Biennial Convention of Council of Jewish Women Opens in New York

A new program being undertaken in Israel by the National Council of Jewish Women, aimed at the expansion of educational opportunities for Israel’s disadvantaged children, was announced here tonight at the opening of the NCJW’s 26th convention.

The biennial meeting, with 1,000 delegates from every section of the United States in attendance, representing an overall membership of 123,000, was opened at Philharmonic Hall, and heard about the new program in Israel from the NCJW’s national president. Mrs. Joseph Willen. Mrs. Edward F. Stern, convention chairman, read a message from President Johnson, in which the President expressed “the gratitude of every American” to the officers and members of the NCJW for helping to strengthen “our nation’s commitments to equal opportunity for all.”

The new NCJW program in Israel, Mrs. Willen announced, will be composed of three research programs. They will be carried on by the Hebrew University John Dewey School of Education, which the NCJW supports, and by the Hebrew University High School, for which the NCJW recently built a $500,000 campus.

The first of the projects, Mrs. Willen said, will admit to Hebrew University High School two experimental groups of disadvantaged children with intellectual potential, who will be given special programs aimed at qualifying them for university admission. The John Dewey School will cooperate in selecting the students, in-service teacher training and evaluating progress.

The second project, at the John Dewey School, will attempt to create techniques to improve the thinking abilities of elementary school pupils from underprivileged homes, and to train teachers in these techniques. The third, also at the John Dewey School, will study the teaching procedures used by highly effective teachers of culturally deprived children, with a view to imparting them to other teachers and training colleges.