National Conference of United Jewish Campaign Called in Chicago, May 11-12

Another conference of the United Jewish Campaign was convoked for May 11 and 12 at the Standard Club, Chicago, according to an announcement from the headquarters of the United Jewish Campaign.

A call to attend the conference was issued by Louis Marshall, David A. Brown, national chairman of the United Jewish Campaign, Col. Herbert H. Lehman, James N. Rosenberg, vice-chairmen of the Joint Distribution Committee, and Paul Baerwald, treasurer.

Leaders of American Jewry are called upon to meet to consider the present situation of the Jews in Eastern Europe and to review the progress in the work of the United Jewish Campaign and the Joint Distribution Committee.

It is expected that as a result of this conference there will be speedily attained the collection of the remaining $4,000,000 which is outstanding throughout the United States and Canada and which is needed by the Joint Distribution Committee to complete the obligations it has already assumed. Of the $19,700,000 pledged, over $14,250,000, as of April 1st, has reached the Joint Distribution Committee, the announcement states.

“This conference, the fourth meeting of nation-wide scope to be held since the beginning of the United Jewish Campaign in 1925, will, like two of its historic predecessors, be held at the Standard Club in Chicago, on the evening of May 11th and on May 12th.

“The burden of the Joint Distribution Committee has been aggravated by the new emergency situation that has arisen in Eastern Europe because of the failure of crops and the severity of the winter. This has created an acute and terrible need that has made American aid a matter of immediate urgency.

“Having sent urgent pleas for the prompt payment of quotas and pledges, Mr. Brown and his associated officers determined to call a national conference, at which the present conditions of Jewry abroad might be fully set forth and definite energetic action be undertaken.

“Every city which served under the banner of the United Jewish Campaign has been urged to send its representatives to the conference, so that they may return to their communities with a comprehensive survey of the achievements of American generosity in alleviating the suffering of European Jewry and with a graphic picture of the present status of the Jew in all the countries in which the Joint Distribution Committee is at work. In addition to the city, state and regional leaders who have been active in the United Jewish Campaign, the conference will bring together representatives of all communal and philanthropic elements of American Jewry interested in the social and economic rehabilitation of their co-religionists abroad,” the announcement states.

“The Jewish relief movement now

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stands at a cross-roads,” Mr. Brown declared in issuing the conference call, and he stated that this meeting would be epochal and of even greater significance than its predecessors. “A milestone in Jewish philanthropy has been passed,” he said. “In achieving this milestone the generous heart of American Jewry has been tested as it never was before. The stupendous sum of over $14,250,000 has been collected and placed in the hands of the Joint Distribution Committee for distribution abroad. Having reached this milestone, it might seem that Jewry would be content to rest upon its well-earned laurels. But the overwhelming response to the recent letter sent by me to over 100,000 leaders in the United States and Canada indicated in unmistakable terms the intention of the Jews of this continent to continue to render aid and constructive relief to our people abroad.”

Mr. Brown announced that the conference, which will open on Saturday evening, May 11th, and continue through Sunday. May 12th, will, at its opening sessions, receive reports of the results of various campaign efforts that have been conducted throughout the country. Chairmen of local drives will report on the progress of the collection of money pledged in their respective districts. Men and women who since the last conference have visited Eastern Europe and other lands in which the Joint Distribution Committee has carried on its work, will give eye-witness accounts of the progress which has been made in the huge task of economic rehabilitation that American Jewry has sponsored. Others will present more recent aspects of conditions abroad, detailing the economic situation that has arisen during the winter that has just ended.