Young Jewish community leaders–graduates of leadership training programs–have made a greater impact in community campaigns this year than ever before, both as leaders and as workers, the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds reported here today.
The report states that 12 communities have established Leadership Awards to give recognition to young people of outstanding promise, who have shown active interest in Jewish community work. The cities making these awards are: Baltimore, Newark, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, Kansas City, Dayton, Elizabeth, Norfolk, Richmond and Montreal.
In Los Angeles, the Jewish Federation-Council organized a group of young business executives, aged 26 to 40, into a Community Service Committee. Through the activities of this committee, about 140 of its members have been placed in important positions on boards and committees of Jewish and other agencies. The placement program resulted from discussions held at monthly meetings, visits to agencies, interviews of members with executives of agencies, and other direct contacts with Jewish institutions.
The Community Service Committee is not a separate fund-raising division in the Jewish Welfare Fund campaign, but each individual is expected to the contribute generously to the Fund and to work in the campaign organization–in the division in which he belongs. Not only has the QSC program given new leaders to the fund-raising campaign, but it also stimulated veterans and attracted young men to community service on a planned basis, bridging the gap between two generations.
In Detroit, the Jewish Welfare Federation’s Allied Jewish Appeal campaign serves as the instrument for systematic leadership recruitment and training. A Junior Division there is governed by a board of directors of 36, annually elected. The president is appointed to the Federation board of directors. The Division also has representatives on the three Federation budgeting and planning divisions.
The three main program areas for the Junior Division include: recruitment of young persons; education for communal service, and participation in the annual campaign. Agencies are provided with the opportunity to evaluate Junior leadership for their boards through actual contact which includes Junior liaison to their boards and joint participation in budgeting and planning.
The report of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds gives particular credit to the role played by young leaders in the local campaigns in Akron, Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, Memphis, Minneapolis, Toronto, Waterbury and in a number of other communities.
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