Jewish Community Centers and Young Men’s-Young Women’s Hebrew Associations affiliated with the National Jewish Welfare Board have increased their membership by 120,000 during the last ten years, it was reported today.
According to a JWB report, to be submitted Thursday to delegates attending the biennial convention of the organization at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, the Jewish Community Centers and YM-YWHAs have 565,000 members. This represents a 21 percent increase over the 445,000 figure reported in 1946. The number of Jewish Community Centers and YM-YWHA’s have likewise grown, from 295 in 1946 to the present figure of 348.
The report establishes that local community expenditures for Jewish Community Center and YMHA activities totalled $16,314,000; cost of new Jewish Community Center construction under way amounted to $5,750,000; the number of full-time, professional workers engaged by Jewish Community Centers and YM-YWHAs throughout the country totalled 1,350 and JWB volunteers active in the Veterans Administration Voluntary Service program sponsored more than 1,000 recreational programs.
The report, which will be presented at the convention’s opening session by Charles Aaron, JWB president, also states that 1,000,000 gifts were sent to servicemen stationed in 49 countries on four continents by volunteers affiliated with JWB’s Women’s Organizations Division; that 355 full-time and part-time Jewish chaplains, recruited, ecclesiastically endorsed and served by JWB’s Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy, conducted 15,596 religious services with a total attendance of 490,672; that 11,900 volunteers on 241 local JWB Armed Services Committees, guided by 28 JWB professional armed services workers, sponsored Passover observances at approximately 800 bases in the U. S. and overseas.
In addition to these activities, JWB helped the development of 12 new Jewish Community Centers and YMHAs in Europe–four in France, four in Sweden, two in Holland and one each in Italy and Norway–and two in North Africa, Approximately 1,000 dele gates and visitors are expected to attend the JWB convention, which will continue through Sunday.
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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.
