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Highlights of a Decade
Year-by-Year Chronicle of Savannah Council
1945
Council organized on March 31,
1943, with twenty-two organiza
tions making up the original mem
bership by organizations. Twelve
members at large.
Council allocated up to $225.00 to
continue the Americanization and
naturalization classes, formerly
conducted under the WPA. Reso
lutions stated: “The Council will
attempt to coordinate the Ameri
canization and naturalization work
carried on by various Jewish or
ganizations to the end that all local
aliens of the Jewish faith be urged
to attend classes and prepare for
naturalization. This project to be
assigned to the Savannah Refugee
Committee, as the group to do the
job."
The sum of $43,373.00 was raised
from 881 contributors in the cam
paign, which made allocations to
the United Jewish Appeal, eleven
national agencies, and one regional
agency.
Up to the time of the organization
of the Council, the fund raising was
done under the name of the United
Jewish Appeal. In 1943, the scope
of the annual campaign was ex
panded by the addition of the name
Federation to UJA, thus giving the
concept of serving a broad number
of representative Jewish agencies
and causes.
1944
The sum of approximately $75.-
000 was raised in the campaign.
The work of the Council during
this year apparently was limited to
the functions of the United Jewish
Appeal and Federation.
1945
A booklet, describing the work of
the United Jewish Appeal and Fed
eration, with a list of the alloca
tions made, was issued. A motion to
include in the booklet a list of the
contributors and the amounts
pledged was defeated.
The President of the Council was
authorized to appoint a committee
to investigate and devise means of
encouraging maximum registration
of eligible members of the Jewish
community to vote.
Two educational meetings were
sponsored by the Council; the
speakers were Donald Hurwitz and
Leo Lania, both presented by the
Joint Distribution Committee.
The idea of pre-campaign bud
geting was discussed but no action
was taken.
The major portion of the Council
meeting was devoted to a discus
sion on the question of the great
amount of publicity of Jewish
events in the daily press. No action
was taken on same.
An emergency allocation of $5,000
to the United Jewish Appeal was
added to the original allocation,
making a total of $80,000 allocated
to the UJA from the 1954 campaign.
The United Jewish Appeal and
Federation Campaign raised $135,-
867 from twelve hundred and twen
ty-two contributors.
1946
The method of making alloca
tions, through the use of sub-com
mittees, which tirst studied requests
by fields of service and then sub
mitted their recommendations to
the full Council, serving as the al
locations committee of the whole,
was introduced. Up to this year,
the allocations were made and ap
proved by a small committee on
allocations, numbering fourteen
persons in the year of 1945.
The number of members-at-large
were increased from twelve to
eighteen.
The Council voted to oppose the
idea of the National Advisory Bud
geting system, proposed by the
CJFWF. The delegate to the Gen
eral Assembly of the CJFWF was
directed to vote against the pro
posal.
For the first time, the Council
voted an allocation of $500 for the
publication of the “Jewish Al
liance," with the publication to be
sent to all Jewish families in the
city. Discussion on this question
pointed up the fact that the sup
port of the Council would allow for
a larger paper and thus make for
greater coverage of general Jewish
news, as well as interpretation of
the work of the Council and its con
stituent organizations.
The Council entered into the field
of coordination of local activities
for the first time, when it under
took to coordinate the S.O.S. Cam
paign for used clothing and food
for overseas Jewish survivors.
Samuel Robinson
. . . current president
At one of the Council meetings
the need for better control of the
activities of itinerant Rabbis in so
liciting funds in Savannah was
stressed.
The Council voted that the mem
bership of the Executive Commit
tee and all other Committees was
to be elected by all of the officers,
instead of by the president himself,
as formerly.
The Council voted to make the
chairman of the United Jewish Ap
peal and Federation Campaign au
tomatically a member of the Coun
cil, during the term of his serving
as chairman, unless he was other
wise a member of the Council.
The quota for the annual cam
paign was set by a large committee,
which included the Executive Com
mittee of the Council, the chairmen
and co-chairmen of all divisions of
the Campaign.
For the first time, the Council
assumed the payment of one-half
of the costs of all office equipment
used by the Council, and shared
with the Alliance.
Isaiah Terman, of the Field Stall
of the American Jewish Committee
spoke to a meeting of the Council
on the work being done by the
American Jewish Committee and
other national civic-protective
agencies.
The Council participated in and
shared the costs of the survey on
care of Jewish aged in Georgia,
South Carolina, and Florida, made
under the auspices of the CJFWF.
The Council also participated in the
Southeastern Regional Conference
on Care of the Aged.
The Council sent a representative
to the National Conference of the
Joint Defense Appeal in St. Louis.
The Council voted to pay $1,000
for the establishment of a kosher
kitchen in the Savannah Hotel, for
Paul Kuliek
. . . executive secretary
community use. This subject was
hotly debated in the Council meet
ing.
The Annual Campaign raised ap
proximately $235,000 from eighteen
hundred and thirty-five contribu
tors.
1947
A change in the method for set
ting the quota for the Annual Cam
paign was made, so that the entire
membership of the Savannah Jew
ish Council made the determination
of the quota.
The number of members-at-large
was increased to a minimum of fif
teen and a maximum of twenty-
one, with three of the members-at-
large in the above group to come
from communities outside of Sa
vannah which participate in our
Campaign. All Rabbis of Savannah
were made ex-officio members of
the Council.
Rabbi Israel Goldstein was the
speaker at the quota setting meet
ing.
Philip Jacobson. Field Represent
ative of the American Jewish Com
mittee, addressed a special meeting
of the Council, which dealt with a
number of local issues in the field
of community (public) relations.
Most of the activities of the
Council during this year dealt with
fund raising and allocations.
194H
The questions on Community Re
lations came up at one of the Coun
cil meetings. Emphasis was placed
on the responsibility of the Council
to represent the Jewish community
in the area of Community Rela
tions. It was stressed that Jewish
individuals, as such, should not at
tempt to speak for the entire Jew
ish community. Rather, any prob
lem which may arise which con
cerns the community should be re
ferred to the Community Relations.
The discussion arose out of a local
situation, in which one individual
purported to speak for the Jewish
community in articles in the daily
press.
Sidney Entmen, Executive Direc
tor of the Jewish Home for the
Aged in Jacksonville, spoke at the
Annual Meeting of the Council on
the subject of care of the aged,
with special reference to these ac
tivities in the Southeast.
For the first time, the Council
entered upon borrowing funds from
banks to send advances to the Uni
ted Jewish Appeal because of the
critical situation overseas. A thous
and dollars was borrowed in order
to send the United Jewish Appeal
$100,000 earlier in the year. Later
in the year, an additional $50,000
was borrowed. The quota for the
1948 campaign was $465,000, of
which S400.000 was earmarked for
the United Jewish Appeal, if the
campaign was successful. The num
ber of contributors to the campaign
reached the record high of twenty-
two hundred and eighty-nine. Har
ry Seeve. Assistant Director of the
United Jewish Appeal, was the
speaker at the quota setting meet
ing.
Council took on its first function
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The Southern Israelite