Prolonged emphasis on Jewish overseas needs has led American Jewry to neglect the needs of its welfare and civic agencies in the U.S., Justice Meier Steinbrink, chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, declared today at the opening session of the fourth annual meeting of the national council of the Joint Defense Appeal.
More than 400 Jewish leaders representing communities of 41 states are attending the three day parley. The J.D.A. is the fund raising agency of the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League.
Asserting that American Jewry had whole heartedly supported the overseas rescue movement and the establishment of Israel, Justice Steinbrink declared: “Not all of us could see eye to eye with the ideological drives that went along with the rescue movements, but we did not cavil. We were concerned with only one thing the rescue of the remnant, no matter what the cost. Now, however, the accumulated problems of our communal life in this country can be neglected no longer, we must meet them and solve them if Jewish life in this country is to continue strong and healthy.”
Justice Steinbrink said that the success of the A.J.C. and A.D.L. efforts is proof that the “lunatic fringe and terrorist groups which loomed so frighteningly in the anti-Semitic picture in the 1930’s have disintegrated and are no longer a serious threat.” He warned, however, that adequate financial support for the programs of the two J.D.A. agencies is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain as a result of the continued emphasis on Jewish overseas needs.
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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.
