A total of $13,300,000 was spent in 1952 by 345 Jewish Community Centers and Young Men’s Hebrew Associations affiliated with and served by the National Jewish Welfare Board, it was reported today by Irving Edison, president of JWB.
The report noted that 1952 witnessed a further expansion of service to “all age groups without minimizing the Jewish Community Center’s historic concern with youth and children.” Nearly $8,000,000 worth of new center construction was in process during the year, bringing the total value of new building construction in the center field to $40,000,000 in the past five years.
Turning to the JWB program of service to Jewish personnel in the armed forces, the report stated: “For the first time since the opening burst of hostile fire in Korea, the quota of Jewish chaplains was fully met in 1952 and rabbis-in-uniform were serving Jewish and other GI in all branches of the American military with devotion and skill, judgment and maturity, vigor and resourcefulness.” Turning this into an epic achievement,” the report pointed out that “the Jewish group was the only religious denomination in 1952 to fill the armed forces chaplaincy needs.”
To the 150,000 Jewish men and women in service, the report observed, JWB was, in 1952; “more intensively than ever, the gracious, ever-present symbol of home the heartening reminder that the men poised to preserve the peace never left home.”
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.
