Tribute to the rabbinate of America is paid in a letter from Major General William H. Arnold, chief of chaplains, addressed to the National Jewish Welfare Board.
Emphasizing that “an appreciative War Department and public is eternally indebted to you,” the letter, in which Major General Arnold asks the Jewish Welfare Beard to procure for the U. S. armed services 36 additional chaplains at the earliest possible moment, says:
“We should like to state that even the additional thirty-six would not quite fill all the unfilled requisitions on hand for Jewish chaplains for overseas and replacements in this country. We appreciate, however, the burden which has been placed upon the rabbinate of America and the splendid manner in which it has responded to the needs of the Army. In order to avoid too great additional a strain, we are, therefore, asking for only the irreducible minimum number which we feel necessary to provide coverage of Jewish personnel. Ours has not been an easy task and might have been an impossible one were it not for the patience, understanding, wisdom and tact of groups like your own.”
Frank L. Weil, president of the National Welfare Board, today stated that the decision of the JWB to increase its 1945 budget from $1,520,340 to approximately $1,800,000 was necessary to meet urgent requests from overseas areas for various services to Jewish members of the armed forces.
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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.
