The American Jewish community is being mobilized to pay up campaign pledges, as Israel’s already weak economy reels under the physical and psychological effects of Iraqi missile attacks.
United Jewish Appeal leaders have launched an emergency cash drive to bring in $400 million by the end of March, in an attempt to help the financially strapped Jewish state meet its new security and social needs in the midst of the Persian Gulf war.
The money, to be collected by local federations around the country, will mainly consist of previously made pledges that originally were to be paid out over a year or series of years.
UJA officials said the exigencies of the times, including the continuing massive immigration of Soviet Jews despite the Gulf war, necessitate the appeal for American Jews to either give more money or pay their outstanding pledges.
The UJA cash drive was mounted because “Israel is now faced with enormous security costs, in addition to the great dangers” of war, which “require the moral and financial support of the U.S. Jewish community,” said UJA President Stanley Horowitz.
The majority of the $400 million is expected to come from payment of pledges to Operation Exodus, the special UJA campaign to assist the large-scale Soviet Jewish immigration to Israel.
But most of the pledges were to be paid out over a three-year period, and federation leaders are asking contributors to fulfill their commitments early. “The real need is for cash money, as distinct from pledges,” stressed Horowitz.
The UJA leader said he expected the response to be overwhelmingly positive, as the missile attacks on Israel and the continuing immigration of Soviet Jews make clear Israel’s great need in this time of crisis.
Plans for the mobilization drive, drawn up by the campaign executive committee, chaired by UJA National Chairman Marvin Lender, aim to have at least a third of the money collected by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, an emergency drive launched Sunday by the State of Israel Bonds Organization had brought in $20 million by Tuesday. Plans are to sell a total of $100 million in Israeli government securities over the next two weeks.
To assist in the sale, the Israel Bonds national headquarters in New York is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Officials said the phones had been ringing non-stop.
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