Claim by City That It is Spending $15m for Jewish Programs Termed Cruel Hoax

City Halls’ assertion that the administration was spending “a minimum of $15 million for parochial Jewish programs” was described today as “a nefarious lie” by the Association of Jewish Anti-Poverty Workers, S. Elly Rosen, executive director of the group, charged further that the city’s claim to be financing a $100,000 manpower-training program and a “close to $600,000” aid-to-the-under qualified program specifically directed toward Jews was “apparently a figment of somebody’s imagination.”

The information on the aid to Jewish poor was reported to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Jan. 5 by Dr. Marvin Schick, administrative assistant to Mayor John V. Lindsay specializing in Jewish affairs. He said then that the $15 million total was several times more than was being expended by all other American cities combined, Dr. Schick clarified today that the $15 million he cited does not originate in to from city funds but largely from federal and state funds granted to the city for such projects.

SCHICK: $15M ‘HONEST ESTIMATE’

Because of a diffusion of agencies and programs, he said, exact figures were unavailable. But he insisted that the $15 million figure was an “honest estimate” that in fact was probably “low.” The aid to Jews takes the form of job training, manpower training, youth services, assistance to the elderly and to addicts, day-care centers, assistance to children and “dozens and dozens of things I don’t even know about,” the mayoral assistant contended, “We’ve been charged with so many things that are false,” he added.

In calling Dr. Schick’s and the city’s claims a “cruel hoax against poor Jews,” Rosen alleged that “The city of New York is not giving one penny” toward the $1.5 million aid this year to the Jewish aging under the auspices of the Jewish Agency for Services for the Aged (JASA). Dr. Schick contended to the JTA that the city was contributing 12.5 percent of the funds and the federal government 75 percent, with the remaining 12.5 percent approved by the state government but actually to come from private sources because the state will not actually contribute.

ROSEN: NO SHOW PROGRAMS

Rosen said he had tried to substantiate the existence of the alleged aid programs with all relevant city agencies and with Dr. Schick himself, but was refused the information. He said of the alleged youth-aid programs: “They apparently have no sponsor, no administrative agency, no exact funding, no method of application or participation.” Rosen challenged the city to prove that its aid-to-Jewish-poor programs exist and to provide a breakdown of services and expenditures. “Should these programs exist we would be delighted,” he said. “But they do not, and we shall not be taken in.”