Major problems facing American Jewish communities in 1951 will be discussed at a three-day general assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, which opens here tomorrow at the Shoreham Hotel, with more than 700 Jewish leaders from all parts of the United States and Canada in attendance. The delegates will map plans for meeting total Jewish responsibilities in Israel, overseas, nationally and locally.
The three-day assembly will open with discussions on a long-range blueprint prepared by the Council for a community-sponsored national campaign organization. The blueprint, according to Council leaders, aime “to assure continued stability in fund-raising for Jewish causes and, if approved, would become operative only in the event that the present national fund-raising arrangements are dissolved or become so weakened as to lose effectiveness.” A stormy debate is expected when the blueprint is presented to the assembly for approval, in view of the fact that there is strong Zionist opposition to it.
A full-dress debate is also anticipated tomorrow on recommendations by the Council to implement the creation of a central Israel fund and budget which would embrace all the various fund-raising activities for Israel in the United States, including the separate fund-raising projects conducted by Hadassah and the Histadrut in this country. At the General Assembly last year, the majority of the delegates voted in favor of the establishment of such a central Israel fund and budget. Leaders of Hadassah and the Histadrut, as well as of other Zionist groups, however, oppose the project.
The General Assembly will also vote on proposals designed to insure the most efficient manner of utilizing funds raised to meet Israel’s most pressing economic needs. They will deal with the role of philanthropy in relation to the projected Israel bond drive in the country; with private investments in Israel, and intergovernmental loans to the Jewish state; and with the character of programs to be undertaken by American Jewish organizations raising funds for Israel. The proposals will be presented following an analysis of the Israel and overseas picture to be given by Harold Glasser, director of the C.J.F.W.F. Institute on Overses Studies.
The Assembly will also hold a special session to discuss domestic needs as well as the needs of Jews in countries outside Israel. It will analyze the results of the 1950 fund-raising drives and evaluate the possibilities for the 1951 campaign. The strengthening of Jewish community organization in the United States will also be one of the subjects discussed at the Assembly.
The Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds is the national association of community organizations serving 800 cities as their instrument in dealing with national problems and in providing central services in budgeting, community organization, social planning, campaigning and year-round interpretation. Member agencies of the Council annually raise more than 90 percent of all funds used for Jewish welfare purposes, the Council emphasized in a statement issued today.
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