The Leadership Conference of National Jewish Women’s Organizations announced this week the formation of a committee to spearhead efforts in more than 28 cities to aid the Jewish poor. The announcement was made by Mrs. Charles Snitow of Scarsdale, N.Y.. chairman of the Leadership Conference and co-chairman of the national Governing Council of the American Jewish Congress. Mrs. David M. Levitt of Great Neck, N.Y., president of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, will serve as chairman of the Committee for the Jewish Poor.
Leaders of the nine Jewish women’s organizations that comprise the Leadership Conference will carry out the work of the committee nationally in reforming and expanding existing programs “in order to bring the Jewish poor into the mainstream of social welfare,” according to Mrs. Snitow.
She declared: “The fact–and extent–of poverty within the Jewish community has only recently begun to be recognized. National and local criteria for the selection of poverty areas for dispensing federal assistance have not taken into account the special problems of the Jewish poor, 250,000 of whom live below the poverty level in New York alone.”
Mrs. Snitow cited the rejection by Orthodox Jews of food surplus programs for religious reasons, the residence of many poor Jews outside of the designated poverty areas, along with their traditional resistance toward public charity, as contributing toward “making this large segment of our population invisible.” The committee will conduct surveys of poverty pockets in each city where it has member organizations and assemble directories on where the poor can find and apply for various types of help.
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