A plea addressed to the Government of Israel to ##rb by “prompt and unequivocal action the multiplicity of splinter campaigns” in the United States, which are a “threat to the priority of the United Jewish Appeal drive,” as made public over the week-end by Herman L. Weisman, acting national chairman of the United Palestine Appeal.
Recognizing that the campaigns were mostly motivated by a desire to help Israel, Weisman stressed that “these multiple fund-raising efforts, for relatively small goals, are nevertheless substantial and in cumulative effect, present a diversionary and competitive assault upon the U.J.A. campaign.” He also charged that the campaigns were “mushrooming to create chaotic conditions because organizations and authorities in Israel have failed to exercise restraint in giving authorization for special campaigns which collectively work great prejudice to the U.J.A. in its effort to raise its full goal.”
The U.P.A. leader labeled the multiple campaigns “an abuse” and urged “officals of Israel, in the government, in the Jewish Agency and in other organizations” to put a halt to these activities “if they are to avert the calamity of weakening the primacy of the United Jewish Appeal.” At the same time, Weisman urged community leaders represented on the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds to limit campaigns for local requirements in view of Israel’s desperate need. He said that the emergency situation in Israel created by the vast influx of immigrants “makes it imperative that local campaigns for community needs be kept within reasonable bounds.”
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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.
