Max M. Fisher Succeeds Dewey Stone As Chairman of the United Israel Appeal

Max M. Fisher of Detroit, business and philanthropic leader was elected yesterday chairman of the United Israel Appeal, major American agency responsible for the resettlement and absorption of immigrants in Israel. He has long been recognized as one of the country’s most prominent leaders of humanitarian and welfare causes, Jewish and non-sectarian. Mr. Fisher succeeds Dewey D. Stone of Brockton, Mass., prominent American Jewish leader and chairman of UIA for nearly two decades, who was elected honorary chairman.

Other officers of the United Israel Appeal elected at its annual meeting were: Melvin Dubinsky, St. Louis, Mo., and Dr. Emanuel Neumann, New York City, vice-chairman; Merrill Hassenfeld, Providence, R.I. and Jack D. Weiler, New York City, treasurers. Re-elected were: Ralph Wechsler, Essex Fells, N.J., secretary, and Gottlieb Hammer, New York City, executive vice-chairman. Newly elected to the board of trustees were: Leon Dulzin, Jerusalem; Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, New York City; Morris L. Levinson, New York City; Rabbi Israel Miller, New York City; and Louis D. Stern, Newark, N.J.

The board of trustees also made allocations for the year for the expenditure in Israel by the Jewish Agency for Israel of the funds received from the campaign of the United Jewish Appeal. The United Israel Appeal, together with the Jewish Agency, has played a major role in the immigration, settlement and absorption of 1,350,000 Jewish refugees who have been aided to reach Palestine and Israel since the first UJA campaign in 1939. Aside from its immigration and absorption programs, the United Israel Appeal also finances programs in Israel in the fields of health services, social welfare and education.

For three years, 1965 through 1967, Mr. Fisher was simultaneously general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, the country’s largest wholly voluntary fund-raising effort, and leader of the country’s major community chest, the non-sectarian Detroit United Foundation, serving 200 institutions in that city. He is currently president of the United Jewish Appeal. In addition to serving with the UIA and the UJA, Mr. Fisher is also vice-president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, chairman of the board of governors of the American Jewish Committee, and a member of the board of the Joint Distribution Committee. The UIA and the Joint Distribution Committee are the two constituent agencies of the UJA, and since 1939 have derived their main funds from UJA’s annual nationwide campaign.