Nyc Federation Says Poverty Workers Spread Misinformation

Sanford Solender, executive vice-president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, charged today that the Association of Jewish Anti-Poverty Workers, who demonstrated outside Federation headquarters Monday disseminated misinformation which he said was a disservice to the New York Jewish community and which jeopardized the welfare of the people most dependent on Federation services.

Elie Rosen, head of the Association of Jewish Anti-Poverty Workers, said the demonstration was a protest against the lack of Federation service to the elderly poor Jews in the slums and the “non-sectarian spending of Jewish money while 400,000 Jews in New York suffer.”

Solender said that traditionally the Federation has allocated 50 percent of its funds for direct services to the Jewish poor and in recent years this has been increased to set up neighborhood centers in the Far Rockaways, the Bronx and the Lower East Side; to expand scholarship funds and provide vocational training and employment programs for the Orthodox community in East Flatbush, Boro Park and Canarsie in Brooklyn. He also listed various projects for the Jewish elderly.

“No funds raised go to any agencies other than those affiliated with the Jewish Federation, which provides more than 95 percent of all Jewish-sponsored services in the city,” Solender said. “These programs are intended primarily to serve members of the Jewish community who are the principal recipients of the extensive services of Federation agencies.” Similar charges against the Federation have been made, repeatedly by the Anti-Poverty Workers Association.