Judge Lehman Resigns Jewish Welfare Post; Weil Named President

Frank L. Weil, New York attorney and leader in educational and social organizations, was elected president of the National Jewish Welfare Board today to succeed Chief Justice Irving Lehman of the New York State Court of Appeals, who announced his resignation.

Weil was chosen by the 2,000 delegates of the Board, parent organization for more than 300 Y.M.H.A.’s ,Y.W.H.A.’s and Jewish community centers throughout the United States, at the twenty-third annual conference at the New Yorker after Judge Lehman announced that pressure of other duties had forced him to relinquish the office he has held for more than 20 years. Judge Lehman became honorary president.

The new president, 46 years old, is also a member-at-large of the National Council of Boy Scouts of America, trustee of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, a director of the National Refugee Service and of the New York Vocational Adjustment Bureau, and an employer representative on the New York State Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council, appointed by Governor Lehman.

Taking leave of office in his address opening the conference, Judge Lehman expressed confidence that the Welfare Board would enlarge its functions to meet the critical needs of American Jewish youth, and the challenge of events abroad to American institutions.

“The Jews of America have never failed to view with level heads the situation here and abroad from the same standpoint as other American citizens, and with the same firm resolve to consider only the welfare of America,” he said. “Though every Jew here feels in all the fibres of his body and in the depths of his soul the misery and injustice meted out to the Jews in Germany and the countries which are subject to Germany’s power and influence, yet all Jews here are united in the intense will to preserve peace in their own country and to strengthen democratic ideals.”

Striking the same note in his last annual report. Judge Lehman declared that while the Jewish centers affiliated with the Welfare Board have done their full share in assisting stricken Jews abroad and aiding refugees here, “our loyalty, our aspirations and our duties are here, and as always the work of the Jewish centers during this year has been primarily to help American Jews towards happier and more useful lives.”

In his address accepting office, Weil announced intensification of the Welfare Board’s program, which he said was being carried on in 314 centers in 216 cities and 34 States.

In a plea to the American people for tolerance, Dean E. George Payne of the New York University School of Education, addressing the conference, declared “the most original and sacred achievement of American life has been differences.