Flying into 70 airports across the country on Dec. 27 and 28 to collect checks from some 100 community campaigns, the United Jewish Appeal’s fleet of 11 Operation Pony Express planes helped achieve a 1978 cash total of $277.5 million, the highest since the Yom Kippur War. The peacetime year record, announced here today by Stanley L. Sloane, UJA national cash chairman, represents, an increase of more than $5 million over last year’s total. “Operation Pony Express was part of a $19 million collection day, “Sloane said, “and was a vital factor in attaining the American Jewish community’s best overall annual cash performance since 1973.”
Mitchell Rasansky, who created the airborne collection concept in 1977 and was the chairman of the 1978 operation, reported that, in magnitude and coverage, the Dec. 27-28 sweep doubled last year’s effort. “Credit for the success of the operation,” he said,” goes to leaders in every section of the country who donated the planes, fueled them at no cost to UJA and participated actively in the collections.”
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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.
