Cjfwf President Fox Tells Argentine Officials Purpose of Latin American Mission

Louis Fox of Baltimore, president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, told Argentine Jewish officials yesterday that he and other CJFWF members visiting Latin American Jewish communities had come “not to tell how to do things but to exchange views.” Members of the CJFWF delegation, reportedly comprising the first mission representing American Jewish communities to their counterparts in Latin America, have finished a first week of talks with leaders of Brazilian Jewry and said the results were excellent. The consultations were held with leaders of the Federation of Jewish Societies and the Sephardic Community in Rio de Janeiro and in Sao Paulo with those of the national Confederacao de Brazil and the Federation of Jewish Societies. The subjects covered Jewish community organization, fund raising, social planning, Jewish education, health and welfare services, leadership development and professional staffing for such Jewish communal services. The mission, which is being carried out at the invitation of the host communities, will visit Montevideo after the Buenos Aires visit, before returning to the United States on March 31.

Other members of the delegation are Philip Bernstein, CJFWF executive vice-president, Levy M. Becker of Montreal, Herman Katz of Columbus, O., Hyman Safran of Detroit, Bernard Schaenen of Dallas, Sanford Treguboff of San Francisco and Theodore Comet of New York, CJFWF consultant on overseas services. In Buenos Aires, the mission members were guests of the Argentine Federation of Jewish Communities. They were received in the Buenos Aires Kehilla by Dr. Tobias Kamenszain, its president, who stressed in his greetings the importance of better mutual understanding between the American and Latin American Jewish communities. Mr. Fox also said that mission members were “learning also as much as we are giving, especially in Jewish educational matters.” He added that the delegation members also found of special interest the fact that the Kehilla organization was on “a wholly volunteer basis.” He called Argentine Jewry “a more sophisticated community from which we hope to learn much.” He added that the delegation had been impressed by the “strength” of the Jewish press.

Mr. Bernstein described the basic purposes of the CJFWF, which represents some 200 local Jewish federations and welfare funds in the U.S. He said the CJFWF sought to solve the problems of the Jewish community and to strengthen Judaism and “therefore we seek unity in our institutional life” as the “instruments of our communities.” Reporting on the visits to Rio and Sao Paulo, Mr. Fox said that “there is an especially great desire for our cooperation in the training of professional staffs for a number of community services.”