Agreement Reached for Merger of Jewish Migration Services

Agreement for merger of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and the United Service for New Americans (USNA), into a new organization to be known as the United HIAS Service, was announced here today. The new organization will also take over the overseas migration services of the Joint Distribution Committee.

The development, one of the most significant in American Jewish organizational life, was announced at a press conference held at the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. Edwin Rosenberg, New York communal leader, who initiated the merger discussions 16 months ago, revealed that the board of directors of HIAS and the executive committee of USNA had unanimously accepted joint proposals by conferees of both organizations in conjunction with representatives of JDC and the National Council of Jewish Women.

Actual technical details of the merger remain to be worked out and Mr. Rosenberg disclosed that the legal aspects of the merger are expected to be completed by next June. HIAS, 70-year-old immigration service, covers its present budget of about $2,000,000 by contributions from its membership and by grants from welfare funds throughout the country. The approximately $500,000 budget of USNA, the major resettlement agency in the United States, and the estimated $1,500,000 budget of the JDC’s migration service are covered by allocations from the United Jewish Appeal.

EXPECT UNIFIED FUND-RAISING BY 1955

For 1955, the new organization will be expected to develop a unified plan of fund-raising to cover its budget. Meanwhile, the agencies will continue to be financed as at present.

Arthur Greenleigh, executive director of USNA, and Dr. Arthur T. Jacobs, executive director of HIAS, have been directed to work out the organizational and structural problems of the new agency. The unified agency will become operative, Mr. Rosenberg said, “when all legal, procedural and operational problems are worked out.”

The agreement specifies that HIAS and USNA consolidate in the new agency all their respective functions and services including immigration, resettlement and naturalization. The transfer by JDC of its migration activities to the new organization does not affect the JDC’s normal relief and rehabilitation program in Europe, ###e Moslem countries and Israel.

Satisfaction over conclusion of the agreement was expressed by Ben Toaster, president of HIAS, and by Walter Bieringer, president of USNA, who participated the conference with Mr. Rosenberg. H. L. Lurie, executive director of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, said the merger would be welcomed with great enthusiasm by the members of the council.

MERGER TO EFFECT ECONOMIES, IMPROVE SERVICES

Mr. Rosenberg declared that for several years, “such consolidation of Jewish services has been urged by executives in intergovernmental, governmental, national and local voluntary agencies here and abroad. We are fully convinced that the sooner his consolidation can be achieved, the better it will be for those to whom we have a responsibility.”

In response to questions, Mr. Rosenberg said the merger should effect economies in the migration field and should also provide better and more efficient service for the Jewish migrant and the Jewish community.

Both Mr. Touster and Mr. Bieringer agreed with Mr. Rosenberg that the consolidation will eliminate much duplication and overlapping in operations here, in Europe and in Latin America and would provide a more effective and flexible migration service. It was also stressed that the consolidation would “eliminate multiple and competing representations to governmental and intergovernmental agencies all over the world which complicate our relationships at a time when we need the most effective liaison possible.”

Mr. Rosenberg also pointed out that one unified centralized migration agency “to deal with the problems of the homeless, persecuted and uprooted Jews wherever in the world they may be, “would serve to “eliminate the confusion now experienced by the migrants overseas and by their sponsors in the United States and in other countries as a result of multiple registrations and competing services.”

The joint proposals were signed by the following negotiators:

Mr. Rosenberg; Mr. Touster; Mr. Bieringer; Edward M. M. Warburg, chairman of the JDC; Mrs. Irving M. Engel, president of NCJW; Solomon Dingol, chairman of the executive committee of HIAS; Mrs. Louis Broido, chairman of the board of USNA; Moses A. Leavitt, executive vice-chairman of JDC; Edward M. Benton and Herbert C. Kranzer, members of the executive committee of HIAS; and Mrs. J. Bernard Saltzman, chairman of the negotiating committee of NCJW.