More than 1,600 delegates and guests attending the 36th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds were warned here today that massive problems requiring massive solutions confronted the American Jewish community, both as Jews and as American citizens.
Opening the largest Assembly in the Council’s history, Louis J. Fox of Baltimore, CJFWF president, outlined the urgent problems at home and abroad in both the Jewish and general areas. He warned that the Arab forces “have not given up their goal of annihilating Israel and all her Jews and this, he said, required that Israel be made so obviously strong, so obviously prepared, so thoroughly supported, morally as well as financially, that her neighboring enemies will respect Israel’s ability to defend herself. The Arab states, he said, regardless of their commitment to war, would not get involved in another war if they felt they could lose.
A detailed report on the findings of the CJFWF overseas delegation, which visited Europe and Israel soon after the Six-Day June war, was presented to the delegates today by Louis H. Weinstein, of Boston, vice-chairman of the delegation. Louis Stern, of Newark, past CJFWF president, was chairman of the opening general luncheon session. David N. Myers, president of the Cleveland Jewish Community Federation, welcomed the delegates and guests.
Mr. Fox told the Assembly that, to permit Israel to build its defenses, the State must be allowed to concentrate all its resources on security. The Jewish communities abroad, said Mr. Fox, notably the American community, must take over more of the responsibility for philanthropic and humanitarian activities in Israel, two-thirds of which had been borne by Israel in the past. He noted with pride the achievements of the American Jewish community in the past year during the emergency period. He pointed out that, in the coming year, “the emotional pressures will not be as strong, but the needs and dangers will be just as real.”
WARNS AGAINST NEGLECTING NEEDS AT HOME; EMPHASIZES JEWISH EDUCATION
The CJFWF leader stressed that, in going all out for Israel, “we cannot do it at the expense of our local communities. Life does go on-there can be no moratorium on human needs, and people’s handicaps do not go into temporary suspension. Just as in Israel, the aged and the sick and the children must not pay the greatest price for the emergency, so too, here, our aged and sick and children must not be hurt the most by it.
Mr.Fox told the delegates, representing more than 200 communities in the United States and Canada, that our cities today pose the major and most pervasive problem on the national and local levels. He warned that the problems inherent in the current situation and those which grow out of it, affect every aspect of our lives-racial, economic, religious, health and political-and all of these react one upon the other. It is the core of our national being-for good or bad.
The Jewish leader criticized Congressional proposals for cutting down funds for the war on poverty. He pointed out that Government welfare programs had not generally reduced the burden on voluntary service agencies but were designed to fill gaps no one was meeting. He stressed that, even with Governmental and voluntary agencies cooperating, “the needs of far too many people are not being met and that “in many areas of need, the situation is getting worse.”
Mr. Fox stressed the mounting role of the federations and welfare funds in the field of Jewish education and emphasized the need for intensified efforts to bring American Jewish college youth under the community umbrella.
WEINSTEIN STRESSES EUROPEAN JEWRY; REPORTS RESULTS OF ISRAEL EMERGENCY DRIVES
In his report on the results and observations of the CJFWF delegation to Europe and Israel last summer, Mr. Weinstein told the Assembly that the Council’s group had met in Paris with leaders of French Jewry and of the Standing Conference of European Jewish Community services, the continent’s counterpart of the CJFWF. The delegation and the Standing Conference, he said, had agreed to exchange plans and experiences and to ‘continue and extend the gains of our emergency fund raising.” He also reported that there was “an active interest among European Jewish leaders in the possibility of united campaigns in some other countries. The European Jewish communities, he declared, are particularly eager to involve their young people in community responsibility and leadership, as we are, and they want to learn from what we do.
The European Jewish communities, he said, were also struggling with the problems of recruitment and training of professional staff personnel for communal service agencies. He proposed closer continuing cooperation between the CJFWF and European Jewish community leaders, adding that the CJFWF should do this with such other areas as South Africa, Australia and South America for our mutual concerns in organization, services, financing and in basic Jewish commitment.
Regarding this year’s Israel Emergency Fund campaigns, which resulted in an “unprecedented outpouring” of contributions at a time when “Israel felt terribly alone in the world.” Mr. Weinstein noted that the monies raised by Jews in the U.S.A., Canada and other countries had met the human needs which the people of Israel could no longer meet in this crisis.”
He described how the first $166 million were being used. He said $28 million was being used for immigration and absorption; almost $3 million for other social welfare services; more than $18 million for health services; nearly $26 million for education; another $19 million for Israel’s universities; more than $3 million for youth care and training; $38 million for absorption in agricultural settlements; and $28 million for immigrant housing.
He reported also that the delegation had been informed that the Israel Government must bear next year hundreds of millions of dollars in costs for security needs and occupation charges, welfare, health, education and other outlays in Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Syrian heights.
Mr. Weinstein said that Israel was in an economic depression when the June war broke out and the depression is still with it. There are close to 30,000 unemployed in Israel, he said. He reported that the unemployment problem was centered in the 30 development towns, the new settlements to which immigrants were brought, where there are 250,000 newcomers. He cited a variety of changes in handling the development towns which had been discussed with Israeli officials.
HERZOG CALLS FOR NEW ERA OF COOPERATION BETWEEN JEWS OF ISRAEL AND REST OF WORLD
Dr. Yaakov Herzog, director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, called here tonight for the opening of a new era of unity and cooperation between the Jews of Israel and the Jews of the world. He told the Assembly, that, just as Israel stood alone on the battlefield, she will not hesitate, if necessary, to stand alone, with the Jewish people of the world, in the battle for peace through direct negotiations with her Arab neighbors.
Dr. Herzog announced that two major international conferences of Jewish leaders will be held in Israel on the invitation of the Prime Minister next year, one on economic matters and the other on immigration and the broadening of Jewish education outside Israel.
The economic conference, scheduled for April, will deal with increased foreign investments in Israel and expansion of Israel’s exports. It will review economic cooperation over the past 20 years, and outline programs for the decade to come in the areas of investments, exports, the United Jewish Appeal and Israel Bonds. The second conference, in July will be a world parley conference of Jewish community leaders. It will deal with such matters as increasing Jewish immigration from Western countries, and encouraging thousands of Jewish youths to study in Israel “so that the Jewish State may indeed become the spiritual center of Jewish youth all over the world.”
Since the Assembly will take up a re-evaluation of priorities in the budgeting of Jewish fund raising, in order to strengthen Israel and simultaneously broaden Jewish education, Dr. Herzog called on the CJFWF to “take the first place in the revolution required to carry out these great and urgent tasks.”
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