Some 4,000 lay and professional leaders from the Jewish communal world gathered here Tuesday for the opening of the 62nd General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations.
The delegates had an opportunity to meet newly elected CJF President Maynard Wishner, who is succeeding Charles Goodman.
Wishner’s nomination was formally approved by the CJF Board of Delegates on Wednesday at the opening plenary of the G.A.
Delegates from North and South America, Israel, South Africa and Switzerland registered for this year’s G.A., whose theme is “Jewish Community Through Diversity: Building Global, Continental and Local Jewish Communities For a New Era.”
Wishner, a Chicago attorney, is legal counsel to the firm of Rosenthal and Schanfield.
He was previously president and chief executive officer of Walter E. Heller & Company and, before entering private practice in 1955, was chief city prosecutor in the city of Chicago law department.
Wishner is chairman of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council and is a past president of the American Jewish Committee.
He has also served as chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council and as president of the Jewish Family and Community Service of Chicago.
Wishner’s term will commence at the conclusion of the G.A.
Mendel Kaplan, chairman of the board of governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel, bid farewell to Goodman.
“You have begun a program which says to us clearly that every Jew in the world should have the ability to be Jewish, to remain Jewish,” said Kaplan.
Saying that Goodman had taught the Jewish community how to lead “a proud and dignified Jewish life,” Kaplan added, “We thank you on behalf of world Jewry.”
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