The B’nai B’rith convention today voted a record budget of $6,900,000 for 1961 activities, allocating slightly more than half to its Jewish youth programs. The budget increase is about $250,000 over the current year’s expenditures.
“This budget reflects B’nai B’rith’s awareness of the fantastic population growth and the fact that this generation of teen-agers and college students shows a far greater receptivity to Jewish ideals and values,” said Maurice Bisgyer, executive vice-president of B’nai B’rith. He pointed out that the increases authorized for B’nai B’rith’s three major youth agencies “are minimal when judged against the requests for additional services made upon them in the Jewish communities.”
In addition, the national expenditure for adult Jewish activities was also increased. Approval was granted to Hillel Foundations to establish its student programs on four additional campuses next year. These are at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., Texas Western in El Paso, The University of Melbourne in Australia and Oxford University.
Israel’s efforts to accelerate the integration of its immigrant population is being hampered by the lack of free secondary schools, Walter Schelitzer of Tel Aviv, president of B’nai B’rith in Israel, told the delegates. “Most of the 500,000 children now in Israel primary schools will lose the opportunity for a high school education,” he said.
Compulsory public education, he emphasized, is now available only to the ninth grade. Secondary education “is limited to the few who can afford its high costs and to the even smaller number who can win scholarships,” he reported.
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.
