U.J.A. Gets $10,300,000 to Assure Removal of Jews from Morocco

Leaders of the United Jewish Appeal from all parts of the country came forward here today with checks for the UJA totalling $10,330,000 to help the Appeal top a $10,000,000 cash goal it had set 45 days ago following receipt of pleas by Jews in disturbed Morocco for the earliest possible removal to Israel. The checks were presented to Edward M.M. Warburg, president of the UJA, and Sol Luckman of Cincinnati, the Appeal’s national cash chairman. The United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York led the list of campaign affiliates with $1,500,000, followed by Chicago and Los Angeles with $1,000,000 each.

The huge dollar outflow came as the high point of a farewell meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for a 60-member UJA overseas study mission, The mission is leaving tomorrow from New York via El Al Israel Airlines to survey priority Jewish immigration, settlement, welfare and rehabilitation needs in Western Europe, Israel and North Africa. It will return early in November to report its findings, which will help the UJA plan the balance of its 1955 campaign, and its drive for 1956. The 60-man mission is being headed by William Rosenwald, general chairman of the UJA.

Mr. Warburg, speaking as a member of the mission, told the meeting that receipt of the $10,330,000 cash proceeds” will enable the UJA mission to give a direct assurance to the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem that it can go ahead at full speed with its plan to bring an additional 8,500 Moroccan Jews to Israel during the rest of October and all of November,” The UJA president noted that UJA funds had helped to move 3,000 Moroccan Jews to Israel in September and 1,500 during the first week of October. He pointed out in this connection that these Jews were the most directly affected during the August disturbances in Morocco and had appealed to both the UJA and the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem for the swiftest possible help in moving them to Israel.

Mr. Luckman, as the Appeal’s cash chairman, asked Mr. Warburg and other members of the mission to convey to the UJA’s overseas beneficiaries an assurance that “the United Jewish Appeal is on an emergency footing and will continue in the most vigorous way to mobilize additional multi-million dollar sums for the saving of endangered Jews and the strengthening of Israel’s ability to take them in.”

ROSENWALD OUTLINES PLANS OF U.J.A. OVERSEAS STUDY MISSION

Mr. Rosenwald, who heads the mission, said the investigation will focus on two phases of the current crisis–the situation of the Jews of North Africa and the sharply rising needs of Israel’s people in the face of mounting immigration form Morocco and Tunisia. The mission will spend the first leg of its overseas survey attending the 10th Annual Country Directors’ Conference of the Joint Distribution Committee. This meeting will convene next Sunday at UNESCO House in Paris and will hear last minute reports on the status of Jews in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

The mission is scheduled to arrive in Israel on October 20th and will go into conference immediately with leaders of the Israel Government and the Jewish Agency. Following conclusion of the mission’s work in Israel on October 28th, a sub-committee will go into North Africa for an on-the-spot investigation and assessment of Jewish relief and emigration needs.

In addition to Mr. Rosenwald and Mr. Warburg, other prominent members of the UJA mission include: Dewey D. Stone of Brockton, Mass., a national chairman of the UJA and national chairman of the United Israel Appeal, the latter a constituent agency of the UJA; Samuel H. Daroff of Philadelphia, chairman of the Appeal’s national campaign cabinet; Jack D. Weiler of New York, a national chairman of the UJA; Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice-chairman of the UJA, and others.