United Jewish Appeal Raises $2,240,000 in Cash at Coast-to-coast Regional Parleys

A total of $2,240,000 in advance cash to meet the critical need for funds to continue Israel’s immigration program and provide for aid to impoverished Jews in other lands was raised yesterday at four regional conferences of the United Jewish Appeal from coast to coast.

The sums contributed at these conferences were in line with the increased giving which has so far marked the initial response to the 1950 United Jewish Appeal drive. The 1950 budgetary requirements of the United Jewish Appeal agencies total $272,455,800.

An overflow crowd of more than 800 from communities throughout Central New York thronged the Onondaga Hotel in Syracuse, N.Y., where Rep. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., chairman of the National Christian Committee of the United Jewish Appeal, outlined U.J.A. needs. They contributed a total of $1,000,000 in cash gifts.

At the Syracuse meeting, the conference speakers included Rabbi Israel Goldstein of New York, and Israel Jacobson, who served as director of the Joint Distribution Committee in Hungary until his recent detention and subsequent release by the Hungarian Government. In Paterson, N.J., more than 300 delegates to the Northern New Jersey Regional Conference at the Alexander Hamilton Hotel heard Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the American Section of the Jewish Agency, declare that “Israel has done a remarkable job, but is not yet out of the danger zone.” He warned American Jewry that the creation of the state of Israel does not mean that American Jewry’s job is finished. “The feeling of solidarity of two years ago must prevail now,” Dr. Goldmann said.

The delegates from communities throughout Northern New Jersey also hoard Dr. George Josephthal, director of the Absorption Department of the Jewish Agency, describe the plan to move 90,000 Jews of Iraq to Israel in the 12-month period allowed by the Iraq Government for their emigration. It was Dr. Josephthal’s first public appearance since his arrival from Israel last week. Joseph Shulman and Nathan Kluger of Paterson served as conference co-chairmen. At the Paterson meeting, a total of $810,000 in advance gifts was raised.

Representatives from twelve small communities in Northern California and Northern Nevada raised $225,000 in advance cash gifts at the Northern California Northern Nevada Regional Conference in the Clark Hotel, Stockton, Calif. In the Mid-West, 175 delegates from 20 communities in Illinois and Eastern Missouri gathered at the Leland Hotel in Springfield, Ill., where the total of advance cash gifts for the day reached $205,000.