Mergers of social welfare institutions should be undertaken only when they advance the interest of their communities and offer a higher grade of service to the individuals they serve, Kurt Peiser, executive director of the Philadelphia Federation of Jewish Charities, told 600 delegates attending the annual National Conference of Jewish Social Welfare.
“Mergers are not a panacea,” Peiser said. “They are far from a perfect solution to our communal ills. They are merely one more mechanism in sound communal planning, designed to improve service to clients and advance the interests of the community at large.”
Speaking at today’s session, Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee’s European Executive Council, lauded the bravery of relief workers who continue at their posts in Europe despite danger and hindrances from government authorities. Moses W. Beckelman, recently-returned J.D.C. representative in the Baltic region, said 25,000 Jews in Lithuania seeking to escape to America, Palestine and British dominions must wait until the Japanese transit situation clears.
Arthur D. Greenleigh, executive director of the National Refugee Service, stressed that since 1933 not a single refugee has been deported from the United States because he became a public charge.
Eli E. Cohen, New York; Harry I. Barron, Chicago; A. L. Sudran, Cleveland, and Richard L. Plaut, New York, spoke at a session on “Jewish Vocational Service in an Expanding Labor Market.”
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.
