More than 80 leaders of the National Council of Jewish Women, representing 200 branches of the Council throughout the country, today started a three-day meeting here to discuss the welfare service and education activities conducted by the 61-year-old organization.
Addressing the opening session, Mrs. Irving M. Engel, president of the organization, urged a continued and vigorous fight against those powerful interests which are attempting to subvert those American liberties which are the fundamental heritage of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. She cautioned that “at this moment there seems to be a turning point in favor of freedom and justice, but there is no assurance that the extremists and fanatics will now be repudiated.”
Mrs. Elsie Elfenbein, executive director of the Council, reported that a field staff has been organized and trained since last October, to visit the 245 communities where there are Council branches, give direct service in the development of local projects, and relay views and experiences between the Sections and the national office. She also reported that new equipment for audio-visual education is being sent to the School of Education of Hebrew University, which the Council supports.
Under the Council’s overseas scholarship program, two students recently completed their training in the United States and returned to Israel–one a specialist in education of mentally retarded children, one a specialist in adult education. Ninety-seven scholarships to students in fields of social welfare and education from Jewish communities in 15 countries have been granted since the program’s inception in 1946, Mrs. Elfenbein said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.