U. J. A. Opens Annual National Conference; Maps Objectives for 1966

The 28th annual national conference of the United Jewish Appeal opened here tonight to discuss fundraising objectives of the UJA for the coming year. The conference, attended by 2,500 community leaders from all parts of the country, will last four days.

Baron Guy de Rothschild of France is heading a delegation of top Jewish leaders from eight of the other largest Jewish communities in the free world who also will participate. They include Israel M. Sieff of Great Britain, Samuel Bronfman of Canada, Djamshid Kashfi of Iran, Gregorio Faigon of Argentina, Dr. Astorre Mayer of Italy, Dr. Edel J. Horwitz of South Africa, and Dr. Israel Goldstein of Israel. The major budgetary presentations will be made by Louis A. Pincus of Jerusalem, acting chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, and Charles H. Jordan, director-general of the Joint Distribution Committee.

Addressing tonight’s opening dinner, Jacob Blaustein, senior vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, said that the loss of many millions in West German reparations payments has created “a major gap in the global budget of Jewish needs.” Mr. Blaustein, who is also honorary president of the American Jewish Committee, was unable to deliver his prepared address due to the death of his mother, Mrs. Henrietta Blaustein, in Baltimore yesterday. It was read for him by Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, UJA executive vice chairman. Other speakers at the opening dinner were Baron Rothschild, Mr. Sieff; and Sen. Jacob K. Javits of New York. Max M. Fisher of Detroit, UJA general chairman, presided.

“The termination of German reparations funds confronts the Jewish world with major difficulties of great magnitude,” Mr. Blaustein told the UJA leaders. He cited the total loss to Jewish organizations and to the State of Israel, which carries the greatest burden of Jewish immigrant absorption, at $77,000,000 as follows:

1. The Joint Distribution Committee no longer receives some $7,000,000 in annual allocations from German reparations funds. 2. The Jewish Agency for Israel has lost about $10,000,000 in annual payments formerly allocated from reparations the Israel Government received from West Germany. 3. The Government of Israel is no longer receiving $60,000,000 in annual goods and services as material reparations from Germany which formerly made a major contribution to Israel’s economic development.

“It is obvious, therefore,” Mr. Blaustein emphasized, “that the United Jewish Appeal has no recourse but to appeal urgently for increased financial support to make up these lost sums.”

BARON ROTHSCHILD LAUDS U. J. A. CONTRIBUTION TO JEWISH LIFE IN FRANCE

Baron Rothschild, president of the Fonds Social Juif Unifie, the French-Jewish welfare organization, termed the rapid recovery of Jewish communal life in France and other countries in Europe since the end of the Second World War “a miracle made possible by the vast contributions of American Jews to the United Jewish Appeal.”

Mr. Sieff, who is honorary president of the Joint Palestine Appeal of Great Britain, declared that “the Jewish people have a responsibility for Israel’s fullest development.” He reminded the delegates that a national homeland for the Jewish people had been written and talked about by eminent British men and women for almost a century before Dr. Chaim Weizmann persuaded the British Government to promulgate the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which eventually resulted in independent statehood for Israel.

Sen. Javits declared that “Americans do not wish to see the Egyptian or any other people go hungry.” “Yet,” he stressed, “there must be questions raised as to whether American aid will have the ultimate effect of bolstering President Nasser’s international adventuring at the expense of world peace and security and of the UAR’s own domestic economy. I have urged the President that the Administration and the State Department ask these questions and get the answers before further aid is extended to the UAR.”

MILITARY LEADERS OF U. S., BRITAIN AND FRANCE TO BE HONORED

The UJA Conference will commemorate the 20the Anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe and the liberation of the survivors of Hitler’s concentration camps by honoring three great generals who led the armies of the United States, Great Britain and France to victory over the Nazi forces.

The military leaders to be honored, at the Saturday evening banquet session, are former President Dwight David Eisenhower, General of the Army of the United States and Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force; Great Britain’s Field Marshal, The Earl Alexander of Tunis, and General Pierre Koenig, Commander-in-Chief of the Free French Forces. General Lucius D. Clay, Commander-in-Chief of the American Forces in Occupied Germany, will represent Gen. Eisenhower, who is prevented by his illness from attending the dinner. “It is indeed fitting that we pay honor to the commanders who won deliverances of all people from Nazi bondage,” Max M. Fisher told a press conference earlier in the day. “And it is especially fitting for us to mark V-E Day, for in the two ensuing decades the American Jewish community, through its staunch support of the UJA, took the major role in restoring the shattered communities of Europe, saving and rebuilding 3,000,000 Jewish lives, bringing 1,373,000 homeless Jews of Europe and hopeless Jews of Moslem lands to haven in Israel, and resettling another 363,000 in other free lands.”

The press conference was attended by the top Jewish leaders from the overseas countries who answered questions on the status of their communities. Some of these communities have and are playing a major role in extending aid to less fortunate Jews elsewhere, while others still continue to require major help.