David Blumberg, B’nai B’rith president, of Knoxville, Tenn., told B’nai B’rith members that the major problems facing Jews are poverty and the suppression of rights of Soviet Jews. “Poverty among Jews has become a leading issue with the number of Jewish families of three living on $4800 a year in such affluent communities as Miami and Los Angeles increasing.” he told the B’nai B’rith’s annual convention, attended by 3500 persons at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
Blumberg said that although there are no accurate figures, up to 800,000 American Jews are estimated to live below the poverty line. He said an information-communication program is being set up in the United States so that services dealing with poverty can be brought to their attention.
He spoke at length about the “disintegration” of Jewish family life and called it an alarming problem. “We see its symptoms increasing the divorce rate among Jews, and in the number of young Jews who appear in juvenile court,” he said. He added that a few years ago no one ever heard of a Jew in juvenile court but that now they are there “in droves.” A series of regional Jewish family conferences are planned in the US to study the problem, he said.
The second major problem facing world Jewry is the suppression of national rights of Soviet Jews, Blumberg said. He said he met last week with Martin J. Hillenbrand, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs and newly named ambassador to Bonn who is accompanying President Nixon in Moscow, to present him with resolutions from about 30 states demanding an end to discrimination against Soviet Jews. The petitions were to be handed to Nixon before his departure to the Soviet Union, Sidney Maislin, 48-year-old chairman of Maislin Trucks Company, was elected the new president of the 22nd B’nai B’rith District at the annual convention.
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.
