Hadassah Conclave Told $20 Million Raised This Year Rustin Says Former Coalition of Minorities Will

The 3,500 delegates attending the opening session today of Hadassah’s 58th annual national convention here were told that in 60 years, membership had grown from 12 women to 325,000 and fund-raising from $930 in 1912 to $20 million for 1971-72. The figures for membership and fund-raising growth were presented by Mrs. Nathan D. Perlman, treasurer.

Mrs. Faye L. Schenk, Hadassah president, credited the philosophy and structure of the organization for its growth to 1400 chapters and groups throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. All Hadassah philanthropic work, she said, has an educational base. Second, she said, “we are a grass roots organization run by the members themselves and not by professionals.”

Mrs. Perlman noted that the fund-raising record was achieved despite current economic problems, adding that while price control might be easing inflation, “it does not seem to have relieved the household budget. Nevertheless, our members are contributing most generously and are working that much harder to meet their project commitments.”

Bayard Rustin, the Black civil rights leader, condemned Black nationalists and “fringe” thinkers, on the one hand, and Jews who are “more concerned with racial division than with reconciliation on the other.” The executive director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute predicted that the traditional alliance – the coalition of Blacks, Jews, labor, Puerto Ricans and Chicanos-“will reassert itself to ensure a progressive social and economic environment.” Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, described the progress in relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors since the cease-fire went into effect two years ago.

Rustin told the delegates that “Black anti-Semitism is one of the most exaggerated myths to surface in years. Every poll ever taken demonstrates that Blacks are less anti-Semitic than any other racial, ethnic or religious group, and that Jews are more receptive to racial integration than any other group.” Referring to the one-time coalition, which he said had a majority in 1960 and 1964, he said that at the present time, “the coalition is in temporary disarray.” He insisted Blacks “are not about to leave the coalition, despite what you may have heard or read about separatist political action, Black political parties or other extremist fantasies.”

Argov said that Israel’s Arab neighbors were “literally co-living with us, which is a step higher than co-existing with us.” Across the “open bridges” of the Jordan River, he said, “are exchanged not rockets and shells but goods and people.” He said hundreds of thousands of Arab neighbors will visit Israel this year “as tourists” and thousands of young Arab students “will come from all the universities of the Arab world to visit with their relatives.” He declared that, for the first time in 25 years, Arabs and Israelis “are confronting each other in peaceful circum-stances and have even joined each other in con- structive social, economic and even intellectual exchange and composition.”

Mrs. Schenk said at the opening of the plenary that there will be speeches, workshops and discussions on domestic and Israeli concerns throughout the convention but that all of the discussions would be of a non-partisan nature. She said that neither in the United States nor Israel does Hadassah align itself with political parties or candidates.

Mrs. Perlman detailed the comparative collections for Hadassah’s major projects: the Jewish National Fund, Youth Aliyah, Hadassah Israel Educational Services and Hadassah Medical Organization. In 1927, she said, Hadassah contributed $35,000 and $928,000 in 1972. She said Hadassah, which adopted JNF as a project in 1926, is the largest single contributor in the US to the JNF.

Hadassah gave $124,000 to Youth Aliyah in 1935 and $2.5 million in 1972. Hadassah adopted Youth Aliyah as a project in 1934. It now cares for 11,000 wards annually in 267 youth villages, kibbutzim and day centers. She said Hadassah is the principal agency in the US supporting Youth Aliyah. In 1943, Hadassah contributed $35,400 to Israel educational services and $948,000 in 1972.

She said the most dramatic figure was for Hadassah’s major department, its Medical Organization. She said this year, Hadassah collected more than $8 million to support the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Ein Karem, Jerusalem. The largest medical complex in the Middle East, it provides healing, teaching and research for students and patients from Asia, Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as for Israelis. She said that in the United States and Israel, Hadassah spends about one million dollars on youth activities, including sponsorship of Hashachar, the Zionist youth movement which includes Young, Intermediate and Senior Judaea for nine to 18-year-old students and Hamaghsimim for high school graduates to 25. In addition to year-round cultural programs and summer camps in this country, Hadassah sponsors summer and year-round courses for American students in Israel and exchange visits of Israeli Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to the United States. The work of Hadassah was lauded in messages from President Nixon and Premier Golda Meir.