The more than 2000 delegates to the 45th General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds were urged tonight by CIF President Jer-old C. Hoffberger to carry their legacy forward to create an even greater heritage for future generations.
“We have contributed individually and collectively to the welfare of our communities, countries and the world.” Hoffberger said in the keynote address to the five-day conference which ends Sunday. “But as the most blessed among diaspora Jews, we must demand more.”
Hoffberger noted that Jews comprise only three percent of the population of the United States and four percent of the electorate. But. he said, they have achieved an impressive “collective record as leaders, not only in Jewish causes but in all causes involving welfare, human rights and social justice–locally and nationally. It is this record, this leadership, which adds credibility to our claim that Israel has a moral right to live.”
The CJF leader urged the Jewish community leaders from the U.S. and Canada to always keep in mind five principles: maintaining and nourishing Jewish cultural identity–that identity which rejects mediocrity; providing more meaningful involvement for young people; reaching the “un-affiliated” segments of the population; maintaining moral pressure on the federal government regarding its policy on unemployment and the need for a national health care program; and continued moral pressure on the issues of Israel and Soviet Jewry.
CALLS FOR JEWISH CIVIL SERVICE
Hoffberger called for the establishment of a North American Jewish civil service composed of highly-motivated, trained and skilled worker for the welfare of the community. “CJF has already initiated this effort with its Federation Executive Recruitment Program which aggressively recruits and screens qualified candidates committed to a lifetime career in community organization,” he said. He reported that 40 young people are participating in this program assisted by CJF fellowships or student loans followed by guaranteed placement.
“I can think of no greater legacy to leave future generations than a vital Jewish community–supported, strengthened and sustained by a Jewish civil service which demands the most of themselves and thus infuses this fierce dedication to others. This is our greatest guarantee against mediocrity,” he said.
Hoffberger called upon both the CJF and the local federations to act as a unifying force in assuring continued financial and moral support for Israel. “Israeli courage at Entebbe inspired the American people and taught our Jews that, as in the case of Nazi Germany, neither a neutral passport nor a nation would protect those with Jewish surnames. Only Israel would come to the rescue.”
PREPARE TO DEAL WITH CHANGES
In remarks prepared for delivery tomorrow, Philip Bernstein, CJF executive vine-president, called on local federations to be prepared to deal with the changes that will come in the decade ahead. He said that new programs will be needed “it assure the Jewishness of the Jewish family and home, the quality of Jewish education and especially the highest quality of Jewish educators, new patterns of closer cooperation with synagogues, comprehensive community services for the elderly and greater involvement of university faculty and students in community responsibility.”
Bernstein declared that support for Israel will have to go beyond resisting the attacks upon the Jewish State to helping it “build the model society of social justice, intellectual greatness, scientific excellence and spiritual liberty that are its true meaning and purpose.”
He urged federations to build future programs and services on the current base of a network of over 200 federations covering 800 communities with 95 percent Jewish population in the U.S. and Canada, raising close to a half billion dollars a year and subsidizing a worldwide complex of agencies and services expending $2.5 billion annually. Bernstein called on all federations to raise an additional half billion dollars in the next decade and to create and support new programs.
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.
