The four day annual National Conference of the United Jewish Appeal, attended by more than 2,400 delegates from all parts of the country, concluded its sessions here today with the proclamation of a nationwide campaign for $109,400,000 and the election of Max M. Fisher, of Detroit, as UJA General Chairman.
The total 1965 goal of $109,400,000 set by the delegates is two-fold in nature–$71,000,000 for the ongoing global programs of aid to refugees and distressed Jews and $38,400,000 as a UJA Special Fund to meet the special costs of critical immigration resettlement and absorption programs in Israel and related needs.
Mr. Fisher succeeds Joseph Meyerhoff of Baltimore, who had served four years as the UJA General Chairman. With this election, he will hold two of the top humanitarian posts in the United States. In May of this year, he was elected president of Detroit’s United Foundation, the nation’s largest community chest organization.
Mr. Fisher has been a leader in the national councils of the UJA for the past decade and takes his post as 1965 General Chairman after serving as 1964 Associate General Chairman; He holds numerous top posts in other civic and social welfare organizations–both Jewish and general service groups. An outstanding figure in Detroit’s Jewish community, he served as president of Detroit’s Jewish Welfare Federation from 1959 to 1964 and now is chairman of its executive committee. He has long been a leader in the Federation’s annual Allied Jewish Campaign, of which the UJA is a major beneficiary.
In his acceptance address today, Mr. Fisher thanked the delegates for “entrusting me with the direction of the UJA,” and outlined the following three major objectives for his administration: 1. Raise the levels of individual giving; 2. Increase the funds derived by UJA from local Jewish community campaigns in all parts of the country; 3. Reinforce the consciousness that “the UJA is the most important secular Jewish activity in which an American Jew can be engaged.”
CHIEF JUSTICE WARREN SAYS JEWISH GENEROSITY SHOULD BE EMULATED
Addressing the 2,400 Jewish key community leaders last night, U. S. Chief Justice Earl Warren said that “all the relatively affluent people of the world” should emulate their worldwide acts of generosity. These acts, the Chief Justice pointed out, helped Israel in 17 years to move ahead four centuries socially and economically, and were instrumental in saving and rebuilding the lives of 3,000,000 Jewish victims of war and oppression.
“You have manifested a spirit of charity, without which this world would be a barren place indeed,” Chief Justice Warren said. “There are so many things essential to a good society which a government by its very nature cannot supply. True charity with the warmth and love which go with it is one of these things.”
Hailing what has happened in Israel and American Jewish philanthropy’s part in it “as indeed a miracle,” the Chief Justice said; “But would it not be a miracle of miracles if Israel turned out to be a pilot plant, showing how at last the blight of grinding poverty which condemns so many people everywhere to unsatisfactory lives can be abolished? The success of this effort suggests that the problem of the emergent nations and the underdeveloped areas in the world is not beyond solution at all, if we decide to solve it.
“If the Negev could be made to blossom through voluntary gifts by individuals, cannot the Sahara be made to blossom through equally voluntary gifts of great nations?” the Chief Justice pointed out. “If cities, factories, railroads, aero planes and steamships could be made available to a young state, through those following their generous impulses toward people they regard as their kin, would it not be a magnificent example of universal brotherhood if the example could be translated into a worldwide plan to abolish ignorance, backwardness, and unnecessary human suffering, through the munificence of all the relatively affluent peoples of the world?”
The Chief Justice was the principal speaker at the Conference’s banquet session. Other speakers were Israel’s Ambassador to the U. S., Avraham Harman; Edward M.M. Warburg of New York, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee; Joseph Meyerhoff, a UJA General Chairman; William Rosenwald of New York, and Dewey E. Stone of Boston, both UJA honorary chairmen. The banquet session was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Joint Distribution Committee.
Mr. Warburg, who is also an honorary chairman of the UJA, who presided, told the leaders that “to those who have been the victims of man’s inhumanity to man, JDC brought the affirmation–your reaffirmation–of man’s humanity, of brotherhood, of the imperishable existence in the world of righteousness and justice. Entire Jewish communities have been reborn because of your dedication,” he said.
Mr. Meyerhoff, who completed his fourth term as UJA general chairman, was presented with an antique Kiddush cup, in a ceremony honoring him for his “unceasing devotion and inspiring leadership.” Mr. Meyerhoff, in accepting the award, termed it “the most significant honor I have ever received.”
ISRAEL IMMIGRANT NEEDS SET AT $75,600,000 FOR 1965
Louis A. Pincus, treasurer of the Jewish Agency for Israel, told the delegates that the year 1965 will see a continuation of the record wave of Jewish immigration which has brought 250,000 men, women and children into Israel over the past four years.
The minimal needs of the Jewish Agency program total $75,600,000 for next year, Mr. Pincus said. He pointed out that the largest single items in that budget are for the transportation and care in transit of penniless immigrants en route to Israel; for their reception and other forms of initial assistance and for immigrant housing.
Mr. Pincus warned that “we have reached a situation where an increasingly great share of the cost of immigrant absorption is falling upon the Israeli citizen because the participation of the Jewish people outside of Israel is decreasing.”
He said that during the period of heavy immigration in the past four years and again this year, “economic progress in the United States has been remarkable, Notwithstanding this, contributions to the United Jewish Appeal for immigrant housing, agricultural resettlement and other services vital to the social integration of these newcomers to Israel have remained at a plateau level, “In view of the tremendous burden the people of Israel must bear for defense, for development and other domestic needs, this is historically and morally unfair,” Mr. Pincus emphasized.
Joseph Meyerhoff underscored the plea by Mr. Pincus for American Jews to assume a greater share of immigrant absorption costs in Israel. “We who are blessed by living in the free and affluent society of America,” said Mr. Meyerhoff, “must take a larger responsibility in constructing a Great Society for the 1,500,000 uprooted Jews who we helped bring to the haven of Israel, We cannot allow the ratio of absorption costs to remain so unbalanced–two-thirds by Israel’s hard-pressed people and only one-third by UJA supporters in America.”
Mrs. Rose L. Halprin, chairman of the American Section of the Jewish Agency for Israel, called the continued immigration to Israel of 250,000 persons during the four-year period, “one of the most amazing migrations” in the history of the world. “It is a tribute,” she said, “to the determination of the Jews of Israel to keep the doors open to all Jews who need and seek a haven in the Jewish State, as well as to the generosity of the Jews of the world whose financial aid has helped make this immigration possible.
RABBI FRIEDMAN SAYS AMERICAN JEWS WILL MEET RESPONSIBILITIES
Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, UJA executive vice-chairman, hailed the “vision and statesmanship of the American Jewish leadership which created the United Jewish Appeal in 1939, and which a continuing core of dedicated leadership has forged into history’s greatest instrument of Jewish survival and Jewish reconstruction.
“Over the past 26 years,” he said, “UJA funds have helped save and rebuild the lives of more than 3,000,000 Jewish victims of war and oppression; resettled 1,335,000 in Israel and an additional 350,000 in the United States and other lands of the Western Hemisphere, and helped restore scores of Jewish communities in Europe shattered by the Nazi occupation.
“In the light of these past achievements, we can be assured that we have the determined leaders, we have the volunteer army of devoted workers and contributors, and we have a mature and historically conscious American Jewish community that can meet the critical tasks that lie ahead.”
Charles J. Bensley, president of the newly created UJA Israel Education Fund, declared that Israel’s best hope for closing the serious cultural gap that exists between the children of immigrants from backward North African and Asian lands, and those coming from the socially advanced countries of Europe and other areas lies in increasing opportunities for the former to receive secondary school education.
Mr. Bensley, a former member of the New York City Board of Education, pointed out that secondary school education in Israel, unlike elementary schooling, is neither free nor compulsory. He said the UJA has embarked on a five-year capital fund campaign for $127,600,000 to construct and equip 72 academic comprehensive and vocational high schools and to provide 15,000 scholarships for students in secondary schools.
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.
