THE DETROIT :JEWISH NEWS
Friday, Nov. 23, 1971=9
Boris Smolar's
'Between You
... and Me'
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA
-
(Copyright 1973, JTA Inc.)
THE NEW YORK BREAKTHROUGH: Something new
and of great importance to the Jewish community in New
York—the largest in the world—has now been achieved.
For the first time the New York Federation of Jewish Phil-
anthropies and the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New
York have joined together in a combined fund-raising cam-
paign. Their aim is to raise jointly the unprecedented sum
r 180 ,000 ,000 of which -$250,000,000 will go to the United
Ash Appeal and $30,000,000 for the local services of the
Federation agencies.
To understand the importance of this move, it must be
taken into consideration that the policy of the New York
Federation has been different all the years than the policy
of other Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds in the
country. In other communities the local Federations and
Welfare Funds have a total approach to fund-raising. They
raise their funds for local, domestic and overseas purposes
and later make their allocations under a system of priori-
ties. The United Jewish Appeal is part and parcel of their
fund-raising campaigns and receives from them a large
proportion of the funds raised.
This has never been the case with the New York Fed-
eration. In New York, the Federation limits its allocations
to local needs only. The UJA conducts a separate indepen-
dent fund-raising drive in the city. So do the national Jewish
organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee, the
American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League and
other groups which receive no share from the funds raised
by the Federation in New York.
The "splendid isolation" policy of the New York Federa-
tion has been questioned by many during the years, espe-
cially during the recent years. Many would like to see the
New York Federation become an all-embracing fund-raising
institution with allocations for all Jewish needs—local, na-
tional and overseas—as is the case with the Federations in
other communities.
Informal discussions on this subject have been generally
going on for the last three years, probing into the possibility
of combining the campaigns of the New York Federation
and the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York into
one fund-raising drive. The Yom Kippur War has given
new impetus to these talks. What quiet negotiations could
not achieve in three years, was achieved in three days as
a result of the Yom Kippur War marked by unprecedented
giving for Israel among all elements of New York Jewry.
*
*
*
A FASCINATING RECORD: Ernest Michel, who has
now become the director of the largest single Jewish com-
munity fund-raising effort - in the world, as the N. Y. cam-
paign director for UJA, is a youngish man of great ability.
He has a remarkable record as an authority in community
organization and fund-raising.
A survivor of six years in Nazi concentration camps, he
has the distinction of being the only European-born execu-
tive of a major Jewish fund-raising drive in the United
States. After escaping from the notorious Buchenwald camp
only a few weeks before the end of World War II—he was
then only 23 years old—he played a part in the post-war
rebuilding of the Jewish community in Manheim, Germany,
the city where he was born. He arrived in the United States
with a group of concentration camp survivors with the aid
of the Joint Distribution Committee and under assurances
provided with the help of the United Jewish Apppeal.
Immediately after arriving in the U.S., he toured ex-
tensively as a speaker for the UJA. A year later—in 1947—
he was named UJA's West Coast representative. Since then
he held various important positions in the UJA system.
From 1967 to 1970, at the invitation of the Joint Distribu-
tion Committee, he served in Paris as adviser to the French
Jewish community on fund raising. He effected a complete
new reorganization of the fund-raising structure there, re-
sulting in a three-fold increase of the sums contributed by
French Jewry for Jewish philanthropic purposes. He also
:d as adviser on community organization and fund
1. Ang throughout Europe.
Under the UJA-Federation agreement for the $280,-
000,000 campaign, givers will be supplied with either two
pledge cards or a single pledge card which will provide
separately for a pledge to UJA and to Federation. The givers
will have the privilege of designating to which organiza-
tion their funds will go. However, when making their desig-
nations, contributors will be urged to recognize the extra-
ordinary needs of the Israel emergency. Each contributor
who made a gift to the last Federation campaign will be
asked to make a contribution to Federation in the amount
at least equal to his last Federation gift.
Undesignated gifts from contributors who have given in
earlier campaigns to both the UJA and Federation, will—up
to the total of such previous gifts—be allocated in accord-
ance with the ratio of such previous contributions. Any
overage will be allocated to the UJA. Undesignated gifts
from contributors who gave to neither of the two campaigns
will be allocated wholly to the United Jewish Appeal.
Best in Government .
With all the imperfections
of our present government,
it is without comparison the
best existing, or that ever
did exist. — Thomas Jeffer-
son.
GIVE TO THE ISRAEL EMERGENCY RAID *
The -1974 Allied Jewish Campaign-Israel Emergency Fund
Lewis S. Grossman
William M. Davidson
Chairmen
Free Expression
WO 5-3939
163 Madison Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48226
The will of the people is
the only legitimate founda- *Contributions to the Isr8e1 Emergency Fund insure the continuation of great humanitarian programs. The Fund makes possible
tion of any government, and
care and assistance for hundreds of thousands of immigrants we helped bring to Israel, including tens of thousands of Soviet Jews,
to protect its free expression
the aged, handicapped and unabsorbed newcomers.
should be our first object.
All Contributions to the United Jewish Appeal are tax deductible.
— Thomas Jefferson I