The treasurer of the Jewish Agency told representatives of major Jewish fund-raising bodies here today that the Agency would not be able to maintain its present level of services over the next few years if it had to continue operating at the present budgetary level of $350 million a year. Leon Dultzin addressed the International Conference on Human Needs in Israel, attended by 204 delegates from the United States and 23 other countries.
He said the budgetary problem stemmed from an annual three percent rise in prices brought about not by inflation but by “a healthy expanding economy.” Mr. Dultzin provided details of the Jewish Agency’s budget and the sums allotted to each of its main fields of activity. He said Israelis cannot carry the burden of immigrant absorption because they already pay so much in taxes, mainly for defense, that there is little left over for personal use.
Mr. Dultzin said that Israel lives in a state of “continuing emergency” and noted that events since the Six-Day War permitted fund-raisers to think in terms of an “emergency” although that word has changed in meaning for Israel since 1967. What it means now, he said, is “continuing responsibility.”
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