Jewish renewal here and in Israel will be the central purpose of 1979 campaigns in local Jewish communities in the United States and Canada. This was decided at a meeting of Jewish community leaders convened by the Council of Jewish Federations (CJF) in cooperation with the United Jewish Appeal last weekend. The effort for Israel will include participation in the $1.2 billion program to close the social gap for some 300,000 persons living in economically distressed neighborhoods. Israel will provide half of the cost and the rest will come from Jews abroad. Jews in North America will contribute $120 million over the next three years.
The plan was outlined by Leon Dulzin, chairman of the World Zionist Organization Executive and acting chairman of the Jewish Agency, and Dan Shimshoni, staff director of a joint committee of the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government. They said the project would include new or improved housing, employment training, home management training, aid for the aged, family counseling, services for youth, mental health and other programs.
PROJECTS IN U.S. AND CANADA
Peggy Tishman, of New York, chairman of the CJF’s community planning committee, told the local leaders that projects especially targeted for Jewish renewal in the U.S. and Canada would include education, the single parent families, the increasing number of aged, Jewish youth, resettlement of Soviet Jews, coping with the mobility of Jews into new areas and especially the renewal of Jewish identity and commitment.
Irwin Field, UJA general chairman, told of plans to reach many more potential donors. “The time has come to raise more on the basis of Jewish ethics than for fear and death,” Irving Bernstein, UJA executive vice-chairman stressed. “This is for Jewish spiritual renewal, community renewal, family renewal, unity, strength, renewal of our relationships with isolated by its board of directors headed by Jerold C. Hoffberger of Baltimore, CJF president, will be discussed in the local communities. Community leaders will meet again in August to pool their views to bring the goals of Jewish renewal into reality.
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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.
