Mayors of N.y.c and Tel Aviv Launch $100 Million Project Renewal for Neighborhoods in Both Cities

Mayors Edward Koch of New York and Shlomo Lahat of Tel Aviv participated last night in the formal inauguration of Project Renewal, a collaborative effort to put at least $100 million in philanthropic and public funds to work over the next several years in strengthening the social fabrics of neighborhoods in the world’s two largest Jewish cities, New York and Tel Aviv.

The lunching took place in the Hotel Pierre at a dinner attended by 300 leaders of New York’s United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies joint Campaign, which aims to provide $50 million for Project Renewal in addition to the funds it raises each year to support essential humanitarian services for mores: than three million people in Israel, elsewhere overseas and here in New York.

The co-chairmen of UJA-Federation’s Project Renewal drive are Richard Ravitch and William Hack. It was announced at the dinner that the first 500 contributors have already pledged some $8.3million to Project Renewal.

UJA-Federation president Laurence Tisch presented an Award of Honor to philanthropist and realtor Irving Schneider, As Project Renewal’s first chairman, Schneider was instrumental in devising the program of housing aid and intensive social and educational services now taking shape in the immigrant Hatikvah quarter of Tel Aviv and Jewish neighborhoods of New York, as well as the fund-raising drive to finance them.

OUTLINES CHALLENGES OF HATIKVAH

Lahat outlined to the dinner guests the Project Renewal programs developed by Israeli and American social planners –the latter recruited by New York’s Federation of Jewish Philanthropies– to meet the needs of the 20,000 people of Hatikvah, a slum neighborhood on the fringe of Israel’s largest city that has been “adopted ” by New York’s Jewish community as part of Project Renewal/Israel.

Hatikvah is regarded as the worst of 160 slum areas in Israel where some 45,000 immigrant families, mostly from North Africa and East Europe. comprising 300,000 individuals, dwell in poverty and deprivation , Lahat said, Project Renewal/ Israel, undertaken at the urging of Premier Menachem Begin, aims to speed the integration of these Jews, who constitute what has been called the “second Israel.” into the mainstream of Israeli life, he stated.

The estimated $1.2 billion in financing required to break the cycle of poverty in which they live is to be provided half by the government of Israel and half world Jewry through the Jewish Agency; $400 million is to be raised in the United States, $40 million of that from New York to be expended in Hatikvah and matched by the government of Israel.

The program to be implemented in Hatikvah, developed by a Neighborhood Steering Committee that includes Hatikvah residents and representatives of the Israel government Tel Aviv municipality, Jewish Agency and New York’s Federation, includes rehabilitation of existing and construction of some new housing; expansion and renovation of such community facilities; intensification of social services for youths and the aged, tutoring and career guidance for adolescents, and training of parents in home management and family guidance.

The UJA- Federation Women’s Campaign is committed to raise $1.7 million for the renovation and expansion of an existing school in Hatikvah into the Ohel Neighborhood Center which will comprise a day care center. youth club and school of the arts serving up to 1000 students, with a faculty of members of the Israeli Association of Artists and Sculptors, Heading the Women’s Campaign project is Myrtle Hirsch, Elaine Pohl Moore is Women’s Campaign chairman.

USE OF FUNDS IN NEW YORK OUTLINED

Ravitch, a former head of New York State’s Urban Development Corporation, explained the uses to which possibly $20million in funds generated by Project Renewal will be put in New York neighborhoods with largely Jewish populations.

A $5million Neighborhood Preservation Fund will provide seed money to local Jewish community councils and Federation agencies for projects aimed at stabilizing and enhancing the viability of neighborhoods threatened with deterioration, Ravitch said It is believed that. once under way such local endeavors will be able to attract funding from government and other sources and. cumulatively, have a major impact on the struggle to stem the urban blight spreading in New York neighborhoods.

Another $5 million in Project Renewal/New York funds intended for the Fund for Jewish Education which the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies has established to channel aid to Jewish day and supplementary schools, Ravitch stated, The Project Renewal money is to be matched dollar for dollar by challenge grants made by philanthropists Caroline and joseph Gruss and by special allocations for Jewish education by the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York he said.

A total of $15 million would thus be available to day schools, yeshivot and supplementary schools for student scholarships, upgrading of teacher’s compensation, and physical instructional and pedagogical improvement. The funds would be provided in grants ranging in amount from as little as $500 to as much as $100,000.

“project Renewal ,” Ravitch asserted, “can do much to upgrade curricula, increase enrollment, help Russian immigrant discover the Jewishness they came here to find, Such on effort is absolutely essential for the future of Jewish life in cur city; it is a moral commitment we dare not ignore if we care at all about our cultural survival.

New Yorkers’ philanthropic pledges to Project Renewal are accepted only after they have made their regular contributions to the annual UJA Federation campaign, which is seeking $106 million for 1980 he stated, The larger Project Renewal contributions are payable over a period of several years.

In a light hearted ceremony before last night’s dinner Lahat pinned on Koch’s lapel a Hebrew equivalent of an” I Love New York” button, He also presented Koch with a key to the city of Tel Aviv.