Page Six
THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, February 1, 1946
Detroit Service Group Reorganizes
Federation Plans Local $2,000,000 U J A Drive
By WILLIAM FRIEDMAN
President, Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit
and
0
Mrs. Jackson to Head
New Women's Division
IRVING W. BLUMBERG
President, Detroit Service Group.
..
With the completion of the 1945 War Chest drive
last fall, the Detroit Community Fund and the Allied
Jewish Campaign are re-establishing their prewar or-
ganizations for future campaigning.
This change-over in organization requires that the
Detroit Service Group (1) renew its participation with
the general community in the annual fall campaign of
the Community Fund in behalf of the Fund Agencies;
and (2) re-create its organization and conduct the Allied
Jewish Campaign in the spring of each year for those
agencies and causes depending on the Allied Jewish
Campaign for support.
It is now 20 years • since the founding of the Jewish
Welfare Federation and the Detroit Service Group in
1926. The plan of setting • up at that time a "double
barrelled" Federation, combining central planning, co-
ordination, fund-raising, and budgeting of Detroit's re-
sponsibility for local as well as for national and overseas
needs, has been proved sound in conception and ef-
fective in operation.
• * *
Assignment of the fund raising and budgeting func-
tions to the Detroit Service Group resulted in the de-
velopment of trade and professional committees which
conducted highly successful campaigns. The Service
Group operated on the proved theory that committees
built around the occupational interests and associations
of their volunteer members produced the best results.
During the 1at four years, workers and con-
tributors. joined eagerly in the : special, over-all war-
time organization and campaign under War Chest
auspices. They performed their duties satisfactorily.
With due modesty and tact, they contributed their
special knowledge and skill gained over the years
in Jewish campaigns, the strengthening and
improving of the city-wide, inter-denominational
drive of the War Chest.
It must be admitted that the size and scope of the
War Chest drive did - not always permit the utiliza-
tion of .previous resources, the employment of our full
manpower, or, . from our standpoint, the assignment
at all times of a prospect slip to the most effective
solicitor. However, these facts were equally appreciated
by us and by the War Chest. They respected our. pati-
ence and understanding in the situation and we, in
turn, were sympathetic of their- special problems that
made it impossible to impose our pattern of organization
on a total community with a not too similar outlook, a
somewhat different tempo of activity and a consider-
ably different body of experience.
* * *
Offsetting these limitations was the evidence of
good community relationships contained in the War
Chest's invitation to us to join in a great, war-time pro-
ject. The Chest consolidated our forces for a common
cause and left us that much more of our time to en-
gage in additional essential war programs and services.
All in all. it was a wholesomely constructive experience.
The lessons we learned, the experiences we
acquired and the friendships we formed should •
serve us well in the future.
Because of the national decision to liquidate the
program of the National War Fund agencies, the War •
„Chest movement, of necessity, has been dissolved as of
December 1, 1945.
We are called on once more to organize an Allied
Jewish Campaign. As with the permanent agencies in
the Community Fund, our Allied Jewish Campaign
causes pre-date the war and will continue to have
our attention and our support in the days and years
ahead.
-
Now word comes from the great United Jewish
Appeal agencies, calling upon the Jews of Detroit
to accept a $2,000,000 quota toward the national
$100,000,000 goal to help the surviving. Jews of
Europe—a great enterprise unprecedented in the
entire history of our people—through the Joint Dis-
tribution Committee, the United Palestine Appeal
and the National Refugee Service.
* * * •
This basic need requires the early reorganization
of our Detroit Service Group;—and its re-dedication
to community service on the highest level of efficiency
and With the broadest base of participation. .
It is not enough to take up where we left off in
1942. We should first of all re,examine the organiza-
tional structure as it was set up almost 20 years ago
and study, also, the form of organization which devel-
oped over the years, the nature and effectiveness of
our trade and professional divisions, the methods of
campaign organization, the opportunity for workers and
contributors to participate in communal activities on
a year-round basis and the relationship of this great
fund-raising force to board and'committees of Federation.
With all-their willingness. to fit into the War Chest
scheme of organization, many of our , workers missed
the opportunity of earlier years to meet directly in be-
half of the Allied Jewish Campaign and to join as
workers of the Detroit Service Group in our own
meetings and functions.
* * *
Something intangible, but nonetheless real, stirred
our workers and brought forth a feeling of kinship and
solidarity when we conducted our own campaigns. Last
.
What You Can Do to Help
Surviving Jews of Europe
1. CLOTHING—Support the .Victory Clothing
Campaign. (The Joint Distribution Committee
is a beneficiary). For information, call Mrs.
Henry Meyers, TO. 8-1339, chairman for Leagbe
of Jewish Women's Organizations. •
2. SUPPLIES—Support the Overseas Supplies
Colle ction, sponsored by the JDC and national
Jewish women's organizations. The League of
Jewish Women's Organizations' chairman in
Detroit is Mrs. Harry Singer, UN. 3-9280.
3. FUNDS—Support the $2,000,000 Detroit Allied
Jewish Campaign for the United Jewish .Ap-
peal. Call Jewish Welfare Federation, TE,
1-1600.
01*
. r.,••••••••••••••• ■•■ •••••••••••••••••••••
••• • •
-
Mrs. Harry L. Jackson has accepted the post of
director of the' newly created Women's Division of
the Jewish Welfare Federation, it is announced by
William Friedman, Federation president.
Establishment of a Year-round organization is part
of a plan which includes reorganizing and expanding
the interests of the trade and professional units of the
Detroit Service Group, the fund raising arm conducts
the annual Allied Jewish Campaigns.
The Women's Division will include all women con-
tributors and volunteer workers, will devote itself to
education, promotion and volunteer social service, with
provision for direct representation on the boards of the
Service Group and the Federation.
In the last year before the war of the independent
Allied Jewish Campaign, more than 6,000 women made
contributions and some 1,200 women participated as
campaign workers.
Mrs. Jackson, a graduate of Washington University,
St. Louis, did post graduate work with the then
Missouri School of Social Work, did educational and
recreational work in St. Louis and Los Angeles, and
was on the staff of case work agencies in St. Louis
and Wooster, Mass.
Mrs. Jackson has resided in Detroit. since 1927 and
has participated in Jewish and general community af-
fairs. Her positions have -included the presidency of
the local chapter and the regional Hadassah, she has
served as vice-president of the 'League of Jewish
Women's Organizations and as a • member of the board
of the Detroit section of the National. Council of Jewish
Women and of Temple Israel Sisterhood.
Plans for the formal organization of the Women's
Division are now being formulated and a constitution
committee is engaged in preparing the constitution and
by-laws for approval at a city-wide conference on
Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2:15 p. m., at Brown Memorial
Chapel of Temple Beth El. All Jewish women are
invited.
Maj. Judah Nadich, former senior chaplain in
Europe and former European adviser on Jewish affairs
to Gen. Eisenhower, will address the meeting. Maj.
Nadich, who recently returned after 40 months over-
seas, visited displaced persons camps and conferred
with Jewish leaders.
year's special building campaign for the hospital and
this year's drive for the civic-protective fund served,
in some measure, to satisfy this need to meet together,
to work together and to get the subtle social satisfaction
that comes from harmonious communal activity.
With full respect. for all their special . interests, our
workers sensed that no other project, no other organ-
ization; no movement, with which they were affiliated,
rallied so many of our people, from so many walks of
life, from so many different sections of the city.
From Dexter, from Palmer Woods and from Twelfth
Street, from Chicago and Boston Boulevards, from Hunt-
ington Woods and from Delray and Down River, the
small grocer, the downtown mercantile leader, the pro-
fessional man, the real estate operator, the manufactur-
er,the tailor— all of them, from all over the city,
felt that in our trade and division meetings, and in
the larger rallies and report meetings, which they at-
tended and in which they took part; there was develop-
ing a brotherhood of interest that warmed and strength-
ened all of us as a group, even as it developed new
strength and additional potential friends and affiliates
for the other groups to which they belonged.
And so, as we look forward to the 20th anniversary
of the founding of the Service Group, we want to lay
plans now for solidifying the values that have accrued.
At the same time that we shall be celebrating 20
years of joint endeaVor in support of our social services
and our mutual communal interests, we shall wish to
present a NEW Service Group, consecrated to a task
even greater than raising funds and distributing them,
worthy as that responsibility itself may be, at a time
when our funds are devoted to every major communal
cause at home and abroad.
Our workers and our contributors have demonstrat-
ed an interest in community welfare that deserves a
greater return than the pleasure of having Worked in a
campaign, or the satisfaction of having given their as-
sistance to those who require it.
They have indicated by their work and by their
gifts that they want to belong. It is simple fairness
to them and added community strength to all of
us to make them, every last individual, an .integral
part of our great and thriving organization.
*
We talk, all to glibly sometimes, of education. Edu-
cation cannot be delegated.. It is a living experience that
grows 'out of participation; and only to the extent that
we provide_ opportunity for the worker and giver, as
an individual, to take a hand in setting up our organ-
ization, to know what's going on, to have his say, to
bring his knoWledge to bear on the problems that are
close to him, can we hope to have the kind of Service
Group that will ultimately win the wholehearted and
enthusiastic support of every Jew in Detroit.
What is it 'that the contributor and the
worker wants? What is it that he can do for us
as a community? And what is it that we can do
for him?
* * *-
To begin with, his work and his gift make possible
all kinds of services, some of them for the poor and
underprivileged, some of them for the middle-class
citizen, some of them for the entire community. Wheth-
er he can use those services as benefactor or • as bene-
ficiary, whether he can _help as trustee, committee mem-
ber or consultant or whether he can get help, depends •
on how close to hn-n we bring the story of the services
and how much of an opportunity and how frequent an
opportunity we provide him to express his judgment
on what is being done.
Let's take some specific instances: We operate a ,
Jewish Vocational Service. Ifs a service for boys and'
- girls and for men and women, -too. It places people in
jobs, it counsels and guides them toward vocational
education, it helps them toward economic adjustment.
To the extent that it refers people to jobs and job
training, it can use the help of each of the trade and
professional committees of the Service Grol.ip;
10• ef •••-44,4"..
• •••••i: 0404*
0
Every contributor, through the liaison of his busi--
ness affiliation with the Service Group, who refers a
job opportunity for a youngster, or a refugee, or who-
ever the person may . be, has made a contribution that
goes beyond his gift to the campaign in money. And if
he can serve as an adviser in a given. situation, he is
making another direct contribution to total community
improvement; because, with all our philanthropy, our
community is not better than the people in it.
In the new plan for the Seriice• Group, every
trade group will have an opportunity to study this
problem and to offer its help.
Take another illustration: From time to time a
worker and a contributor may be faced with a family
problem that presents difficulties—and that in no way
involves lack of money. An older member of the fain-
ily, sometimes a parent or grandparent, needs special
attention,—housekeeping service, a nursing home, con-
valescent care, institutional - care. There are instances
when a community agency can help—and would help—
if the contributing public knew more about our re-
sources, resources that under certain conditions are
available to people regardless of income standing. Nat-
urally, it could not be the business of 'the trade group
to discuss the intimate details of a specific family proh-
leni, but the general nature of the community's services,
broad questions • of social policy,. and suggestions fOr
new services based on the experiences of the individual
citizen would properly be the subject of discussion at
trade group meetings. '-
Consider a third example: Many individuals, on
every level of personal income, have relatives abroad.
Using the great Jewish relief organizations,' which have
staffs abroad and contacts with governmental agencies
eVerywhere, our local agency workers can help in es-
tablishing contact with these relatives—and if the giv-
ing public, as it gathers in trade and professional meet-
ing, wants us to enlarge • such service, it could be done.
One rrore example: Through the Jewish Commun-
ity Center and the United Hebrew Schools, and in
other ways ; we operate services . to meet some of the
fundamental Jewish educational, cultural and .recrea-
tional needs of the entire Jewish community.' As the
Jewish _ population moves into new neighborhoods, we
need to plan for the transfer or expansion of physical
facilities for these services . . . and as attitudes toward
American Jewish living develop and grow, we need to
plan for change and enrichment . of the program that
these facilities offer. .
It is logical and proper that the contribut-
ing public, which supports and uses these facili-
ties, should express itself on what they should of-
fer and where they should be located.
Scores of illustrations could be cited, but the main
point is that we want our workers and our contributors
to have regular, continuing contact with our services
through the divisions that they set up to support them,
to have a hand in benefiting from these services,. to
have a hand in strengthening them—and if need - be,
to have the opportunity to advise us and to shape these
services for the greater good of all of us.
All of this will be calculated to build up a fine
esprit de corps within a trade group. In the months
to come, each group will hold an organizational meet-
ing to which will be invited • ALL the workers and
contributors from that group. They will choose a chair-
man and other officers, and an executive committee.
They will name people to plan programs, to build up
lists, to help with collections, to cooperate with our
social agencies, to do everything suggested by the key
word SERVICE in the name, Detroit SERVICE Group.
In addition to the proposed plan for reorganizing
and expanding the interests of the trade and profes-
sional groUps, consideration is being given to re-creating
the women s division. In the years when the Allied
Jewish Campaigns were conducted the women's division
was organized on a temporary basis to function during
the campaign period only.
It has been the general feeling among the
women that there is a definite need for a year-
round women's organization and attention is being
given to the development of this group.
* * *
Another problem which confronts us is the revital-
ization of the Junior Service Group. This group was
organized primarily for fund-raising purposes but during
the years they developed an educational program in
which a large number of their members participated.
Representation was given to the Junior Group on the
boards of directors of Federation agencies. However,
during the war period this organization was dorinant
as most of its members were in the armed forces.
With the return of the boys and girls to civilian
life, we find that there are two important factors
to consider:
1. The establishment of some form of organization
to maintain the interest and cooperation of former
members who are no longer in the age limits of the
Junior Group and who are still not prepared to move
into the trade and professional groups.
2. The development of the type of organization
which will interest the 18-25 year old boys and girls who
were never identified with the Group, also the: young
married couples.
'
When the leaders in the Junior Service Group
return to civilian life we shall work out • with
them a suitable plan to meet these situations.
The , whole Service Group. reorganiiation project
represents a great opportunity for the individual and for
the community. It goes without saying that, as part of
this new organizational process, our operating agencies
will be asked to invite key men from each trade and
professional group to serve as cooperating committees,
so, that the agency can make known its work to the
members of the Detroit Service Group, and the mem-
bers of the Service Group, in turn, can interpret. com-
munity needs and community attitudes to the agency.
Beyond that, the plan calls for the forna&1 and
direct recognition of the Service Group on the board of
the Federation, so that the trade groups may partici-
pate more widely in the social planning for the entire
community. Trade groups will designate Service Group
members of the Federation board. . -
The • trade and professional committee of the
Service Group have actually been the backbone of
the agencies, through financial support. ,The time
has now come for them to receive the full recogni-
tion that they deserve.. They. are the working and
contributing public. Their strength will be the •
strength of the entire community.