National Jewish Welfare Board Adopts $2,457,875 Budget for 1959

A budget of $2,457,875 to finance the 1959 programs of the National Jewish Welfare Board was adopted today by the organization’s board of directors at the final session of a four-day series of meetings devoted to review, analysis and planning for JWB’s activities next year.

The funds will be used for JWB’s services as government-authorized agency for religious and morale programs on behalf of the 150,000 Jewish GI’s and their dependents and patients in VA hospitals, and to help provide for the cultural, recreational and social needs of nearly 600,000 American Jews who are members of Jewish Community Centers and YM-YWHAs affiliated with JWB. Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel of San Francisco, president of the JWB, presided at the board meeting, which was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Direct JWB services to GI’s and their dependents will account for almost half of the 1959 JWB budget. JWB is budgeting $648,900 for its Armed Services Division next year, $438,975 for its Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy, and $47,700 for its Women’s Organizations’ Division. For service to communities at here, it will budget $849,450 to underwrite the activities of its Jewish Community Center Division.

JWB has been extremely active in meeting the critical shortage of trained professional personnel to serve in Jewish Centers, it was reported at the session. The JWB Bureau of Personnel and Training, which has the responsibility for bringing new people into the professional Center field, developing training programs and placing workers in situations where they are needed, has a budget of $91,225 for its work in 1959. There are now 1,500 men and women employed in Centers, but there is also a shortage of at least 200 trained workers in Centers around the country, it was emphasized.