Underlining the urgent need for large sums of money to meet the resettlement and rehabilitation needs of Jews in Israel and elsewhere the national annual conference of the United Jewish Appeal today set a minimum budget of $203,684,577 for its component agencies. At the same time, the 800 delegates from all parts of the country unanimously drafted Edward M.M. Warburg to succeed Henry Morgenthau, Jr., as general chairman of the 1951 drive.
A resolution stressing the “now or never” urgency of the immigration situation of large numbers of Jews in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East called for an all-out effort to raise unprecedented sums and to speed the delivery of cash to the U.J.A. A three-point program for speeding up the delivery of cash was approved: 1. All contributors were asked to make advance payments on their campaign pledges for 1951. 2. Local drive committees were urged to borrow from local banks in anticipation of the results of the 1951 drive. 3. An intensive year-round collection effort organized on the same basis as a regular fund-raising drive was also suggested.
In another resolution the conference urged communities to launch their 1951 campaigns at the earliest possible date. This is vital, the resolution said, “because the agencies of the U.J.A. are engaged in a program of migration and rehabilitation aid in Israel and elsewhere which in the present world emergency must be enlarged to rescue and resettle maximum numbers of Jews while they still can be reached and saved.”
SILVER PLAQUE PRESENTED TO MORGENTHAU
Other resolutions praised the “memorable record of accomplishment” of Mr. Morgenthau, who it is reported will head the forthcoming four-point Israel fundraising program in this country, and the “insight, tenacity and selfless devotion” of Henry Montor, who resigned after 11 years as director of the U.J.A., to administer the new Israel financial program. A silver plaque was presented at a luncheon session today to Mr. Morgenthau in honor of his four years of service as the general chairman. Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, presenting the plaque, lauded the former Secretary of the Treasury as “a great American and humanitarian, who served his nation in times of crisis with tremendous distinction.”
Speaking at an earlier session, Mr. Morgenthau stressed the key importance of Israel as an ally of the democratic forces. He declared: “I forvently believe that the reconstruction of Israel and its consolidation economically and militarily as a strong arm of democracy and as an ally of the United States in our common objective of human freedom and world peace represents a major obligation of American Jewry. In these days of anxiety and crisis for the democratic world, Israel must be strengthened to preserve the Jewish people and to help preserve all the values and all the values and all the ideals which are so dear to mankind.”
At the same session Moshe Sharett, Israel Foreign Minister, told the delegates that “Israel would do everything in its power to save Jews for freedom so long as fear, misery and homelessness remain their lot in other parts of the world.” The Foreign Minister declared that Israel’s immigration and resettlement programs must be dictated “by the dire need of the Jewish masses which stream into the country. And stream into Israel they will so long as they will continue to be driven by misery and by fear, so long as they will continue to be drawn to Israel by the promise, the hope of a life of freedom, dignity and productivity.”
Describing Israel’s efforts to achieve production to facilitate the country’s ability to absorb the hundreds of thousands of newcomers pouring into the Jewish state, Mr. Sharett said: “Israel is crying out for technical know-how. It is crying out above all for capital to be invested in production, to provide immediate employment to people, to reduce our dollar shortage, to increase our exports, to reduce our imports by manufacturing things on the spot for the local market. That is the crying need. It is a challenge, it is a constructive challenge. Let us hope it will be answered in increasing measure.”
400,000 JEWS WILL ASK J.D.C. AID NEXT YEAR
Describing the past achievements as well as the 1951 needs of the Joint Distribution Committee, of which he was director-general until he accepted the post of executive vice-chairman of the 1951 U.J.A., Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz estimated that a minimum of 400,000 Jews in Europe, Moslem lands and Israel would require assistance from the J.D.C. next year. In addition, he said, the J.D.C. would have to assist about 25,000 persons in DP camps and other areas to migrate to the United States and other western lands.
In this connection, he emphasized that while the United Palestine Appeal would henceforth be responsible for transportation of immigrants to Israel, the J.D.C. would continue its financial support for migration to countries other than Israel. Dr. Schwartz added that the J.D.C. must continue its relief, medical aid, educational and economic help for additional tens of thousands of Jews who live under “indescribably wretched conditions” in a half-dozen Moslem lands, including countries in North Africa and the Near East.
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, who presented the $203,000,000 budget of the U.J.A. agencies to the conference, reported that the U.P.A. will need $174,000,000 next year to transport 200,000 new immigrants to Israel and resettle them there. This figure includes over $82,000,000 for vastly expanded agricultural programs and $15,000,000 for the transportation of immigrants to Israel, formerly financed by the J.D.C. The latter group will need $22,350,000 next year, while United Service for New Americans, the third partner in the U.J.A., will need $7,288,577.
C.J.F.W.F. PRESIDENT URGES U.J.A. PRIORITY IN DRIVES
Julian Freeman, president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, said that “we must continue our emphasis on the primacy of the U.J.A. as a channel of philanthropic aid to Israel. All other philanthropic campaigns for Israel must be considered as supplementary to the U.J.A.”
Mr. Warburg, accepting the chairmanship, declared “the new Jewish state represents a beachhead of democracy in the Near East and it is urgent we do all in our power to strengthen it.” In addition to drafting Warburg and naming Dr. Schwartz, the conference elected the following officers for the 1951 campaign: William Rosenwald, Rudolph G. Sonnenborn and Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, national chairmen; and I. Edwin Goldwasser and Jacob Sincoff, co-treasurers.
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