communities, represented an effort to establish “mastery” over local funds or that it was a radical departure in Council policy. He said the proposed service was designed to be the “servant” of the communities.
In a statement, as an individual, to be published in The American Israelite on Friday, Shroder said that the Council “would refuse the crown, could it be offered, because its acceptance would destroy the principle for which it fights–the right of the American communities to determine their own conduct and action, free from the dictation of any group, however influential or powerful.”
He asserted that “the proposed service is not a scheme; that it is the necessary result of the consciousness of communities of their own needs; that it is not without precedent; that it is not the result of the break-up of the United Jewish Appeal; and that it is not hastily considered and recommended.
“Above all it must be remembered that this service, like all those of the Council, is merely advisory; that those communities which do not need or which do not want it will ignore it, and that those which use it will not follow it blindly but that its recommendations result in community action.”
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.
