$505m UJA Budget for 1973

Paul Zuckerman of Detroit, who was re-elected general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal at its annual national conference here this weekend, said he will call on American Jews to raise $505 million in 1973 to meet the “continued high level of immigration from the Soviet Union” and the “immediate need of expanding vital absorption services in Israel for these new immigrants and the thousands more arriving each month.”

The Detroit business executive noted that a minimum of 70,000 new immigrants, many of them from the USSR, “are expected to arrive in Israel this year. And already–despite risking harassment, loss of jobs and personal safety–more than 85,000 Soviet Jews are waiting to get out, and thousands more each month are asking for permission to leave.”

In addition, Zuckerman noted that the $505 million goal, almost twice as much as the record $270 million raised this year by the UJA, will provide for housing for some 55,000 families, for full or partial scholarships for close to 100,000 children from needy families, for direct assistance for some 28,000 Israeli families, to help alleviate a critical shortage of hospital beds and to provide education and vocational training for some 25,000 Israeli children between the ages of 14 to 18 who come from large families “living in conditions of poverty.”

The UJA also re-elected Mrs. Bert Siris as National Women’s Division Chairman. Paul Zinman of Philadelphia was re-elected president of the Israel Education Fund, a subsidiary of the UJA which has 223 educational projects in Israel in various stages of completion, with most of them located in communities with large immigrant populations.