Charities Federation Facing Crisis in Funds Proskauer Announces

A warning that the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies is facing a financial crisis due to the decrease in the number of large gifts in recent years, was given Sunday night by Joseph M. Proskauer, federation president, at the annual meeting in Temple Emanu-El.

Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor, was a guest speaker at the meeting.

Mr. Proskauer told the meeting that ninety-one federation affiliates had requested $700,000 more than had been allowed in the 1933 budget.

“The ultimate safety of the Federation”, he declared, “lies in a method of proper economical coordination of the work of the ninety-one institutions. We must build up the membership and appeal to the ‘big givers.’ “

He revealed that the fixed income from regular annual memberships has dropped from $3,600,000 to $1,500,000 in three years, and that the total membership has fallen from 25,000 to 12,000 since January, 1930.

Miss Perkins, in an interview with a Bulletin reporter, stated that plans for increasing the number of refugees from Germany for admission into the United States have been taking shape since the attorney general’s ruling last week.

Commenting on the fact that up to the present time only ten per cent of the quota for Germany last year was filled in spite of the exile of a great number of Jews and liberals, Miss Perkins declared that few quotas from any country had been completely filled since former President Hoover’s stringent immigration ruling about public charges in 1930.

Nine trustees were reelected to serve until January, 1937. They are Walter E. Beer, Eli H. Bernheim, Emil Goldmark, Ira Haupt, Mark Hyman, Henry Ittleson, Samuel I. Rosenman, Mrs. Arthur Hays Sulzberger and Maurice Wertheim.