Philadelphia Allied Jewish Appeal Closed with $4,161,394 Raised

The 1961 Allied Jewish Appeal closed last night at a dinner at the Warwick Hotel with a total of $4,161,394. More than 300 AJA leaders and workers hailed the result, reported by Bernard Weinberg, campaign general chairman.

“This has been a great campaign in the best tradition of the AJA and the Philadelphia community,” Mr. Weinberg declared. “The fact that in the face of difficult economic conditions and many other obstacles it has come within a couple of percentage points of last year’s total is tribute to the determination of our volunteers and the charitable spirit of our people.”

The campaign brought in over $400,000 in new and increased gifts, Mr. Weinberg pointed out, which counterbalanced inevitable losses due to deaths, removals and other circumstances, Edwin Wolf 2nd, president of the Federation of Jewish Agencies, which sponsors the Allied Jewish Appeal, hailed the results and paid tribute to Mr. Weinberg and his associates. Mr. Weinberg has accepted re-appointment to head the 1962 AJA drive.

“A campaign in which there are 60,000 individual gifts from a community of 300,000, not to mention some 30,000 more represented in organization contributions, amounts to a tremendous democratic plebiscite, ” Mr. Wolf said. “Once again our people have voted overwhelmingly for Jewish life and for all the things AJA stands for in this community.”

Donald B. Hurwitz, executive director of the Federation, declared that the 1961 AJA had helped to establish a sound basis for developing a program of planning and fund-raising to meet increasing community responsibilities. He pointed to the need for large additional funds with which Federation can carry on research and development as well as finance modernization, new building and equipment as required.