Jewish Agency Chairman Appeals for Increased Aid from American Jewry

The United Jewish Appeal was called upon today by Louis A. Pincus, chairman of the Jewish Agency, “to share the burden of cushioning the social consequences of Israel’s current economic stresses and strains.”

Speaking before the closing session of the UJA Women’s Division Study Mission Mr. Pincus said: “Israel has reached a crisis on every front, economically, socially, and on the borders.” The economic recession, he declared, has hit hardest in the development towns where 250,000 recent immigrants, mainly from North African and Asian countries, are concentrated.

As these contain the greatest number of unskilled workers and illiterates, they are naturally the first to be hardest hit by unemployment, he said, warning of the danger of social unrest unless their plight is alleviated.

Mr. Pincus urged the UJA Women’s Division to inform their home communities of Israel’s serious problems and to enlist increased UJA aid. He said the Jewish Agency is developing a program for intensified absorption work among the socially and economically unabsorbed in the development towns, to improve conditions in overcrowded housing, increase organized youth activities, and to provide supplementary educational facilities for all age groups, including adult illiterates.

Members of the United Jewish Appeal Women’s Division Mission concluded their on the-spot inspection of Israel’s problems by announcing substantially increased pledges, including many 100 percent increases, to the 1967 UJA campaigns in the United States. Mrs. Jack Karp of Los Angeles, national chairman of the UJA Women’s Division, said the survey group was unanimous in expressing their determination to return to their home communities and inform them of the needs and urge them to raise additional funds.