CJF Reports 47 Federations Already Have Allocated Two-thirds of Total Needed to Rebuild Wilkes-barre

Prompt action by 47 Jewish Federations throughout the United State has resulted in allocations totaling $1,386,000 – two-thirds of the financial aid recently requested by the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds to help rebuild the flood-shattered Jewish community of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, hard hit by Hurricane Agnes, Max M. Fisher, CJF president, reported today.

He said the CJF, which has been coordinating national help to Wilkes-Barre, as well as to other communities in Pennsylvania and New York ravaged by the June storm. issued a call earlier this month to member Federations for financial assistance for the Wilkes-Barre community totaling more than $2 million. The call followed approval by the CJF executive committee of an assistance program worked out by the CJF in consultation with the Jewish Federation of Wilkes-Barre, the Wyoming Valley Jewish committee.

Fisher said “this generous outpouring by Jewish communities across the country and the unprecedented speed with which these funds are being made available. is indicative of the concern of the American Jewish community for the well being of the Wilkes-Barre community.” He added that “the response to the urgent need of the Jewish community of Wilkes-Barre and to the CJF call for financial assistance is being met in many cases by commitments greater than what had been asked and is reflective of the deep sense of community shared by the total American Jewish community.”

He said the assistance program sent to the Federations for their approval was projected to meet the Jewish community’s needs over a two-year period. These include individual needs, continuation of Jewish communal services, restoration of Jewish institutions and initial interest payments for business loans. He said that to meet these needs, the minimum total needed is $2,396,396. He added that the Wilkes-Barre community is undertaking to provide $295,000 of that minimum total.

The aid projections are based on the direct experience of a CJF team of experts who have been working with the Wilkes-Barre Jewish community to define both the short-term and long-term aid needed. They are James Young, CJF director of small cities services, Herbert Katzki of the Joint Distribution Committee, Max Pearlman of the Chicago Jewish Federation and Mrs. Mollie Spector of the Philadelphia Jewish Family Service. Fisher stressed that the special Jewish help given and projected is to meet special needs not met by the government, the Red Cross and other agencies and is in no sense a substitute for them.

Help also is coming to the devastated Jewish communities from other sources. B’nai B’rith announced on Aug. 20 the start of a $500,000 disaster relief campaign to aid the stricken Jewish communities and the Synagogue Council of America earlier in the month sent a delegation to tour the area. SCA officials presented a check for $15,000 for use in “rebuilding the community” and to supplement aid being sent by the individual constituent organizations of the SCA, which represents the rabbinical and congregational organizations of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Judaism.

Israeli police and soldiers have started rounding up Arabs from the occupied areas who have been staying overnight in Israeli settlements where they work as hired labor, officials reported in Tel Aviv.