The 1950 nationwide campaign of the United Jewish Appeal was officially proclaimed here today at a two-day conference attended by 600 key leaders from 39 states and addressed by Attorney General J. Howard McGrath, Henry Morgenthau Jr., general chairman of the U.J.A., Drew Pearson, noted newspaper columnist, and Moses A. Leavitt, executive vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee.
A total of $6,400,000 was contributed to the national drive by Jewish communities and individuals. A check for $2,500,000 to the U.J.A. was forwarded from Chicago; Boston gave $500,000; Washington, D.C., $500,000; Kansas City, $300,000; Miami, $250,000; Rochester, New Haven and Cincinnati, $200,000 each. A check for $200,000 on behalf of Lou Boyar of Los Angeles and his associates in the construction business was presented, as was a $75,000 gift from Senator Herbert H. Lehman and Mrs. Lehman.
The keynote of the 1950 drive of the United Jewish Appeal, which must meet financial requirements for resettlement and rehabilitation activities throughout the world, was sounded by Attorney General McGrath who said that “the work of the United Jewish Appeal is related to a timetable that may mean life or death for many innocent human beings.” The Attorney General emphasized that “your efforts in helping Israel cope with the great immigration program and in aiding that new nation to achieve a sound and progressive structure of democratic government represents a truly American obligation.”
Asserting that the United Jewish Appeal is “a cause which must go directly to the heart of the entire American people,” Mr. McGrath said that “its mission and its accomplishment are inseparable components of a blueprint of the future in which all men will be free and equal and all will enjoy the fruits of their labor in peace and security.”
The Attorney General said that aid to Israel represents “an obligation that must be shared by all men who are interested in the survival and growth of democracy.” He cautioned that the financial situation in Israel will be precarious “if you and the American people as a whole do not assume a proper share of the task of immigration and settlement. Any serious setback to the democracy of Israel now,” Attorney General McGrath declared, “would be a setback to democracy everywhere–not merely to the Jewish people.”
SIX-POINT PROGRAM FOR 1950 OUTLINED BY MORGENTHAU
Mr. Morgenthau outlined six major objectives of the 1950 campaign of the U.J.A. as follows: 1. Provide homes for 85,000 flow immigrants who are now living in temporary reception camps in Israel. 2. Provide for the immigratin and settlement of a minimum of 150,000 additional newcomers in Israel this year. 3. Establish 125 new agricultural settlements to speed the absorption of newly-arrived refugees in the Jewish state. 4. Rehabilitation and relief for a minimum of 250,000 Jews in Western and Eastern Europe, including 63,000 children. 5. Medical aid and child care for tens of thousands of the 800,000 Jews living in poverty and need in Moslem lands. 6. The adjustment of 25,000 Jewish refugees who are expected to enter the United States this year.
Brighter prospects for emigration from the Iron Curtain countries were described by Mr. Leavitt, who said, “at this moment the prospects of considerable emigration from Eastern European countries to Israel are brighter than they have been in several months past. The Polish Government is permitting the departure of emigrants up to September 1. I can reveal to you that already since the first of the year some 6,000 Jews have left Poland for Israel. If all goes well and if the funds are available, it may be possible for 20,000 to leave.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
