Dewey Stone Elected National Chairman of United Israel Appeal

Dewey D. Stone, noted Jewish leader who is active in many philanthropic and cultural undertaking, was today elected national chairman of the United Israel Appeal at the annual meeting of its board of directors at the Commodore Hotel. He succeeds Rudolf G. Sonneborn, who served four years as national chairman of the UIA.

The United Israel Appeal is the central fund-raising instrumentality in this country in behalf of the Jewish Agency and the Keren Hayesod. Its board of directors is made up of 130 members representing all of the Zionist parties as well as the Jewish welfare funds and councils of local communities. Representation on the board includes 60 percent of the membership named by the Zionist parties, while the balance is designated by communities and regions throughout the country.

In announcing the chief aspects of the UIA program for this year, Mr. Stone made public a large-scale rural resettlement project which is currently being launched. It involves the one-quarter million-acre Beth Govrin desert area in the northeastern Negev to be reclaimed and developed at a cost of $14,000,000 for this year’s portion of the work, This will be one of the principal items of the UIA agencies’ budget set at $88,980,000 for 1955. The major portion of the budget will be provided by American Jews through the United Jewish Appeal. Simultaneous campaigns in other countries and loans will provide the balance.

Elected with Mr. Stone was a slate of officers including William H. Sylk Philadelphia, as chairman of the board of directors, Ellis Radinsky, who was recently appointed assistant executive vice-chairman of the UJA, was named executive director, Mr. Sonneborn was elected a vice-chairman of the UIA.

Mr. Stone, who is also a chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, representing the United Israel Appeal in the campaign, is active in a broad range of educational, cultural and philanthropic projects, relating to Israel and America. He is chairman of the board of the Weizmann Institute of Science, a trustee of Boston University, vice-president of the Zionist Organization of America, president of the Brandeis Youth Foundation, member of the Board of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, American Friends of the Hebrew University, American Fund Israel Institutions, and the Palestine Economic Corporation.