Close to 650,000 needy Jews in 31 countries on six continents were helped during 1963 by the member agencies of the United Jewish Appeal, it was reported here today to a meeting of the UJA’s national executive committee by Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, executive vice-chairman, He made the report as leaders of the Appeal and its overseas agencies started assembling here for the opening tomorrow of the UJA’s 26th Annual National Conference.
The Conference will be in session through Sunday at the New York Hilton Hotel with more than 2,000 delegates in attendance from hundreds of cities throughout the country. During this three-day meeting they will adopt a goal for the UJA’s 1964 nationwide campaign and elect national officers.
Rabbi Friedman in his report today emphasized that the largest number helped over the past 12 months were in Israel. There 313,000 new and recent immigrants–accounting for almost 50 per cent of the total aided–received a variety of welfare services ranging from direct resettlement assistance to medical aid and physical rehabilitation.
The UJA executive head noted that the remainder of Jews in need who were helped–totaling 336,000 men, women and children–were largely in European and Moslem lands. Of this number, he explained, 53,000 were in France, Most of these are refugees from Algeria, the rest being refugees from the 1956 revolt in Hungary, and various other refugee movements. He called attention to the resettlement in the United States of Jewish refugees during the year, noting that 7,000 who came here in this and previous years were helped by the UJA agencies.
SHARETT TO SUBMIT JEWISH AGENCY BUDGET ON IMMIGRANTS
The UJA member agencies are the United Israel Appeal-Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc., which is responsible for the transfer to and resettlement in Israel of homeless and oppressed Jews; the Joint Distribution Committee, which aids Jews in social, economic and physical distress in 30 countries, Israel included; the New York Association for New Americans, which helps Jewish refugees to resettle in the New York metropolitan area, as the majority do; and the United Hias Service, the worldwide Jewish migration agency which helps Jews move to countries other than to Israel. These four agencies will present their 1964 budgetary requests at the opening session tomorrow of the Conference.
Moshe Sharett, in his capacity as the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Jerusalem, will submit the Agency’s budget outlining the costs of bringing in, resettling and absorbing another record wave of immigrants from various parts of the world, Charles H. Jordan, director-general for overseas operations of the Joint Distribution Committee will present the 1964 budget of the JDC covering its program of aid to needy and distressed Jews in 30 countries.
Special Memorial tributes will be paid to the late President Kennedy, to former Senator Herbert H. Lehman, to Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland, a founder and former national chairman of the UJA, Fred Forman of Rochester, a national chairman, and other top UJA leaders whose passing occurred over the past year.
The delegates will hear addresses from Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Avraham Harman, Former Israel Prime Minister Sharett, UJA General Chairman Joseph Meyerhoff, Brandeis University president Abram L. Sachar, Rabbi Friedman, and many other distinguished leaders on the American and international scene.
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