A special committee of the Milwaukee Jewish Welfare Fund began a study this week of Jewish itinerant solicitors to determine the extent of individuals approached, the total number of dollars contributed and the identity of the beneficiary institutions.
The Special Committee on Traditional Institutions, a subcommittee of the Fund’s Committee on Unified and Coordinated Fund-Raising, reported that there had been “an increase in the number of solicitations made by traditional institutions through the media of ‘meshulochim’ during the past few years.”
The Special Committee added that while there were among the solicitors authorized representatives of legitimate charitable institutions, “there are those which have misrepresented their purposes and in fact have been proven to be illegitimate or fraudulent in nature.”
A fact-finding approach will be used by the Special Committee, which includes two rabbis, Solomon Shulson and Louis J. Swichkow, to determine “the whole picture of such solicitations” to assure the Milwaukee Jewish community of protection against solicitors who are engaged in improper fund-collecting.
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