The Board of Directors of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, which represents 221 Jewish community organizations, called on its members today to give “unprecedented, extraordinary support to the Israel Emergency Fund of the United Jewish Appeal.” A resolution by the board urged its member agencies and all other Jewish organizations to postpone other fund-raising efforts where feasible.
Federations and welfare funds throughout the country were urged by the board to “mount a massive collection effort to turn all past and current commitments to the UJA into cash.” The board resolution and appeal followed four days of meetings in New York attended by more than 400 presidents and executives of community organizations affiliated with CJFWF. In each city responsibility for raising the funds for the Israel Emergency Fund is being carried by the local federation or welfare fund.
Nahum Shamir, Economic Minister of Israel in this country, announced here that Prime Minister Eshkol had asked Israeli social and educational institutions to urge their American supporters to stop special fund-raising efforts “to give complete and unlimited support to the Israel Emergency Fund.” Beyond maximum gifts to the fund, he said, Israel asked its friends to invest in Israel Bonds.
B’NAI B’RITH OPENS EMERGENCY CAMPAIGN FOR ISRAEL
B’nai B’rith initiated today an emergency campaign with an appeal to its 2,100 local units for “an outpouring of funds to meet the crisis” that confronts Israel. First response to the appeal, made by president William A. Wexler, came from B’nai B’rith district 22. It pledged $500,000 to the Israel Emergency Fund to be given from the reserve funds of the lodges and a curtailment of other activities by their men’s and women’s units.
The National Jewish Welfare Board called on its more than 400 affiliated Jewish Community Centers and YM-YWHA’s to give their “full and unstinted support” personally “and through all the means” at their disposal to the Israel Emergency Fund. Louis Stern, president, and Sanford Solender, executive vice-president, advised centers and their leadership that the Israel Emergency Fund “is the principal means available at this time to be of direct help to our fellow Jews in Israel. Only our dollars can fill the economic gap created by the war emergency.”
The American Labor Zionist movement, the Israel Histadrut Campaign, and the Labor Council of the United Jewish Appeal formed a special division, the Histadrut-Labor Zionist Division, of the Israel Emergency Fund. National and local committees of the Farband Labor Zionist Order, Labor Zionist Organization of America and Pioneer Women, together with organizations affiliated with the Israel Histadrut Campaign, have been formed for this special effort which is in addition to efforts to obtain maximum contributions for the Israel Histadrut Campaign. Fund-raising among unions will be conducted as a separate drive for the Histadrut Trade Union Emergency Fund.
OUTPOURING OF FUNDS IN CHICAGO, DETROIT
In Chicago, one thousand men and women, attending a special conference of the campaign cabinet of the Combined Jewish Appeal of Chicago at the Standard Club last night, pledged a total of $2,500,000 to the Israel Emergency Fund. The unprecedented response at the emotion-packed conference followed speeches by Gen. Chaim Laskov, former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces; Rabbi Ralph Simon, chairman of the Combined Jewish Appeal, and David Silbert, president of the Jewish Welfare Federation.
In Detroit, a total of $1,250,000 in Israel bonds was sold following an emergency pro-Israel rally. The figure was expected to reach $2,000,000 by next Monday evening when a dinner will be held in honor of Philip Slomovitz, editor of the Detroit Jewish News, who just returned from a visit to Israel. The Israel Emergency Fund of the Detroit Allied Jewish Campaign also raised $800,000 to date in emergency funds with that total expected to double by next weekend.
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.
