C.J.F.W.F. Announces Final Agenda for 39th Annual General Assembly

Final plans for this year’s General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, to be convened at st. Louis November 12-15, were announced here today by Louis Stern, president of the Council. The organization is the national association of 218 Jewish federations, welfare funds and community councils serving areas in the United States and Canada with over 95 percent of the Jewish population in the two countries, totaling 5,500,000 Jews.

This year’s Assembly, the CJFWF’s 39th, “will consider the relevance of a worldwide network of community services–spending annually $500,000,000–to the shifting pattern of modern Jewish needs and responsibilities, ” said Mr. Stern. The keynote of the parley, to be presented at the opening session, is entitled: “Updating Federations: How Relevant to the Issues and Communities of Today and Tomorrow.”

Immediately after the opening, the 1,000 delegates expected will engage in four concurrent workshops dealing with the Jewish federation’s relevance to planning and population, Jewish education, public understanding, and the use of funds. There will also be a budget clinic, Flowing from the opening discussion, the Assembly will devote other general sessions to overseas needs and American responsibilities; the personnel crisis in Jewish communal agencies and services, seeking “a blueprint for solution”; the federation’s role and relation to the human rights revolution; the roots and practice of Jewish communal service; the worldwide perspective of Jewish communities; and a session devoted to national and local action during the period of “poverty in affluence.”

ABELES, SCHRODER MEMORIALS SCHEDULED; LCBC TO HOLD SEPARATE SESSIONS

The latter session will hear the annual Herbert R. Abeles memorial address, dedicated to the memory of a past president of the Council, and dealing with the role of government and voluntary agencies in combating poverty. The 12th annual William J. Schroder Memorials Awards will also be made at that session, citing Jewish-sponsored social agencies in the United States and Canada for pioneering achievements in the advancement of human welfare; The late Mr. Schroder, for whom these awards are named, was the Council’s first president.

Fund-raising and women’s services will be discussed at another general session. On November 11, prior to the Assembly itself, the Large City Budgeting Conference will hold a series of meetings to review the 1965 budgets of its participating national and overseas agencies. The LCBC represents the 23 largest Jewish welfare funds in the U.S.A. and Canada.

Mrs. Joseph Cohen, of New Orleans, is chairman of the program committee that developed this year’s Assembly agenda. Jewish community leaders from all over the U.S. and Canada are on the committee, the vice-chairmen being Lavy M. Becker, of Montreal, and Willard L; Levy, of St. Louis. Leading citizens of St. Louis, said Mr. Stern, have formed a special hospitality and arrangements committee, headed by Mrs. S. Charles Baer and Lee I. Kaufman. Members of the host group are Alfred Fleishman, president, and Herman L. Kaplow, executive director, of the Jewish Federation of St: Louis.