U.J.A. Survey Commission Will Fly to Israel for Conferences with Government Leaders

A group of 12 Jewish communal leaders from all parts of the U.S. will leave for Israel to confer with Premier David Ben Gurion, Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan and other government leaders on the immigration and financial needs which the Jewish state will face next year, it was announced today.

The group, which has been designated as the Survey Commission of the United Jewish Appeal, will leave Idlewild Airport on Oct. 15. Included will be Jewish communal leaders from New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Peoria, Ill.

Harry Greenstein, now in Germany as Advisor on Jewish Affairs to U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy, will join the Commission in Paris and travel with it to Israel. The members of the Commission, who are expected to spend ten days in Israel, are Jack D. Weiler, chairman of the U.J.A. of Greater New York, and Mrs. Weiler; Joseph Mazer, whose family contributed $500,000 to the 1949 U.J.A.; Henry C. Bernstein, executive director of the N.Y. United Jewish Appeal; Samuel Rothberg of Peoria, national chairman for Initial Gifts of the U.J.A.; Julian B. Venezky, also of Peoria, national chairman for regions; Samuel H. Daroff, president of the Allied Jewish Appeal of Philadelphia; Joseph Meyerhoff, chairman of the 1949 Jewish Welfare Fund of Baltimore; Sol Luckman, president of the Cincinnati Welfare Fund; Melvin Dubinsky, St. Louis leader; and Henry Montor, director of the national U.J.A.

Meanwhile, the U.J.A. announced that its National Conference to draw up plans for next year’s campaign will be held during the three-day period beginning Nov. 25. The announcement was made by William Rosenwald, Judge Morris Rothenberg and Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, national chairmen of the U.J.A. The conference for the 1949 drive was held in January of this year. The sessions of the National Conference will be held in Atlantic City, and will hear comprehensive reports on the needs and achievements in Israel in the upbuilding of the new state as a center of resettlement and rehabilitation for hundreds of thousands of homeless Jews from Europe and North Africa.