American Jews Have Raised $3.9 Billion Since 1939 for Various Needs, Cjfwf is Told

American Jewry has raised $3.9 billion in the 30 years since 1939 for local national and overseas Jewish needs through its network of federations, welfare funds and community councils, according to a report to the 38th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds today. Louis J. Fox, president of the CJFWF, said that more than one million Jews contribute to those funds through the 223 federations serving 900 communities in the United States and Canada. More than 1,500 delegates are attending the General Assembly, the largest in the CJFWF’s history.

The largest part of these funds–$2.2 billion–went to the United Jewish Appeal to meet overseas needs in Israel and throughout the world, he said. Funds received by the UJA from federations, Mr. Fox said, represented 90 percent of the total income of that organization during the last 30 years. About $1.3 billion was allocated to local Jewish services such as hospitals, health, family, child care, aged, education, culture, youth services and Jewish Ys. National service agencies and overseas agencies other than the UJA received about $27 million. Some of these agencies also raised funds directly.

“The members of our Jewish community,” Mr. Fox said, “can take pride in what their generosity has accomplished.” He said that “this achievement was made possible because we are a motivated, committed, organized community–one that has realized from its earliest beginnings in our land that we can best meet our responsibilities in our own country and overseas only as we build strong Jewish community instruments here at home.”

LOUIS A. PINCUS TELLS PARLEY OF ISRAEL’S PRESSING NEEDS

Declaring that “even the great courage of the people of Israel is insufficient to guarantee its survival,” Louis A, Pincus of Jerusalem, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, said in a speech prepared for delivery tomorrow that Israel’s hope for peace and survival depended upon three “interlinking factors-political and military, economic and financial, social and human.”

Stating that he was speaking before the leadership of American Jewish philanthropy primarily in behalf of the financial needs of Israel’s social and human needs, he said that the three factors for survival are, however “inextricably bound one to the other, and the chain is but as strong as its weakest link.” Mr. Pincus, making a plea for “a new dimension” in American philanthropic giving to Israel, said that the standards for 1970 must surpass the giving of this year.-“even the great outpouring of 1967 following the ending of the Six Day War.”

American Jewry, he said, “must make it possible for the Jewish Agency to take on more and more responsibilities for social welfare and education; otherwise these areas of activity will perforce be neglected.” Enumerating some of the acute needs of the moment, Mr. Pincus said:”There are 300,000 Jews in countries of distress awaiting emigration to Israel. In 1970, Israel is preparing to accept 50,000 immigrants. There are still 250,000 persons in Israel living in overcrowded conditions. Families of eight, nine and 10 are living in an area of 400 square feet. This must be corrected. Young people leaving the Army can’t get married because there is no housing—because at the moment we are taking in Jews who are coming and have to come.

“Sixty percent of our children in primary school are Jewish children from Moslem countries, with the special problems that derive from the lands of their origin. By the time they are in high school, but not graduates, just in high school, that percentage has dropped to less than a third. And tragically, only a small percentage of them go on to college, only about 12 per cent and only three percent graduate from college. Israel needs—and all Jews want—an educated population. We must make it possible for more children to study more years so that they will grew up to be more productive citizens of the future. “T “There is also the problem of the need for a comprehensive kindergarten program. Israel is only beginning to accept the concept that kindergarten is not just an educational frill, but a most significant aspect of a good educational system. Education, as Americans well know, must begin with the very young. We need to establish hundreds of kindergartens.” Mr. Pincus emphasized that Israel as a small island in a large sea of Arab states is “dependent not on quantity, but on quality, on the utilization to the maximum of the total capacity of the human beings in the country.”