An official of self-help Community Services confirmed today receipt of a check for $50,000 from heavyweight champion Muhammad All to avert closing of a geriatric center serving mainly handicapped Jews in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan and said a second $50,000 contribution would be made within “a few weeks.”
Larry Matloff, executive director of Self-Help, said the check came from Muhammad All Enterprise, the Chicago agency which handles the fighter’s affairs. The Hillside Aged Program center had been scheduled to shut down on Dec. 31 because funds from Self-Help, the sponsoring agency, had run out. Self-Help is a non-sectarian agency, had run out, Self-Help is a non-sectarian agency originally chartered to aid victims of Nazi persecution.
All’s interest in the geriatric center developed from seeing a television report that it would have to be closed because Self-Help had been unable to raise the estimated $100,000 needed for another year of operation, All visited the center on Dec, 2 and spent more than an hour there, talking to the elderly users.
At that visit, All promised a gift large enough to assure continuation of the geriatric center for a year. Matloff said today that it was his understanding that All had promised a minimal gift of $100,000, with the possibility of an additional $50,000 if a need for those funds could be shown.
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.
