$350,000,000 Raised for U.J.A. in New York in Sixteen Drives

Residents of the New York area have contributed $350,000,000 for the rescue, rehabilitation and resettlement of Jewish victims of war and persecution in the 16 campaigns conducted by the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York since 1939, the organization’s president, Monroe Goldwater, reported today to the annual meeting of its board of directors.

Mr. Goldwater announced that this amount includes contributions of $25,000,000 for 1954. The 1955 campaign period will open February 1. At the meeting, Mayor Robert F. Wagner formally inducted the 1955 officers of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York, Inc., the corporate body which sponsors UJA drives in New York. Mr. Goldwater was re-elected president of the corporation, and Sylvan Gotshal was re-elected chairman of the board.

Amplifying the Mayor’s description of New York UJA as “the greatest community campaign effort of its kind in the world,” Mr. Goldwater pointed out that its annual drives usually enlist the participation of 20,000 volunteer workers who obtain some 250,000 individual and group contributions, representing gifts by as many as 1,000,000 people of all faiths. The amount raised each year has averaged $21,875,000. Since 1939, United Jewish Appeal campaigns have made possible the rescue and resettlement of some 2,000,000 victims of Nazi persecution in Europe and of oppression and degradation in the ghettos of Arab countries.

Mayor Wagner emphasized the significance of the humanitarian achievements made possible during World II and the turbulent postwar era by New Yorkers’ contributions to UJA. “The funds you have helped to raise,” he said to the 200 members of the board of directors and campaign leaders present at the meeting, “have gone throughout the world to rescue those in danger, and those in need, rebuild the lives of the oppressed and build new lives for those who were without hope. Your help has made possible one of the most remarkable achievements in modern times, the creation of Israel as a haven of refuge for the homeless and dispossessed and as a bulwark of democracy in the Middle East.”