Launching of a membership campaign by the Atlanta Federation of Jewish Charities to provide additional funds for the affiliated organizations, as outlined in the annual report just published by the Federation’s executive director, Edward M. Kahn, is seen as the basic move for a new era in maintenance of local charities.
The membership plan, while undertaken here for the first time in the history of the Federation, is not looked upon as a new departure due to its successful operation in similar fields elsewhere. Its adoption was brought about as a result of inadequate support of the Federation by the local Community Chest, which failed this year to reach its quota.
According to Mr. Kahn’s report, the Federation has suffered a cut of 20 per cent on its last year’s appropriation from the Chest to maintain its 1930 budget. At the same time, the appropriation last year, as in previous years, was not sufficient to meet the budget without incurring slight deficits.
In view of the fact that more than 84 per cent of the Federation’s gross income is from the Community Chest, while the remainder is from endowments and incidental items, the failure of the Chest to meet with success in Atlanta is regarded as of vital importance to the Jewish Federation. Consideration by local civic leaders of abandoning the Community Chest plan, should the difficulty of raising its annual quota continue, is another problem in view. Perfection of the Federation’s proposed membership campaign, is seen as a means of providing for such contingency.
Recommendations, other than the approved membership campaign, made in the published annual report point to the need for a Jewish hospital; a Federation Committee on Vocational Guidance to survey the vocational training opportunities for Jewish boys and girls; an employment and placement system of cooperation with Jewish employers; re-organization of the capital funds of the Federation’s free loan fund to relieve “the precarious economic status of our local Jewish grocers and other small business men; re-organization of the present Relief Board into a Jewish Social Service Bureau to more efficiently evolve the local charity work from the old dole system to modern social service standards; and “Atlanta’s greatest need—a modern Jewish Center—a place which will combine the best features of a club, yet be open to the entire Jewish community.”
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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.
