A resolution approving the measures voted last week by the National Community Relations Advisory Council with regard to the implementation of the recommendations contained in the MacIver Report was unanimously adopted here today by the 20th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds.
The resolution said that the basic principles adopted by the N.C.R.A.C. have established a framework for the implementation of the MacIver recommendations. It calls for regular reporting to the communities on the progress being made, so that the communities may budget more effectively in 1952 for community relations work.
In another resolution, the Assembly reaffirmed its support of the four-point program for Israel, stressed the need for the “fullest co-operative planning, both nationally and locally, to assure the most effective use of manpower and resources as well as co-operative arrangements for timing, publicity and other relationships.” The resolution urged extension of co-operative planning and co-ordination procedures on local and national levels.
A third resolution emphasized the need for cash collections on welfare fund pledges in view of the crisis in Israel and the pressing needs overseas and at home, and called on all communities for all efforts to secure maximum cash collections from now to the end of the year. The Assembly also voted an expression of gratitude to the President and Congress for aid granted Israel through a grant-in-aid and a further Export-Import Bank loan, the technical assistance program and through the sale and gift of surplus commodities.
Another resolution noted that although the Jewish National Fund will not be a direct partner in the United Palestine Appeal in 1952, it will, nevertheless, continues to receive support from the U.J.A. and the welfare funds will consequently require its continuing co-operation in community campaigns.
The importance of local and national service agencies in the development of a sound American Jewish life was pointed out in another resolution adopted by the Assembly. Maximum co-operation between local Jewish welfare funds and national and overseas agencies was urged in a resolution which also urged continued action to eliminate unnecessary fund-raising appeals.
GRAVE VIEW PRESENTED OF ISRAEL’S ECONOMIC SITUATION
The Jewish federations and welfare funds throughout the country were urged to work toward greater central planning and the budgeting of “free dollars” for Israel’s greatest priority needs. One of the resolutions emphasized the importance of continued efforts to strengthen the programs essential in meeting Israel’s most imperative problems.
A grave view of Israel’s economic situation was presented to the Assembly today by Harold Glasser, director of the Council’s Institute on Overseas Studies. He warned that the present food shortage indicates the transition from one economic stage to another–from a stage in which foreign assistance plus local production was adequate to maintain the basic standards of living despite the high rate of immigration to a new stage in which foreign assistance plus the current levels of local production will be inadequate to maintain an acceptable minimum standard of living even if there is no large-scale immigration.”
In addition, foreign aid will not provide a solution to this, Mr. Glasser stated, asserting that the “only adequate permanent answer is to raise current levels of local production.” He declared that Israel has the potentiality of self-support for a population of 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 persons, but he warned that a large number must be farmers or the people will be ill-fed, ill-housed and ill-clothed. The great majority of Jews never have been farmers and do not want to be farmers, he stressed.
Emphasizing the need for increased Israel production, Mr. Glasser warned that “there is unlikely to be enough foreign assistance even in 1952 to give the people an acceptable standard of living and therefore there is no alternative to increased local production but economic failure and economic misery.” He asserted that the first task must be the production of more food and agriculture must be given priority over industry. He said the economic crisis can be resolved only through an increase in agricultural production.
U.J.A. MOST IMPORTANT SOURCE OF CASH AID TO ISRAEL
Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, executive vice-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, addressing the delegates, said that the 1951 United Jewish Appeal has already received more than $75,000,000 in cash and that by the year’s end it will have received considerably in excess of that amount. Over 73 percent, or $55,000,000, has already been made available for aid to Israel, he reported. “The U.J.A. at this moment stands as the most important source of cash assistance collected for and furnished to Israel from outside sources in 1951, ” he emphasized.
Describing this achievement as a “tribute to the American Jewish community, ” Dr. Schwartz declared that changed conditions and changed problems face the U.J.A. agencies in 1952, particularly in Israel. “But the need for help has lost none of its urgency, ” he added. “The work that must be done is still dominated by an atmosphere of emergency. ” He warned the American Jews that they must have maturity to realize “that in 1952 there will be no ‘normalcy’ about problems which face U.J.A. agencies anymore than there will be a ‘normalcy’ for the world at large. “
The work of the U.J.A. agencies, particularly in Israel, will strike out in new directions in 1952, Dr. Schwartz forecast, stressing that the period of “homecoming” will be followed by a period of “homemaking” and the integration of recent immigrants, in addition to enabling the rescue of vast numbers of Jews through their immigration to Israel and aid to hundreds of thousands of distressed in other areas.
ISRAEL TO GET $300,000, 000 FROM U.S. IN 1951
On a conservative estimate Israel can anticipate about $300,000, 000 from all sources in the United States for 1951, of which $140, 000, 000 will be raised by the welfare funds from over 1,300, 000 contributors, according to a report of the National Local Relations Committee to the Assembly. Of this, $87,000, 000 will be allocated to the U.J.A. by the communities. The report noted that co-ordination committees set up throughout the country on fund and Israel bond campaigns “brought about orderly community action and good results. “
American Jewish community organizations raised over $1,000, 000, 000 in the past decade to meet philanthropic needs in Israel, overseas and at home, Julian Freeman, president of the C.J.F.W.F., said last night addressing the Assembly. “The magnificient achievements of American Jewry in these trying times would have been utterly impossible without the development of central year-round community organization,” he declared.
The Assembly honored Sidney Hollander of Baltimore, a founder and president of the Council from 1932 to 1939, by the presentation of a scroll and a cash gift from his associates to the Sidney Hollander Foundation.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
