New York U.J.A. Raises $6,000,000 at Dinner Marking Launching of 1950 Campaign

Approximately $6,000,000 was raised last night for the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York at a dinner at the Plaza Hotel at which the New York division of the U.J.A. launched its 1950 campaign. More than 600 community and business leaders attended the dinner. The campaign this year is expected to exceed the total of $40,000,000 raised in New York for the U.J.A. in 1949.

Addressing the dinner, Henry Morgenthan Jr., general chairman of the U.J.A., said that the announcement by the Iraq Government last week that Jews in that country desiring to emigrate must depart within a year, presented a new emergency to Israel. This new emergency, he emphasized, cannot be met by Israel without substantially larger funds from the United Jewish Appeal. He predicted that the great majority of the Jewish community of Iraq, comprising 100,000-150,000 persons, would undoubtedly go to Israel.

“We here in America will decide how many Iraqi Jews will be able to find freedom in 1950,” Mr. Morgenthan said. “What is needed now is a new airlift of human rescue such as the Operation Magic Carpet that succeeded in transferring 42,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel during the past six months. Unless we act promptly to provide the funds for a new Operation Magic Carpet for the Jews of Iraq, they will be doomed to continued suffering and misery.

“The critical problem we face in Iraq requires that we not only expand the immigration program, but that we immediately empty the immigrant camps in Israel where 85,000 men, women and children are now living in tents and baryacks. A large population in these miserable camps in Israel is not only a dangerous bottleneck in the way of continued entry, but a serious drain on the economy of the country. What has happened in Iraq proves again that the era of emorgencies is not over for the Jewish people or for the United Jewish Appeal,” he pointed out.

Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, acting on behalf of the five New York U.J.A. campaign chairmen, presented to Samuel D. Leidesdorf, treasurer of New York U.J.A. since its inception, the first Annual Chairman’s Award “for outstanding service and devotion to the cause of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York.” Louis Nizer, spokesman for the delegation of New York businessmen who last month surveyed the needs to be met in Israel by U.J.A. funds, delivered his report to the community at last night’s dinner. Other speakers were Jerome I. Udell and Edward M.M. Warburg, two of the campaign chairmen of the New York U.J.A., and Mr. Leidesdorf.