2000 U.S. Canadian Jewish Leaders to Attend 45th CJF General Assembly

More than 2000 Jewish leaders representing 800 communities in the United States and Canada will meet here Nov. 10-14 for the 45th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds (CJF). The five-day agenda will examine the challenges to Jewish continuity and the crucial role of Jewish continuity and the crucial role of leadership in meeting with them. It will also consider major local, national and international needs facing North American Jewry.

Jerold C. Hoffberger, CJF president, will address the first plenary session Nov. 10 on “The State of our Federations.” Other major speakers during the Assembly will include Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog; Philip Bernstein, CJF executive vice-president; Frank Lautenberg, general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal; Mordechai Bar-On of the Jewish Agency; Dr. Robert Gordis of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; and Dr. Daniel Elazar of Temple University, Philadelphia.

The Assembly’s 100 workshops, forums and lectures will include women in federation, community relations programs and issues affecting the Middle East, Jewish responsibilities for social advocacy in American society, Soviet Jewry, Federation-synagogue relations, the changing Jewish family, U.S. election 1976 and its implications for the Jewish community, Israel and diaspora and reports on the world Jewish community by leaders from England, France and South America.

Hoffberger, who will be ending his first term as CJF president, said the 45th General Assembly “must resolve the grave problems caused by inflation which threatens the basic human rights of the Jewish poor and elderly in America.” He said “Our Federations are pledged to improve the quality of life, physical and spiritual, for all Jews in North America, Israel and other overseas countries.” He warned that if spiralling costs continue, “vital service programs face curtailment.”