The three-day annual national conference of the United Jewish Appeal concluded here today with the adoption of a decision to raise a $100,000,000 special fund for the UJA–“over and above” the regular 1959 nationwide UJA campaign–to care for thousands of newcomers pouring into Israel from Eastern Europe and to start re-housing 1000,000 earlier immigrants still living in makeshift shanty towns.
More than 1,200 Jewish community leaders from all parts of the nation attended the conference. The delegates re-elected Morris W. Berinstein to his second consecutive term as UJA general chairman to lead its 21st yearly campaign.
Besides voting to conduct the special fund drive, the delegates charted plans to raise the maximum possible amount through the regular UJA to meet the needs of UJA beneficiary humanitarian agencies requiring more than $105,000,000. Through both the special fund and the proceeds of the regular campaign, the UJA seeks to provide urgently needed migration, resettlement, rehabilitation and welfare aid to more than 630,000 persons in Israel, 24 other countries abroad and the United States during 1959.
Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, UJA executive vice-chairman, announced that the campaign now closing had benefitted more than 540,000 Jews in need throughout the world in 1958. He said the 630,000 who look to the UJA for help in 1959 come under these major programs:
1. Jewish immigrants coming to Israel from Eastern Europe. “They have been arriving at the rate of several thousand a month since early Fall, “he said,” We have no way of knowing how long they will continue to come in such numbers, but we must be certain that all who can come will get the necessary help.”
2. Speeding housing to move 110,000 immigrants out of make shift huts.
3. Help provide farm machinery, irrigation, livestock and power needed to advance 130,000 immigrant farmers in Israel–including scores of thousands not yet fully absorbed, and the orphaned, aged and handicapped.
4. Help for 220,000 Jews in need in countries other than Israel–including some 15,000 Jewish repatriates to Poland from the Soviet Union; more than 100,000 Jews in Moslem lands, the majority of them children, and thousands of Jewish refugees from North Africa, Egypt and Hungary still waiting in European reception points for permanent havens.
Dr. Dov Joseph, treasurer of the Jewish Agency which carries out the absorption of Israel’s immigrants, reported to the delegates on the upsurge of immigration to Israel from East European countries. “For the past few months Jews have been arriving in very large numbers in Israel from an East European country which for some years has kept its doors virtually closed to such emigration, “he declared.
Dr. Joseph pointed out that “outstanding progress has been made by Israel in receiving and absorbing the tidal wave of immigrants who have arrived since its establishment in 1948” but stressed that some 250,000 of the nearly 1,000,000 immigrants who have come into the country still require major assistance before they can be considered completely absorbed.
Sen. Herbert Lehman took up Dr. Joseph’s plea and urged support of the special fund to finance needs over and above the regular budgetary requirements of the UJA’s three constituent agencies. “We cannot ask the people of Israel to do more than they are doing to receive and absorb the steady stream of our fellow Jews coming into Israel,” Mr. Lehman declared. “They more than have their hands full with many staggering burdens, including the burden of defense imposed upon they by hostile and implacable neighbors.”
The UJA’s constituent agencies are the United Israel Appeal, which remits funds to the Jewish Agency, the Joint Distribution Committee, which works in 24 overseas countries and conducts a specialized welfare program for aged and handicapped immigrants in Israel, and the New York Association for New Americans.
WARBURG, BERINSTEIN APPEAL FOR GENEROSITY OF AMERICAN JEWS
Edward M. M. Warburg, opening the UJA dinner-session last night, appealed to American Jewry for maximum giving to the United Jewish Appeal in 1959. Morris W. Berinstein, UJA general chairman, who presided, made a similar appeal. He called upon American Jewish communities to draw inspiration from the fact that the people in Israel have voluntarily launched an emergency loan for $11,000,000 to help defray emergency immigration costs through the month of April.
Mr. Berinstein warned that a “catastrophic financial situation” endangers the Jewish Agency’s humanitarian programs since the mounting of backlog of unmet immigrant absorption needs now totals millions of dollars. “With all the outstanding generosity of American Jewish communities, which has helped make possible the transformation of the majority of Israel’s 920,000 immigrants into self-reliant, productive citizens,” Mr. Berinstein stated, “the Jewish Agency has never received the yearly income to keep pace with the ever-increasing tasks of immigrant resettlement.”
Appeals to American Jewry for increased contributions to the UJA in 1959 were also voiced by William Rosenwald, a national UJA chairman, and Samuel Rubin who served this year as honorary chairman of the UJA’s 1958 Rescue Fund. The delegates heard detailed reports of the UJA-financed Joint Distribution Committee’s overseas operations by Moses A. Leavitt, JDC executive vice-chairman; Charles H. Jordan, director general of JDC overseas operations; Louis D. Horwitz, JDC director in Israel, and Samuel L. Haber of JDC’s Geneva headquarters.
Shimon Peres, Director-General of Israel’s Defense Ministry, addressing last night’s session, said that a series of external and internal changes has improved Israel’s position on the international scene. He added that Israel’s people “hope that all these changes will finally enable us to become a full partner in the communities of the free world, dedicated to deterring aggression wherever it appears.”
ISRAEL DEFENSE OFFICIAL SAYS NEW GENERATION LOOKS UP TO U. S. JEWRY
Mr. Peres described the coming into prominence of the new generation in all phases of Israel’s life as a favorable internal change. “This generation,” the Israel leader told the 1,200 delegates, “looks upon you not only as admiring brothers, but also as understanding partners. They look to you not just for material assistance, but for the spiritual support which exists among those who stand shoulder to shoulder–facing and meeting the same historical challenges.”
U.S. Senator Jacob Javits said a decline in United Arab Republic President Nasser’s movement to take over “dictatorial leadership of the Arab world” presents the free world with “unparalleled opportunities” for taking the initiative in the Middle East. He urged action for pushing to success President Eisenhower’s proposal for a Mideast regional economic plan and a Mideast Development Association.
Special awards in the form of silver-bound Bibles, bearing inscriptions of recognition from Prime Minister David Ben Gurion of Israel for their long years of devoted service to the saving and building of Jewish lives, were presented to two UJA leaders. The recipients were Adolph Kiesler of Denver, re-elected chairman of the UJA national Campaign Committee, and Joseph Holtzman of Detroit, elected as a UJA honorary chairman.
Besides re-electing Morris W. Berinstein to lead the 1959 Appeal as UJA general chairman, the delegates also elected Joseph Holt man of Detroit as UJA honorary national chairman; Albert A. Levin of Cleveland as UJA national chairman; Max M. Fisher of Detroit and Joseph M. Mazer of New York, UJA Special Fund chairmen; Robert W. Schiff of Columbus, O., UJA Big Gifts chairman, and Melvin Dubinsky of St. Louis as UJA National Cash chairman. Other national officers were re-elected.
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