A record $102,000,000 was raised by the United Jewish Appeal this year, topping its $100,000,000 goal, it was revealed today on the eve of the opening of the UJA national conference, which will be attended by more than 1,500 Jewish community leaders from all parts of the country.
A report submitted to the conference predicted that the final total of the UJA drive may reach $105,000,000 before the end of the year. Estimated needs for 1947 of the constituent agencies of the UJA amount to $215,000,000 according to the budgets submitted today to the UJA national executive committee by the Joint Distribution Committee, the United Palestine Appeal, and the United Service for New Americans, the three constituent groups of the UJA.
The national executive at its session today heard reports from Isidor Coons and Henry Montor, executive vice-chairmen of the UJA, revealing that some three million contributors, including many Christians, had made possible the achievement of the 1946 goal, the largest sum ever raised by American Jewry. The report emphasized that the $100,000,000 was three times greater than the amount contributed to the UJA in 1945.
In spite of the fact that the $100,000,000 drive exceeded its quota, the report disclosed that with the funds made available by the UJA, its constituent agencies were able to meet only the minimum needs during the current year. The JDC has spent more than $58,000,000 this year; the UPA spent $52,000,000 and the USNA spent $2,810,836.
Several million dollars were contributed by Christian committees in various parts of the country and more than $10,000,000 was given by women as a result of the activities of the Women’s Division headed by Mrs. David M. Levy. Special tribute was paid in the report to Nelson A. Rockefeller and Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt for their energetic efforts in mobilizing large-scale support of the UJA campaign. Bernard M. Baruch, Herbert H. Lehman and Henry Morgenthau, Jr., were lauded for their leadership and service in the cause of Jewish survival.
Paying tribute to the Jews of America for the record response to the UJA, William Rosenwald, national chairman of the UJA, who opened today’s meeting of the national executive committee, said that the Jews of America had fulfilled their pledge of “preventing the further destruction and of assuring the survival of the Jewish people.” Harold J. Goldenberg of Minneapolis, who presided at the meeting, declared that govern- ments had failed thus far to make any substantial contribution to the solution of the Jewish problem. He emphasized that no adequate provision has been made for an intergovernmental agency to replace UNRRA, which is now in the process of liquidation.
“The conference of the United Jewish Appeal,” he said, “is meeting at a turning point. We saved the lives of hundreds of thousands, but they have not yet found the hope and the home which they seek. We have given them the very essentials of survival. Now we face the challenge of giving them the means to build a new life.”
The estimate of the requirements of the constituent agencies of the UJA for 1947 as submitted to the meeting of the executive committee are:
$122,250,000 for JDC activities in Europe, North Africa and Shanghai; $85,252,000 for the United Palestine Appeal for the support of the up-building and settlement program in Palestine; and $8,063,900 for the United Service for New Americans which assists Jewish refugees reaching the United States.
The first plenary session of the conference will be held Saturday evening.
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.
