A resolution endorsing the establishment of a United Jewish Appeal Special Fund in 1960 to meet the vast unmet human needs existing in Israel, arising from the absorption of thousands of immigrants who have arrived in Israel in recent years, was adopted here yesterday at the New Jersey State Leadership Conference of the UJA. A recommendation to establish the Special Fund was made by the UJA Overseas Study Mission which returned last week from Israel after completing a survey of the needs there.
In order to help New Jersey raise its standard of fund-raising and assure a better program for the 1960 UJA campaign, a second resolution urged the establishment of a State Campaign Cabinet. The conference named a steering committee to organize this State Campaign Cabinet. Principal speakers at the conference included Morris W. Berinstein, general chairman of the UJA; Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice-chairman, and former Governor Theodore R. McKeldin of Maryland.
Noting that roughly a quarter of a million people of the 1,000,000 brought to Israel since 1946 still need help, Rabbi Friedman reported that there were 65,000 men, women and children still living in tents and shanties, though they were brought to Israel a decade ago.
“These people are living in squalor. It is morally indecent,” Rabbi Friedman said. “We, in this country, have no moral right to sleep one night in peace, if we don’t get the shanty towns cleaned up within a year.” He warned that “if these tent communities ma’abarot) were not cleaned up and if the people still living in slums were not provided or, the humane side of UJA’s work for Israel would not have been accomplished.”
Rabbi Friedman cited another situation that required intense support from the UJA. He described a group of agricultural laborers who, because of the lack of farm equipment and animals, were not able to work their farms productively. Because of this, he said, this group of workers are forced on a public works program 12 days a month for about $30,00 a month. He said that “Israel has no unemployment but it has under-employment” and reported that 100,000 men in Israel currently were living on that type of public works employment.
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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.
