A permanent council to coordinate Jewish fraternal and benevolent organizations with the communal activities of the ninety-one charitable agencies of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies was established yesterday after an all-day convention held at the Hotel McAlpin. More than 500 delegates participated, representing as many Jewish fraternal and benevolent societies in New York, with a membership of 250,000, and voted their affiliation with the council.
The council, to be known as the Council of Fraternal and Benevolent Organizations for Federation, has as its object the building of closer relations through Federation, between the Jewish fraternal life of New York City, and the organized philanthropic work of the community. It will be made up of representatives of local, fraternal and benevolent societies, each affiliated organization being entitled to one member on the Council.
The council, it was said by speakers at the convention, is expected to play an important role in the new Federation plan, announced at the Hotel Commodore dinner last Thursday which calls for an “all-year-round” educational and organizational program intended eventually to supplant the “hectic, intensive high-pressure fund-raising campaigns by a broader, more stable and continuous financing of Federation’s ninety-one institutions by individuals and organized groups.”
Paul Felix Warburg, honorary chairman of the committee of civic and welfare leaders in response to whose call the convention met, said that the convention marked “a new stage in the broader understanding of communal problems by the average citizen of the community,” and was “a symbol of the unity of Jewish life in the acceptance of the traditional obligation to take care of the needy and the unfortunate of the community.”
“The magnificent, representative outpouring at this convention demonstrates, if any demonstration is necessary,” he said, “that Jews, however they may differ in political belief, shade of religious creed, or fraternal and social affiliation, are united in one essential conviction—that the needy and unfortunate among their fellow man must be helped.”
The following were elected as officers of the council: I. Edwin Goldwasser, president; M. E. Fried, first vice-president; Abraham Levine, second vice-president; Max Resnick, third vice-president; Philip Gingold, 4th vice-president, and Jerome Edwards, secretary.
The creation of the Council was hailed as an important progressive step in the philanthropic life of the community by Samuel D. Leidesdorf, president of Federation. “The Council holds the greatest promise,” he said, “of becoming the great instrument which will serve large masses of Jews by keeping them and their interests in close touch with the ninety-one institutions maintained by Federation, so vital in the lives of us all in New York.”
Other speakers at the morning session included: Solomon Lowenstein, executive vice-president of Federation; Waldemar Kops, chairman of its business men’s council, and Mr. Goldwasser and Sol M. Stroock, chairman and associate chairman, respectively, of Federation group activities.
Among organizations participating were: Independent Order of B’rith Abraham, Independent Order B’nai B’rith, Independent Order of Sons of Israel, more than 30 Masonic lodges, and every branch of the Jewish National Workers’ Alliance.
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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.
