Changes in Jewish Social Service Analyzed by Sobeloff at N.c.j.c.s.

As a result of our rising economy and industry’s labor and government’s expanding welfare programs, the poor and indigent who traditionally form the bulk of the clientele of Jewish Catholic and Protestant voluntary social services are gradually being replaced by growing numbers from the economic middle class “who can pay full fees for these sectarian agencies’ highly specialized services,” Isidore Sobeloff, executive vice president of the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit, told 1,000 Jewish social workers attending the 58th annual meeting here of the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service.

With the Jewish community two-thirds native born, and rising economically, Jewish voluntary social services have already noted a sharp decline in the number of socially deprived clients. As social security measures expand, and economic prosperity continues unabated, Catholic and Protestant social services which deal with the largest groups in our populations are also beginning to reflect this phenomenon, Mr. Sobeloff said. He credited the rapid growth of social welfare programs conducted by American industry, labor unions and the increased financial involvement of state and Federal government in meeting health and welfare costs for this decline.

That the indigent now can get help from government agencies and the working people from both that source and their employers in industry and their labor unions, means that the nature of the need for sectarian social work services, Jewish and others, is changing and “with it the conception of our clientele and our function is also being modified,” Mr. Bobeloff declared. He asserted that the new type of client of the private sectarian social work agency will come from the economic middle class, a client who is both ready to pay full fees for services, as well as to contribute to the agencies’ annual maintenance fund campaigns.