After a 10-day-study tour in Israel recently, the members of the Small City Executives Institute, representing communities throughout the United States and Canada, adopted a resolution pledging increased support of community campaigns on behalf of Project Renewal.
The action followed meetings with leaders in the Project Renewal neighborhoods of Hatikvah, Kiryat Shmona and Ramle, where Institute members saw evidence of the activation of the worldwide Jewish partnership program designed to rebuild and renew disadvantaged neighborhoods – rescuing the 45,000 adults and 200,000 children who have been left out of the mainstream of Israeli life
“Our visit was extraordinarily successful,” said l van Schonfeld, chairman of the Institute and Executive Director of the Jewish Federation of Allentown, Pa. “Witnessing the absorption of Soviet Jewry; meeting with leaders in Project Renewal neighborhoods, and studying the effects of a devastating inflation on Jewish Agency human support programs, we are able to return to our cities and explain from first-hand experience why so much more is needed for the 1980 campaign, plus an extra pledge for Project Renewal.”
The Institute program also included meetings with Irving Bernstein, executive vice president of the United Jewish Appeal, Loon Dulzin, chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization executives, and with directors of community and absorption centers. Caucusing at the end of their mission, the executive directors increased their pledges for the 1980 campaign by an average of 25 percent and pledged an additional $15,000 toward Project Renewal. The program was organized by the Jewish Agency’s Institute for Leadership Development in Jerusalem.
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