Problems of Jewish Communities in U.S. and Canada Discussed at Cjfwf Assembly

Disoussions on the major problems which Jewish communities in the U.S. and Canada will face this year began today at the opening session of the four-day General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Wolfare Funds, which is meeting at the Ambassador Hotel here.

The first major project discussed was reconstruction of the administrative and the executive committees of the United Jewish Appeal so as to include representatives from local communities, including New York, to the extent of one-third of the total membership of the two UJA bodies.

The project, which is likely to be approved, has already been endorced by the United Palestine Appeal and the Joint Distribution Committee, the two principal partners of the U.J.A. It was presented for discussion by a committee of which Abe Srere of Detroit is chairman, and Martin M. Cohon of Chicago, secretary.

The plan provides that one-third of the representatives on the U.J.A. executive organs shall be from the U.P.A., one-third from the JDC and one-third from local Jewish communities.

The approximately 1,000 Jewish leaders, representing 800 communities in all parts of this country and Canada, who are attending the General Assembly today, heard a report from Dr. Philip Klein of the New York School of Social Work outlining the role of the government in providing financial aid for indigent and disabled persons. Dr. Klein pointed out that while as a result of government aid, the financial assistance aspects of private social case work agencies have lessened, “personal difficulties for which people require skilled assistance have become more and more the area of concern for case word.”

SAYS U.S. INSTITUTIONS MUST REPLACE THOSE LIQUIDATED BY NAZIS

The delegates also heard a report revealing that there are now 295 YMHA and Jewish community centers with a membership of 427,000. Philip Klutznick, chairman of the Center Division of the National Jewish Welfare Board, who delivered the report, emphasized that these institutions represent an investment on the part of American Jewish communities in excess of $40,000,000 and provide social, athletic and cultural facilities for Jewish youth and adults.

“The destruction of numerous Jewish communities of the world,” Mr. Klutznick said, “has left us, save perhaps for Palestine, as the most important repository of the Jewish tradition and the main source of hope for its survival. If we are to be true to the real challengs, we in America will not only seek to relieve the physical distress of our brethren throughout the world, but we shall seek the means to provide for their spirit and mind as well.

“By the same token, unless we create and nurture these instrumentalities that will bring about an era of typical American Jewish literature and art, which will help lift America’s culture to a level that will correspond with the position of our nation in the affair of the world, we shall have failed ignobly to meet the challengs of the times,” Mr. Klutznick declared.

Nominations for officers of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds for 1947 were presented today by the Nominating Committee. Stanley C. Myers of Miami was nominated president; Julian H. Krolik of Detroit, secretary; and Sylvan Gotshal of New York, treassurer. The following were nominated for vice-presidencies: Harold J. Goldenberg of Minneapolis; Robert J. Koshland of San Francisco; William Rosenblatt of New York and Samuel S. Schneierson of New York.

DISCUSS ROLE OF WELFARE FUNDS, FEDERATIONS IN COORDINATING LOCAL PROGRAMS

The role and responsibility of Jewish welfare funds and federations for financing, planning and coordinating local social welfare and recreational programs was the center of discussion during the afternoon session. Participating in the discussions were Norman S. Geetz of New York, Jerome N. Curtis of Cleveland, Mrs. Charles Lakoff of Detroit, Julian Fresman of Indianapolis and Sidney Goldmann of New Jersey.

Addressing a meeting of the CJFWF board, Mr. Myers, the insumbent president, emphasized that a genuine partnership between the Jewish national agencies and the communities is important. “They cannot and must not be seperate and apart,” he said, adding that more and more Jews in America are becoming community-minded father than agency-minded. “They are seeing that only through community approach through cooperative teamwork – can any dent be made on the core of the problem,” he said. He also pointed out that “anti-Semitism exists where people live – right in our communities – and that is where it must be fought.”

Issac L. Asofsky, executive director of the HIAS, at a dinner spansored by his organization, told the delegates tonight that at least 600,000 of Europe’s Jews want to emigrate from that continent, and that “emigration is the only constructive and permanent solution to the problem facing the major part of the shattered romnant of European Jews.”

He reported on his recent tour through Europe and said that the desire of European Jews to emigrate is prompted by their inability “to constrain themselves to remain at the scens of their miseries, living in hostile surroundings amidst people who participated in and condoned the mass slaughter of Jews.” He refuted allegations that the displaced persons were “unfit for immigration.”

Mr. Asofsky revealed that his organization spent more than $860,000 in 1946 for transportation of “those who could not advance their own fare.” In addition, American relatives and friends turned over $2,125,000 to the HIAS for payment of transportation for 5575 family units.