The National Women’s Division of the United Jewish Appeal raised $2.5 million at two recent internationally-attended luncheons here. From Canada, Great Britain, South America and the United States 114 women gathered to listen, learn and collect funds to redress the enormous and unprecedented human needs resulting from the Yom Kippur War.
Yaakov Avnon, executive director of the Israel Education Fund and formerly the Israeli Ambassador to Sierra Leone, reviewed the political and humanitarian questions arising from the war. “Israelis are now looking to the future with hope,” he said, emphasizing the encouragement and strength derived by the people of Israel from the response of world Jewry. Avnon praised the structure and organization of the meeting which he felt would be an inspiration to other women around the country. Where $5000 was the minimum gift, there were three donations of $250,000, one of $300,000 and several gifts of $100,000 and $25,000.
The luncheon was hosted by Mrs. Merrill Hassenfeld (Providence, R.I.) and Mrs. Carl Leff (New York) at the Palm Beach home of Mrs. Samuel G. Rautbord (Chicago, Ill.). Elaine Siris, chairwoman of the National Women’s Division, related “the loss all of us have suffered,” as she described her visit to the Holy Land immediately following the cease-fire. Summarizing the success, Mrs. Hassenfeld beamed: “It’s quite an event for women to raise this kind of money independent of their husbands’ generous contributions.”
A second luncheon for 81 women was hosted at the home of Mrs. Robert M. Cummings of Montreal, Canada. Some $335,000 was contributed, and many women increased their gifts when they were resolicited. The guests from 15 international communities talked with Mrs. Louis Pincus, social worker, researcher, prominent author, and wife of the late chairman of the Jewish Agency.
Poignantly, Mrs. Pincus communicated to the audience how grief must not overwhelm the progress that is to be shared: “Society cannot give back to any woman whose husband or son has been lost; it cannot give back a father to a child. But one thing we must be able to do–create whatever we can so that the young widow can withstand this, that she can at least know that her children will not suffer more than necessary because they are going to grow up fatherless. In concrete terms this means a widening of our social services, of the educational and the psychological…services for the treatment and assistance of these families.”
The $2500-minimum luncheon was organized by Mrs. Joseph Perlman of New York City and Mrs. Eugene Ribakoff of Worcester. Mass.
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