The United Jewish Appeal’s emergency cash drive to collect $40 million to aid Ethiopian Jews airlifted to Israel has already received close to $30 million, said Gerald Nagel, a UJA spokesman.
The $40 million is part of at least $130 million that American Jewry is being asked to provide to help Israel with the first-year costs of absorbing over 14,000 new Ethiopian immigrants.
The Ethiopian Jewry campaign will be part of Operation Exodus, the continuing campaign to assist Soviet Jewish immigration and absorption.
UJA, the national fund-rasing arm of the Jewish community which raises funds in partnership with local Jewish federations, is working to raise $450 million this year for Soviet Jews. That sum is in addition to the more than $420 million raised last year in the first phase of Operation Exodus.
The regular 1991 campaign, meanwhile, has so far raised over $600 million. UJA officials expect this year’s regular campaign to exceed last year’s, which raised $765 million.
“It’s a lot of money,” said Marvin Lender, UJA national chairman, in a statement.
“But the needs in Operation Exodus and the regular campaign are clear, and Jews are generous people, and you know what? We’re going to raise it,” he added.
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