Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz, executive vice-chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, announced today that since the year’s start $55,137, 500 in cash has come forward from the American Jewish communities on the UJA’s added 1954 effort to float a five-year loan for the hastening of refugee absorption and agricultural development in Israel.
Dr. Schwartz announced also his expectation that the total of cash remittances would soar to $61,000, 000 by the end of this month, leaving little more than $6, 000,000 outstanding on the $67,627, 500 pledged toward the loan effort to date. The loan effort is in addition to the UJA’s regular nationwide campaign for 1954.
The UJA executive head announced these totals as he departed for a 10-day consultation visit in Jerusalem with leaders of the Israel Government and the Jewish Agency, the latter the direct beneficiary of the UJA loan. The Israel Government is benefitting from the loan indirectly as the Jewish Agency, under Israel law, converts its loan dollars into Israeli pounds. Dr. Schwartz was accompanied to Jerusalem by Morris W. Berinstein of Syracuse, N. Y., a national campaign chairman of the UJA.
In announcing the loan’s cash status, Dr. Schwartz pointed out that sums remitted to the UJA represent bank borrowings negotiated by local Jewish welfare bodies which were given the UJA’s corporate guarantee in advance assuring repayment to their lending institutions. Since the year’s start, he noted, 143 communities have come into the loan effort, with 79 of these communities responsible to date for the more than $55, 000,000 cash remittance.
U.S. JEWISH COMMUNITIES LAUDED FOR MAKING THE LOAN POSSIBLE
Dr. Schwartz termed the loan’s progress “exceptionally gratifying” and lauded the communal welfare bodies for their “acceptance of the loan idea and their over-whelming response to it. ” He noted that flotation of the loan “is unique in American fund-raising history” and “represents an extraordinary innovation in meeting philanthropic needs. “
“The funds made available through the loan, ” he declared, “have already been of major importance in financing the Jewish Agency’s program of immigrant absorption, and at the same time they have had a measurable impact in easing the seriousness of Israel’s short-term obligations.” He urged continued support of the loan project in the months ahead and said that attainment of all outstanding pledges “will help substantially in setting Israel firmly on the road to economic self-sufficiency. “
He gave this partial list of cooperating cities and the major sums remitted by them: New York, $20, 000, 000; Chicago, $3, 500, 000; Philadelphia, $3, 300, 000; Cleveland, O., $2, 500,000; Boston, $2,250, 000; Detroit, $2, 000,000; Baltimore, $1,500, 000; Washington, D. C., $1,500,000; San Francisco, $1, 000, 000; Pittsburgh, $1,000,000.
Also, Cincinnati, $800,000; Miami, $750,000; St. Louis, Mo., $750,000; Rochester, N. Y., $700, 000; Milwaukee, $650,000; Denver, $625,000; Buffalo, $600,000; Dallas, $500,000; Providence, $500,000; Hartford, $500,000; Columbus, 0., $450,000.
Also, Atlanta, Ga., $400, 000; Houston, Tex., $400,000; Worcester, Mass., $400,000; New Orleans, $350, 000; Syracuse, N. Y., $350,000; Omaha, $325,000; Albany, N. Y., $300,000; Indianapolis, $300,000; Louisville, $300, 000; Memphis, $300,000; Paterson. N.J., $300, 000; Seattle, $300,000; Tulsa, $300, 000; Allen-town, Pa., $250,000; Passaic, N.J., $250,000; Trenton, N. J., $250, 000; Wilkes-Barre, Pa., $250, 000.
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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.
