Pointing out that it is not too early for Jewish welfare agencies to do post-war planning, ” since for the discharged soldier and his family the post-war has already begun,” George Z. Medalie, president of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York, declared last night in his annual report that the annual campaign which the Federation just concluded was “far and away the most successful in our history.”
“The community’s all-out generosity enables us to do more than meet in full this year’s Federation war-time budget,” Mr. Medalie said, addressing the 27th annual meeting of the Federation. “We have achieved the larger objective of safeguarding our planning with special funds laid aside for the future. It is reassuring that at a time when the community was giving its fullest and most enthusiastic support to war bond drives and various war relief efforts, that home-front causes were achieving unprecedented public generosity both in New York and throughout the country.”
“A number of our agencies,” Mr. Medalie continued, “have already been called upon to meet the discharged soldier’s problem, whether relating to employment, psychological difficulties or health.” These, as well as other of our agencies, are studying the problem and drawing blueprints for their services in the post-war period, so that they will be ready when returned soldiers by the thousands are in our midst, and when the civilian population, too, will need help in bridging the period of postwar readjustment, reconversion and reconstruction.
Pointing to the fact that New York’s history in the past 26 years has been one of shifting populations, constantly changing needs and new welfare requirements, Mr. Medalie noted that this problem, common to all the city’s philanthropic organizations, was a central one in Federation’s plans toward shaping local welfare services to meet community needs, both today and in the post-war period. “Our New York people are constantly on the march,” he said, “and it is our problem to march with them.”
Newly-elected trustees-at-large to the Board of the Federation are Benjamin Lazrus and Siegfried S. Hartman, for three-year terms, and Rabbi Louis I. Newmen, for a two-year term. Trustees-at-large re-elected for a three-year term are, Benjamin Abrams, Judge Jonah J. Goldstein, I. Edwin Goldwasser, Stanley M. Isaacs, Mrs. David M. Levy, Mrs. Richard P. Limburg, Judge Jacob H.Livingston, Carl M. Loeb, Jr., Walter Rothschild and Edward J.Sovatkin.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
