Dr. Schwartz Retires, After 15 Years, As Vice-president of Israel Bond Organization

The retirement of Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, vice president of the Israel Bond Organization, was announced here today by the organization’s president, Abraham Feinberg. Dr. Schwartz was chief executive officer of the bond drive for 15 years during which over $1.5 billion was raised through bond sales for Israel’s economic development. Dr. Schwartz, who is 71, said in a statement issued today that he was relinquishing his post after 15 years of “rigorous duties” administering the operations of Israel bond drives in some 35 countries. He said he was confident that the organization would be able “to carry on in the spirit and with the effectiveness which have enabled the Israel Bond Organization to grow into the central source of investment funds for the development of the country.” No successor has been announced. Before joining the Bond Organization, Dr. Schwartz served as executive vice chairman of the United Jewish Appeal. He had also served, after World War II, as overseas chief of the Joint Distribution Committee and was responsible for directing to Israel more than 500,000 Jews from distressed areas of Europe.

Dr. Schwartz was born in Russia and came to the United States with his family at the age of eight. He was educated at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Seminary, now Yeshiva University, and at Yale University where he received a doctorate in Semitics and Semitic literature. He served as an instructor at the American University in Cairo and on the faculty of Long Island University. In 1945, Dr. Schwartz was named by President Truman to accompany Earl G. Harrison on a survey tour of displaced persons camps in the American occupation zone of Germany. Later he testified before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine. Mr. Feinberg accepted Dr. Schwartz’s retirement “with great regret.”