With community campaigns on behalf of the United Jewish Appeal now in full swing from coast to coast, reports received at U.J.A. national headquarters in New York disclose that contributions are running considerably ahead of last year.
In Los Angeles, where the United Jewish Welfare Fund got off to an early start, the $3,000,000 mark was passed last week, at a meeting addressed by Vice-President Parkley. Contributions are running about 20 percent ahead of 1949 in Los Angeles. San Francisco opened its drive at the biggest fund-raising dinner in the community’s history. At the dinner, the community’s largest contributors responded with gifts that topped last year’s figure by 24 percent.
The community leaders in the Tri-State area, which takes in the Western part of Pennsylvania, Northern Ohio and West Virginia, marked the second anniversary of the state of Israel by presenting $757,000 in checks to U.J.A. general chairman Henry Morgenthau, Jr., at a gala birthday celebration in Pittsburgh. They pledged that additional cash remittances would bring the total to $1,000,000 shortly.
The Allied Jewish Campaign of Detroit celebrated Israel’s anniversary by passing the $2,000,000 mark in its 1950 drive at a campaign meeting addressed by Dr. Dov Joseph, Israel’s Minister of Supply and Rationing. In Minneapolis gifts went nearly 15 percent over 1949. Kansas City opened its campaign with the largest initial total in its history. St. Louis is another major community that is exceeding last year’s record.
The nation’s capital formally launched its campaign with gifts totalling close to $1,000,000–a 15 percent increase over the previous year. Senator Herbert H. Lehman, veteran leader of the United Jewish Appeal, was the guest of honor and principal speaker at the opening meeting. Newark, which was the scene of the opening meeting of the campaign of the Essex County United Jewish Appeal, responded by topping last year’s mark by 15 percent. Newark has passed the $1,000,000 mark.
Bridgeport set a new mark when at an opening dinner addressed by Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, U.J.A. national chairman, and Julian B. Venezky, chairman of the U.J.A. national campaign cabinet, local contributors topped last year’s figures by 33 percent. “The same pattern of increased giving in 1950 is developing in communities of all sizes,” the U.J.A. report says.
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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.
