American Jewish leaders from all parts of the United States, meeting in advance of the opening of the 30th anniversary conference of the United Jewish Appeal, voted today to ask American Jews to “match and surpass the generous outpouring” of philanthropic aid which followed the 1967 Six-Day war. The campaign, which will be the UJA third Israel Emergency Fund effort, comes as tension increases along Middle East demarcation lines.
Edward Ginsberg of Cleveland, UJA general chairman, reported that representatives of the UJA national campaign cabinet, the organization’s main steering committee, also responded personally “with unprecedented giving” in response to “the grave crisis in Israel.” As 3,000 American Jewish leaders gathered for the opening session tomorrow, Louis Pincus, Jewish Agency chairman, said the people of Israel had to spend “all of their tax dollars on national defense” and that for this reason, expenditures for social services “must be met by unprecedented aid given to the people of Israel by Jews throughout the world.” He said the American Jewish community was “under a particularly heavy obligation” to help assure “the success of this year’s campaign, due to its uniquely influential position in the world.”
National Cabinet members were told that Israeli social services, including hospital construction, infant welfare clinics and welfare grants had been frozen at 1968 levels in the face of a continuing flow of Jewish refugees from the Arab world. Mr. Ginsberg also told the Jewish leaders that the people of Israel “have voluntarily contributed two-thirds of the funds for UJA supported programs” and that the Six-Day War and the current crisis “makes continuation of this level of giving beyond their means. It now falls to the Jews of America to meet this responsibility to the fullest.”
The conference will focus attention on a series of seminars on world Jewish needs and reviews of the situation in Jewish communities in France, Austria, Uruguay and Switzerland. Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, UJA executive vice-chairman, will address the convention tomorrow on the needs that must be met by the UJA in 1969. Gen. Moshe Dayan, Israel’s Defense Minister, will make his first appearance in the United States since the Six-Day War when he addresses the conference Saturday evening.
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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.
