$19,303,000 Raised in Initial Gifts at Opening of National U.J.A. Drive

The nationwide United Jewish Appeal officially launched its 1962 campaign today as 300 American Jewish leaders from all parts of the country meeting at the Waldorf Astoria contributed or reported initial gifts totaling $19,303,000 one off the largest starting sums attained by the drive in a decade.

The contributions, which included gifts pledged in local campaigns, were made at UJA’s National Inaugural Dinner, presided over by Edward M.M. Warburg, UJA honorary chairman and chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee. Joseph Meyerhoff, general chairman of this year’s UJA, which seeks $95,000,000, was unable to be present because of illness.

Announcing the $19,000,000 plus starting sum, Mr. Warburg hailed the sharply increased giving to UJA’s Special Fund. “This year’s starting sum includes gifts to the Special Fund of over 55 percent more than the total given by the same contributors to UJA in 1961,” he stated. “What was raised here should serve as an indication of how great the needs are and an inspiring example of the spirit in which they must be met.”

The UJA Special Fund is a $35,000,000 goal which is being sought this year “over and above” the contributions which donors make to the regular campaign goal of $60,000,000. Its purpose is to finance the current increased immigration of Jews to Israel and other lands.

SHARETT STRESSES RESPONSIBILITY OF U.S. JEWS TO IMMIGRANTS

Moshe Sharett, former Prime Minister of Israel and chairman of the Jewish Agency, who was one of the principal speakers at the dinner, told the 300 Jewish leaders that the provision of help to today’s immigrants is the responsibility of both the Israeli people and the Jews of the free world, particularly in the United States.

“Those of us who have visited the main centers of assembly of refugees now on their way to Israel witnessed a deeply stirring, powerfully dramatic spectacle,” he said. “They saw their people on the march, no longer helpless and confused, knocking haphazardly at any door and finding most doors closed, but moving confidently towards a historic destination. The era of aimless drift in Jewish history has ended.”

The Israel statesman stressed that the immigrants now going to Israel “realize they are in for a difficult phase of adaptation to new conditions, new ways of life, new social patterns, and that they will have to exert themselves to it.” He added that the reward of those who help them, “will be recognition that thanks to their far-sighted generosity, the present chances of rescue were not missed.”

ISRAEL IS WITNESSING AN IMMIGRATION EXPLOSION, SAYS GEN. HERZOG

General Chaim Herzog, another principal speaker of the evening and former Chief of Intelligence of the Israel Defense Forces, told the gathering that Israel’s people are today struggling to receive, house and absorb one of the largest immigrations since their country’s first years. He declared Israel’s citizens will welcome every immigrant who comes, no matter what sacrifices this might entail, but that the help of American Jews and UJA in absorbing the newcomers is “crucial.”

“Israel is witnessing an immigration explosion,” General Herzog said. “If we had been offered the opportunity to save even one life during the Nazi disaster, we would have made any sacrifice. But then it was impossible. Today, Providence has given us a rare opportunity to help. And those on the move beg us not to forget those they left behind. The responsibility for them is both yours and ours in Israel.”

General Lucius D. Clay, personal representative of President Kennedy in Berlin and former Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces in Europe, urged in a taped message that UJA supporters do all that is possible to speed the resettlement of today’s immigrants to free lands. Gen. Clay was to have spoken at the dinner, but was kept in Berlin by the pressure of events there.

An award was presented to the General in absentia, honoring him for his “compassionate aid and understanding” to the 200,000 Jewish displaced persons in the U. S. zone of occupied Germany when he was military commander there, in 1947-49. It consisted of a copy of the first Jewish daily prayerbook printed in Germany in the post-Hitler years, and was contained in a walnut box mounted with a silver plaque.