Any concern that fund raising for Israel would be hurt by the turmoil in the administered territories was not borne out by the results of United Jewish Appeal Super Sunday fund-raising telethons held recently in more than 70 communities.
“There has been no drop-off in contributions by UJA-federation contributors” called during the telethons, according to Neal Hurwitz, national director of UJA Super Sunday programming. Almost half of the 150 communities planning Super Sundays held their events Jan. 24.
The telethons’ target contributors give less than $1,000 annually or are not active in other UJA fund-raising events. According to Hurwitz, UJA “fully expects to raise our goal of $40 million” for Super Sunday programming.
“We were surprised that there was so little negativity,” explained a fund-raising official about the Super Sunday success. “But we have an educated and aware donor group who have been to Israel and know the situation. How many new gifts, new prospects, we get is an unknown, but non-contributors already have their reasons for not giving.”
At New York’s Super Sunday, on Feb. 7, volunteers had been assigned to handle complaints about Israel, whose treatment of Palestinian Arab rioters in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank has drawn international criticism–including from some U.S. Jewish groups.
FEW COMPLAINT CALLS
But the volunteers handled few such calls and were eventually reassigned, according to a spokesperson for the UJA-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.
The New York telethon garnered 18,992 pledges for a total of $3,238,841–$119,673 above last year’s total–said the spokesperson.
In Atlanta, Super Sunday volunteers raised $531,000 on 3,800 pledges Jan. 10, an increase in dollars of 19 percent over last year.
According to Noah Levine, director of community relations of the Atlanta Jewish Federation, the figures exceeded the federation’s goals by more than $200,000.
Only a few people called to express “interest” in the situation in the administered territories, he said.
Cities reporting Super Sunday increases in donations of more than 10 percent included Boston, Cincinnati, Kansas City and Philadelphia.
The most dramatic increase was in Miami, where the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Super Sunday raised $2.6 million Jan. 24, an increase over last year of $1 million, or 62 percent.
UJA funds are raised in cooperation with more than 600 local Jewish fund-raising campaigns, about a third of which are run by Jewish federations.
Of the locally raised funds, about half–$372.2 million in 1987, a record for a non-war year–are earmarked for programs in Israel and other countries.
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.
