More than 3,000 men and women are engaged as full-time professionals in Jewish communal agencies and institutions throughout the United States, Bertram H Gold, executive director of the Jewish Community Center of Essex County, New Jersey, today told the 54th annual meeting of the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service. Mr. Gold said that these professionals were employed as social workers with family and children’s agencies, social planners, educators and fund-raisers.
He appealed to professional workers to “function more actively as citizens in our American and Jewish life,” declaring: “Because of our professional role, we hesitate to identify ourselves with any specific aspect of Jewish life other than the professional job we perform in our agencies, and so our place in society as Jewish citizens becomes emasculated.”
A new slate of officers was elected at today’s session. They are: President, Philip Bernstein, associate director of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds; first vice-president, Judah Pilch, executive director of the American Association for Jewish Education; second vice-president, Roland Baxt, executive director of the Federation Employment Service; treasurer, Jerome Saltz, budget, director of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York; and, secretary, Meyer Fichman, executive director of the Jewish Centers Association of Los Angeles.
At a conference session held jointly with the Association of Jewish Community Relations Workers, there was discussion both of the opportunities for improving inter-group relationships and of possible dangers aggravating inter-group tensions stemming from the services and programs of Jewish welfare agencies and from their participation in non-sectarian activities.
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.
