Cash! Now! $100 million in the next five days. This was the call of the United Jewish Appeal, the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds and Israel Bonds after hearing personally from Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban and by telegram from Jewish Agency acting chairman Leon Dulzin.
The UJA is contacting all communities in efforts to raise $100 million in cash during the next five days. All donors not fully paid up on their 1973 pledges are asked to make payments immediately and others will be asked for cash advances on their 1974 pledges. Jewish communities were linked by a 4-way telephone hook-up today to hear messages from Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz on behalf of the Israeli government, Paul Zuckerman on behalf of UJA, Max Fisher for the CJF and Jewish Agency, and Edward Ginsberg for the Joint Distribution Committee.
The UJA and CJF leadership met yesterday in response to the war situation and to a cable from Dulzin in Israel which said:
“People of Israel totally mobilized in war to repulse enemies on two fronts and making supreme sacrifices to secure borders and safeguard population. At same time immigration continues at accelerated pace and Jewish Agency faced with tremendous problems and responsibilities. Imperative you launch massive drive for total immediate payment of all outstanding pledges and daily transfer of all cash. Equally vital UJA reach every Jew to demonstrate solidarity with people of Israel. We are encouraged by reports of dramatic campaign responses in communities throughout the world. We know American Jewry will again play historic role in these critical hours convinced of the justice of our cause and trusting in Israel’s rock and redeemer. We are confident of our victory.”
ROTHBERG URGES TOTAL MOBILIZATION
At the same time, Eban addressing rabbinical groups in more than 60 cities in the U.S. and Canada through a nation-wide telephone hookup called on Jews to respond with “indignation and solidarity” and urged the fullest support of the Israel Bond campaign “to prove that Israel is not alone.” Sam Rothberg, Israel Bonds general chairman, who also participated in the telephone hookup announced that emergency meetings will be held tonight in more than 800 synagogues throughout North America. Rothberg, urging rabbis to mobilize their congregations, said: “In every hour of danger the Jews of the United States and Canada have been Israel’s strongest ally…. We can do no less today.”
Meanwhile the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York reported an outpouring of contributions unmatched since the Six-Day War. The donations began at Yom Kippur services Saturday afternoon as news of the outbreak of war in the Middle East reached congregations at prayer in New York City, Long Island and Westchester. The switchboard at New York UJA headquarters was receiving more than 200 calls an hour at midday yesterday. It had been opened on a 24-hour basis shortly after sundown ended the Day of Atonement.
Some $242,000 came from the first five synagogues in Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens reporting the results of appeals for emergency support of the humanitarian programs financed by the United Jewish Appeal for immigrants in Israel and Jews in danger and distressed zones overseas. Former Congressman Herbert Tenzer, a 1973 campaign chairman of the UJA of Greater New York, welcomed the funds that poured in over the weekend as the first proceeds of a drive to raise $35 million this week which New York UJA has undertaken. “Again, as we have done since the days of the Exodus, we are calling upon all members of the household of Israel to stand up and be counted,” Tenzer declared.
ZUCKERMAN: EMERGENCY SUPERSEDES AGGRAVATIONS
Zuckerman appealed to the American Jewish communities in a nation-wide telephone hookup to “stand firm with the people of Israel by demonstrating our support concentrating within the next few hours, not days.” Urging a massive outpouring of cash for “the humanitarian programs which we support and which must continue during this critical period.” he declared: “I know that in every Jewish heart, there is a deep love for Israel that in an emergency supersedes all the petty aggravations we live with day-to-day. And this love must be translated into an act of solidarity with the people of Israel now.”
Meanwhile an emergency proclamation was issued yesterday by the New York Board of Rabbis in support of the 1973 campaign of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York. The proclamation, signed by Rabbi William Berkowitz, Board president, declared that the renewal of full-scale warfare in the Middle East “confronts the Jewish people, both in Israel and throughout the world, with the gravest of emergencies.”
In an effort to meet this emergency the Board summoned all congregations in New York “to take the following actions with all possible speed: to convene emergency meetings of their memberships to rally support for the people of Israel in their battle for survival; and to initiate speedy and thorough fund-raising drives aimed at obtaining from every one of their members a contribution of all-out generosity to UJA’s-Israel Emergency Fund.”
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.
