Interested in saving as many Jews as possible from countries behind the Iron Curtain where the anti-Jewish campaign shows no sign of abatement American Jews are now making larger contributions to the United Jewish Appeal than last year, it was revealed at a press conference here today by Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, UJA executive vice-chairman.
Dr. Schwartz pointed out that while in many individual cases increases in gifts over 1952 ran from a minimum of 20 percent to higher than 300 percent, the recent UJA Inaugural Conference at Miami Beach showed a basic average increase in contributions of 20 percent over one year ago. “It is surely possible, ” he added, “that this average will rise both as the campaign develops and as the emergency deepens, but the certainty at this time is that contributions in all brackets will make a maximum effort in 1953.”
The UJA leader reported also that “local campaigns in many areas are already well under way, ” and that this speed-up in the campaign time-table represents “a spontaneous reaction to events. ” It is significant, he stressed, that in these areas where the campaign is already several weeks old, the level of giving is uniformly higher than in the first period of fund-raising one year ago.
Dr. Schwartz emphasized his confidence that communities will honor their precampaign budgeting commitments to make maximum sums available to the United Jewish Appeal, “especially in the light of events that are more ominous than at any time since the Hitler period.”
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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.
