A meeting of the Board of Directors of the United Palestine Appeal held last week unanimously elected Judge William M. Lewis, prominent Philadelphia jurist and communal leader, National Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, to head the campaign for $7.500,000 throughout the country. Dr. Stephen S. Wise, the previous chairman, who was unable to assume the burden of chairmanship a second time owing to the state of his health, was elected Honorary Chairman and a resolution was unanimously adopted at the meeting expressing the gratitude of the organization for his leadership of last year’s campaign.
Federal Judge Julian W. Mack and Rabbi B. L. Levinthal, formerly President of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, were elected Honorary Vice-Chairmen. Hermann Conheim was reelected National Treasurer and Emanuel Neumann who was the General Director last year, was chosen Chairman of the Executive Committee. Bernard Stone was elected Executive Secretary.
Six Vice-Presidents were elected, each of them the leading officer of the organizations associated in the United Palestine Appeal. They are as follows: Louis Lipsky, President of the Zionist Organization of America; Morris Rothenberg, Chairman of the Board of the Palestine Foundation Fund; Judge Bernard A. Rosenblatt, President of the Jewish National Fund; Mrs. Irma Lindheim, President of Hadassah; Rabbi J. Levinson, Chairman of the Mizrachi Organization; and Dr. David J. Kaliski, Chairman of the Hebrew University Fund.
Judge Lewis has been one of the leaders in the work for Palestine in the past four years. He has headed with success most of the campaigns in Philadelphia for the Keren Hayesod and the United Palestine Appeal.
Judge Lewis, who is 42 years old, was horn in Russia, where he received a thorough Jewish education in the Cheder and Yeshiva. In this country, where he arrived in 1898, he was educated in the grammar and high schools of Philadelphia and practiced law until he was elected judge of the Municipal Court in 1923. Prior to this, he was elected for three consecutive terms to the Philadelphia City Council.
In Jewish communal affairs, Judge Lewis has been prominent, having actively participated in the Zionist movement from his youth. He is a member of the B’nai Brith and Brith Sholom, a Director of the Federation of Jewish Charities of Philadelphia and of the Associated Talmud Torahs of Philadelphia. He is a forceful speaker.
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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.
