Isidore Sobeloff, executive vice-president of the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit, has accepted the position of executive director of the Jewish Federation-Council of Greater Los Angeles, it was announced simultaneously in both cities by Judge Irving Hill, president of the Los Angeles Federation-Council and Max M. Fisher, president of the Detroit Federation.
Mr. Sobeloff will assume his new duties September I, following the attainment of his sixty-fifth birthday on August 30. William Avrunin, associate director of Federation since 1948, will become the executive director of Federation when Mr. Sobeloff Leaves. Julius Bisno and Martin Ruderman will continue in their present posts as associate executive directors in Los Angeles. The executive committee and the board of governors of the Detroit Federation formally accepted Mr. Sobeloff’s resignation “with great reluctance and regret” to take effect next fall.
“Mr. Sobeloff,” said Mr. Fisher, “has grown up with us here and we have grown up with him over the last 26 years. Los Angeles is a rapidly growing community, second in size only to New York, and it offers a great complex of opportunities while facing problems which require the proved administrative leadership and the executive skills and stature which Soby can bring to it. We had hoped that he would continue his work here. At a time when most men might choose to remain in an established and stabilized atmosphere, Soby has elected to face a new challenge in a new community.
“For all our regrets,” Mr. Fisher continued, “we admire his courage and we shall be regarding what he may be able to do in Los Angeles not only as his contribution but also as a contribution by the Detroit community to the well-being of the entire American Jewish community. For us here he has built well and we can grow on the fine foundation-he has helped so much to set up. He has provided a training ground in community organization and administrative leadership for many men now serving in important posts throughout the country and fortunately for us, Bill Avrunin is a distinguished product of this process. The professional direction of our community services will continue in good hands.” Mr. Sobeloff joined in paying tribute to Avrunin.
LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY WELCOMES SOBELOFF; LAUDS HIS ACHIEVEMENTS
In the Los Angeles statement Judge Hill explained that when the Jewish Community Council and the Jewish Welfare Federation of that city were merged in 1959, the agreement to set up a unified central community organization under its present name of Federation-Council provided for the appointment of an executive director and that the new position is now being filled in accordance with that decision.
Quoting from a report submitted by a selection committee headed by Dr. Max W. Bay and approved unanimously by the Federation-Council’s board of directors, Judge Hill stated: “The Los Angeles Jewish community is very fortunate to have enlisted the interest and service of a man who is considered the dean of executive directors in Jewish welfare organization, a man of outstanding abilities, of great energy and enthusiasm, who, having attained the pinnacle of success in one career, sees in this new opportunity a challenge which can be successfully overcome, thereby affording him and our community a new level of fulfillment. Ours is destined to be one of the great Jewish communities of America.”
Mr. Sobeloff has served as executive director and executive vice-president of the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit since 1937. He is a former president of the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service, has held numerous other positions in the field of Jewish community organization here and abroad, and is a frequent contributor to social work literature. Among the national agency boards on which he has served are the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, National Jewish Welfare Board, Joint Distribution Committee, National Foundation for Jewish Culture and Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Mr. Avrunin was the East Central States Regional Director of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds before coming to Detroit as associate director of Federation in 1948. He also served as executive director of the Jewish Federation of Fort Wayne, Indiana and supervisor at the Jewish Board of Guardians, New York City, as well as public welfare investigator and group worker in Cleveland, Ohio.
Born in Cleveland in 1911, Mr. Avrunin has a BS degree from Ohio State University School of Journalism, and completed his graduate work at Western Reserve University, School of Applied Science. He has been a lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Social Work and a member of the faculty of the Training Bureau for Jewish Communal Service. He spent two months in Israel directing the Study of Voluntary Fund Raising in 1962 and 1963 under the auspices of the Jewish Agency for Israel in cooperation with the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds.
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