Private institutions for the aged must be prepared to fit their programs to broadened legislation, Carl M. Loeb, president of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, West 105th street, declared in his report at the sixty-fifth annual meeting.
“It is our responsiblity,” said Mr. Loeb, “to work out a forward-looking program, coordinating private and public aid, so that we will be ready to submit to the community a well-conceived plan for the future.” Existing old age laws, he said, are inadequate. With their broadening certain through impending legislation, we must move, Mr. Loeb declared, toward an accurate appraisal of the scope remaining for private charity, and to the determination “of the manner in which we can serve, without economic waste, the greatest good of the greatest number.’
DEMANDS NEW VIEWPOINT
Calling for a new social viewpoint, Mr. Loeb deplored the necessity of emergency fund-raising drives for the support of private welfare agencies. “The extraordinary campaign which Federation, with which the Home is affiliated, had to conduct during the year to raise funds calls attention to a lamentable lack of social conscience, and is a sad reflection on the community. Our community must recognize the great social change which is taking place in this country as well as throughout the world, a change which is demanding an increasing willingness to serve the social good and no longer permits an indifferent and selfish spirit.
“The time has come when a new social viewpoint must be embraced. Those who are too blind or too mercenary to recognize the need for giving will themselves be overwhelmed by the changing social tide.
An association of 14 institutions has been formed during the past year, Mr. Loeb reported, constituting the majority of agencies in New York which shelter or other-wise serve the Jewish aged. Its objectives are to give intelligent direction and planning to future programs, to avoid economic waste through duplication, and to provide a central agency for the better placement of applicants.
TO SPARE ORDEALS
“It is now possible,” Mr. Loeb stated, “to spare the aged the ordeal of futile applications at numerous institutions, before they find out which can admit them.” The association hopes also, it was said, not only to improve standards at the various institutions, but to bring into existence “an authoritative body well qualified to prepare and assist in social legislation.”
At the annual election the following trustees were elected, for a term of three years: James H. Abraham, Charles H. Freeman, Mrs. Philip J. Goodhart, Lothair S. Kohnstamm, Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, Mrs. Walter Pforzheimer, and Mrs. Marcus A. Rothschild. All elected had served one or more terms on the board of trustees of the Home.
DEFICIT REPORTED
The financial report for the year 1934 showed expenditures of $147,589.73. Total income was $112,651.30, leaving a budgetary deficit of $35,938.43. The average per capita cost of service during 1934 was $1,119 as compared to $.949, the increase being due to the higher cost of food and other commodities.
The Home for the Aged and Infirm Hebrews, founded in 1870, has a present capacity of 362 beds. It cares for men and women over the age of 60, including many sufferers from chronic diseases and blindness, for which the institution is equipped to provide medical care. There is a broad recreational program aimed at encouraging residents to provide their own diversion, rather than having them dependent on outside sources.
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