United Jewish Appeal Five-day Conference Opens Discussions of 1948 Obligations

Discussions on all aspects of the needs facing Jews in Europe and the Jewish State in Palestine in 1948 will begin tomorrow at the five-day national conference of the United Jewish Appeal which opened tonight at the Hotel Chelsea here. More than 1,200 Jewish community leaders from all parts of the country are attending the parley, which is considered the most important in the history of American Jewish philantropy.

It was indicated here today that the two major partners in the United Jewish Appeal–The Joint Distribution Committee and the United Palestine Appeal–are ending the year with a deficit of more than $20,000,000 each. Their requirements next year will be greater in the light of the fact that the creation of a Jewish State opens the possibility for the large-scale transfer of displaced Jews from European camps to Palestine. This will necessitate the raising of large funds for transportation and settlement of these Jews in the Jewish State, as well as for economic reconstruction of the many hundreds of thousands of Jews who will still remain in Europe.

Although the $170,000,000 quota which the United Jewish Appeal had set for this year has not been fully raised, many of the Jewish leaders who arrived here to attend the conference are convinced that a larger goal will have to be set by this conclave for 1948. It is generally conceded that the next two years will require the maximum contributions American Jewry can give for stabilization of the Jewish position in Europe and the building of a Jewish State in Palestine.

A full discussion of current financing and adoption of the national goal for 1948 will take place on Sunday. On Saturday the conference will hear addresses by Henry Morgenthau Jr., Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Moshe Shertok, William Rosenwald, Dr. Joseph Schwartz, Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, Maj. Gen. John H. Hilldring and others.