Calling for a continuation of unified fund raising in 1949, more than 200 delegates to the 13th annual conference of the New England Region of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, passed a resolution over the week-end urging communities not to take independent action in matters affecting the current differences between the United Palestine Appeal and the Committee of Contributors and Workers, until a full report has been submitted by the C.J.F.W.F. Conciliation Committee.
Establishment of the C.J.F.W.F. Conciliation Committee was commended by the delegates as “representative of the interests of communities in working toward unity in fund raising.”
In another resolution, the delegates, representing 22 communities, endorsed action taken at the recent Large City Planning Conference in Pittsburgh which declared that independent campaigns for food, materials or cash supplementing the programs and services of the J.D.C. and the U.P.A. were “harmful” because they “diverted energies and funds” from the United Jewish Appeal. The Region called for a C.J.F.W.F. report on independent appeals which must be cleared by U.J.A. with its beneficiary agencies, in an effort to determine their “validity” and worthiness of support.
Other resolutions called for revision of the DP Act to eliminate restrictive provisions, especially the “fatal cut-off date of Dec. 22, 1945,” and a continuation of C.J.F.W.F. efforts on behalf of communities to eliminate duplication and overlapping of national and overseas agency programs.
George W. Farber, of Worcester, Mass., was reelected president of the region. Other officers elected were vice-presidents Samuel Markell, of Boston; Bernard Trager, of Bridgeport. Bernard Kopkind, of New Haven, and Israel Bernstein of Portland. Bernard L. Gottlieb of Hartford was elected secretary, and Dewey D. Stone of Brockton, finance chairman. Milton Kahn, of Boston, was renamed regional representative to the United Jewish Appeal.
1949 WILL BE BEST YEAR FOR COMMUNITY PLANNING, LURIE SAYS
H.L. Lurie, executive director of the Council, addressing the conference on the outlook of Jewish community planning in 1949, said that conditions essential for progress are more favorable today than at any other previous period in Jewish communal history. He added that sound central planning and financing were necessary for success.
“Barring unforeseen contingencies,” he told the delegates, “it looks as though 1949 will be relatively free from the emergencies and crises of depressions, wartime responsibilities and postwar restrictions which for so long have dominated Jewish communal work. For the first time in nearly 20 years, we are able to consider our over-all responsibilities on the basis of long-time rather than emergency planning.”
William Rosenwald, honorary president of United Service for New Americans, declared that a clans working partnership between local communities and national agencies was necessary in order to aid the resettlement and adjustment of new immigrants coming to the United States under the terms of the Displaced Persons Act of 1948.
Harold Classer, director of the C.J.F.W.F. Institute on Overseas Studies, condemned the refusal of the International Refugee Organization to finance the movement of Jewish DP’s to Israel, since the establishment of the state, as a “violation of its charter.” He pointed out that despite the failure of I.R.O. to carry out its assigned task, more than 50,000 immigrants had entered Israel between May 15th end October 15th.
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.
