Jewish community centers will play a major role in helping Jewish service men and women to resume social and civic life interrupted by the war, Frank L. Weil, president of the National Jewish Welfare Board stated last night addressing a meeting of the Jewish Center Division of the Board at the Hotel Vanderbilt.
A new statement of objectives for the 293 constituent agencies of the Jewish Center Division of the National Jewish Welfare Board will be drawn up tonight at the close of a two-day session of members representing different geographical areas of the country.
Declaring that approximately twenty-five percent of the membership of the Jewish Centers are now in the armed forces, Mr. Weil pointed out that when they came back, it will be in these centers that they will renew their civic and social life and become once more a part of the local community.
“Then,” Mr. Weil continued, “there will be the thousands who never used the Center before, but who have learned to use the recreational and hospitality services of Red Cross and U.S.O. It is in Y’s and community centers particularly that they will be able to find this type of group service in civilian life – and it is only through these centers that they can be made a part of our community life.
“In order to care for and to serve these returning veterans and to continue the center’s usefulness as a youth center and community forum, it is vital that J.W.B. improve and expand its program, stimulate our centers, and bring to them the benefits of our combined thinking and joint planning.
“The unifying of the community and the bringing of various elements together into a common program is another very important function of the Jewish Center,” Mr. Weil stated. “Through its Army and Navy program J.W.B. has developed a pattern of unity in which all groups and organizations in Jewish life participate in a joint program of service to the armed forces. It is our responsibility through the Jewish Center Division program to carry over this pattern of unity into our peacetime activities,” he concluded.
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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.
