Terming 1966 the beginning of a period of crisis for absorption of immigrants to Israel, Louis Pincus, chairman of the Jewish Agency executive, today outlined the difficulties which the Agency anticipates during the coming year in such absorption.
Speaking at a dinner for United Israel Appeal leaders holding a world council here, Mr. Pincus warned that, if no more funds were received from the United Jewish Appeal and the United Israel appeal than were available in 1965, there could be a shortfall of $23,000,000. He stressed that the Agency’s income had been decreased by $10,000,000 because of the ending of West German reparations payments.
In addition, he said, the Joint Distribution Committee had curtailed its support of Malben, the program for aiding aged and infirm newcomers. Reporting that the Agency was seeking to make up the difference, he stressed that this was costing the Agency an additional $2, 000, 000. Moreover, he pointed out, Israel’s “creeping inflation” meant that the Agency was getting much less goods for the same money.
He estimated immigration this year at 11, 000 families, and said that 90 percent of the newcomers were arriving completely destitute. Dr. Israel Goldstein, chairman of the United Israel Appeal, told the dinner that some of the criticism voiced at the UIA council meeting against some Zionist leaders was that they do not set a personal example in contributions.
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.
