Chicago Federation’s 1967 $43 Million Budget is Largest in Its History

The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago has adopted a 1967 expenditure budget of $43, 205,703 for health and welfare services — the largest budget in its 67-year history — A. D. Davis, president of the federation, told the federation’s anniversary dinner here. He said this total represented the operating costs of the federation’s twelve medical and social service agencies.

The federation, Mr. Davis disclosed, will allocate $6, 825,747 toward this total, another record figure. The federation agency programs served more than 212, 000 beneficiaries in 1966 without regard to creed or color.

Mr. Davis told the assembly that a major question affecting the community programs was the effect of government funding on the federation budget. He said it was still too soon to determine the results of Medicare and spoke of a possibility that “Medicare patients and extended-care patients may add to our burdens, financially and otherwise.”

James P. Rice, executive director of the federation, warned that the shortage of trained, competent personnel to carry out social welfare programs was becoming critical. Dr. William Haber, of the University of Michigan, told the gathering that it would be an error to assume that many social problems could be dealt with only by government. “Individual and family problems can often better be handled by voluntary private agencies,” he said.

The Julius Rosenwald Memorial Award of the Jewish Federation, presented annually to the person “who has achieved most in the advancement of the purposes of the Jewish Federation and the welfare of the Jewish community, was presented to Harris Pearlstein, Chicago businessman and civic leader. An award was also presented to Harold R, Rosenberg, general chairman of the 1966 federation campaign.