Trustees Approve Unification of Boston Federation and Combined Appeal

Merger of the Associated Jewish Philanthropies of Boston with the Combined Jewish Appeal of Greater Boston, unifying the central budgeting and fund-raising agencies of the Boston Jewish Community, was approved last night by trustees of the two agencies. The recommendation will be presented for final ratification to the full memberships at the annual meetings of the organizations next September.

Lewis H. Weinstein, Boston attorney and past president of the Combined Jewish Appeal who served as chairman of the committee on merger created in 1955, told the trustees that the merger would eliminate “more than confusion” in the minds of Boston Jews about the areas of responsibility of each organization.

He said that the merger committee had learned that the existence of two groups created “needless misunderstanding on certain policy decisions, budgeting practices and relationships with suburban communities.” He said it also made for duplication of membership on the boards of trustees and committees. He noted that nationally there had been a “steady trend to integrate federations with fund-raising organizations into a single central body responsible both for fund-raising and overall planning of domestic, overseas and Israeli philanthropic and organization needs.”

Simon J. Helman, president of the AJP, and Louis P. Smith, president of the CJA, expressed their support of the principle of merger. Founded in 1895 as the Federation of Jewish Charities, the AJP served not only as the social planning and budgeting agency for Boston Jewish health, welfare, education and recreation agencies but also conducted its own fund-raising until 1940.