Canadian Jewish Leaders Form New Body to Revitalize Fund-raising

A conference of Jewish community leaders from all parts of Canada held here decided to form a National Council for Fund Raising as a step toward revitalizing fund-raising in Canada for the needs of the United Israel Appeal and the United Jewish Relief Agencies, which provides funds for the Joint Distribution Committee, ORT, and other agencies engaged in overseas relief work.

The conference was convoked by Samuel Bronfman, president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, and Lawrence Freiman, president of the Zionist Organization of Canada. Both were elected co-chairmen of the new Council. The conference was addressed by Israel’s Foreign Minister Golda Meir on the urgency of the situation in Israel, and by Saul Hayes, executive director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, on emigration possibilities from East European countries.

The functions of the new body were defined at the conference as follows: 1. To seek new leadership across Canada; 2. Obtain higher allocations for overseas needs; 3. Stimulate Canadian Jewish missions to Israel; 4. To prepare for a mammoth conference in Montreal in January for a full explanation to the Canadian community of Israel’s request for Canadian material support and the resettlement and rehabilitation of overseas Jewry.

In a joint statement, Mr. Bronfman and Mr. Freiman declared: “The Canadian Jewish Community has been fortunate in having shared in the unprecedented growth and development of Canada. Its population of 245,000 represents a useful, dignified and propserous segment of the total Canadian people. Furthermore, the Canadian Jewish community is among the most prosperous in the entire Jewish world and as such it must continue to demonstrate its acceptance of its share in the responsibility for the solution of world Jewry’s problems.”