More than 2500 representatives from the organized Jewish communities of the United States and Canada will attend the 44th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds (CJF) in Miami Beach Nov. 19-23, it was announced by Raymond Epstein of Chicago, CJF president. It will be the largest Assembly in CJF history.
The leaders of the Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds serving 800 Jewish communities will consider the wide range of human needs at home, in Israel, and other countries overseas. The community leaders will plan how to best carry out Federation’s crucial role and responsibilities in maximizing aid and services.
INTENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF CRITICAL ISSUES
According to Epstein, who will complete his three-year term of office as JCF president, the delegates will devote themselves to “an intensive assessment of the critical issues and priority commitments confronting the American Jewish community as they are being shaped by inflation and recession here, by oil, detente and the latest Middle East move towards disengagement.” The Assembly will include seven plenary sessions, four major forums, and a near-hundred workshops.
“The ever-expanding role of community Federations–which recognizes that the meeting of human needs is indivisible from a concern for the quality of Jewish life–will be central for the delegates,” Epstein said, “Providing maximum help on the domestic scene, overseas, and wherever else Jews are oppressed, as well as devising and refining programs to channel American Jewry’s historic commitment, will be the subjects of the General Assembly’s major forums.”
Two annual major CJF awards will be made at the General Assembly. The William J. Shroder Awards, prestigious communal service honors in tribute to the founder and first president of the CJF, will be presented by Mrs. William H. Green of San Francisco, who chairs the Award Committee. The Boris Smolar Awards, honoring the noted columnist and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, announced by Lavy M. Becker, of Montreal, chairman of the Awards Committee, will honor distinguished reporting, features and editorials in the American Jewish press during the past year.
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