Sephardi Jews to Aid UJA

Announcement of the first general fund-raising campaign to be conducted by Sephardi Jewish leaders, focusing on gaining the broad support of the New York Sephardi community on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal, was made by William J. Levitt and Herbert Tenzer, chairmen of the 1973 campaign of the UJA of Greater New York.

In announcing the fund-raising project, Levitt and Tenzer said: “In many areas of Greater New York, UJA receives strong support among Sephardic Jews. However, there are other areas where we have so far scarcely been able to scratch the surface. With the results of Israel’s latest population census showing that Sephardic Jews now constitute a majority of the population there, and the magnificent record of the UJA in bringing more than 750,000 Sephardim to Israel, another 300,000 to France and other free havens, there is good reason to believe that the Sephardi Leadership Council of the United Jewish Appeal will prove most effective in mobilizing support among the 80,000 Sephardim in the Metropolitan area for the 1973 UJA campaign.”

The first function of the Sephardic Leadership Council, which is being held in cooperation with the American Sephardi Federation, will be its UJA Inaugural Dinner on April 30 at the New York Hilton. This will be followed by a reception on May 2 given in honor of New York Sephardi bankers and financiers by the UJA’s Bankers and Brokers Division, and a Sephardi women’s tea at the Fifth Avenue home of Mrs. Ezra Zilkha on May 3.

Guest of honor at the Inaugural Dinner and the Wall Street reception will be Denzil C. Sebag-Montefiore, a leading London financier and philanthropist, and former president of the World Sephardi Federation. Sebag-Montefiore is a fifth generation collateral descendant of Sir Moses Montefiore, who made outstanding contributions to improving the political and economic status of oppressed Jews around the world, and was one of the world’s greatest philanthropists.