Edward Ginsberg of Cleveland, newly elected general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, said here today that the UJA’s 1968 campaign has been launched as a “no limit” campaign without the usual cash goal in order to bring home to the Jewish communities and individual contributors the enormous scope and dimensions of the needs that the 1968 campaign must fulfill.
Speaking at an informal press conference, Mr. Ginsberg said that “with the sky the limit” the sky the limit” the various communities will exceed their normal quotas, just as they did in last June’s Emergency Fund campaign of which the 1968 drive is a continuation. In reply to questions, he said that if a specific cash goal had been set, many communities and contributors might revert to the quotas that applied to them prior to last June’s crisis.
Mr. Ginsberg differentiated between philanthropy which he described as “disciplined giving” required by society, and the transcendent feeling of responsibility and obligation that was manifest in the unprecedented outpouring of gifts from American Jewry last June when it seemed that Israel was facing extinction. He chided, however, those givers who “needed a war to wake them up” and said it was the UJA’s task to educate such people to their obligations. The majority of American Jews, he noted, do not regard their UJA contributions as only a responsibility to their fellow Jews in Israel and elsewhere but as a privilege inherent in the Jewish tradition. He noted further that Jews are in the forefront of their communities in all fund raising efforts whether for Jewish or non-sectarian needs.
Mr. Ginsberg, a lawyer and, at 50, the youngest general chairman in the UJA’s 30 years’ history, said that he will be spending much time in New York and travelling over the country on behalf of the 1968 campaign. He also disclosed his intention to greatly expand the national leadership of UJA by enlisting younger men in the campaign on a voluntary basis. As a first step, he said, he has increased the number of UJA national chairmen from six to ten and will expand the UJA executive committee and the UJA cabinet. He said a plan was under consideration to organize on a state and regional basis in order to involve more and more people in positions of responsibility.
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.
