64 Jewish Communities Raised $63,564,502 This Year, 12.9 Percent Gain

Jewish communities in the United States and Canada have scored impressive gains in their fund-raising campaigns this spring it was reported today by the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. With only one exception, every city of the 64 which have thus far reported exceed their levels of last year, the report emphasized.

“Campaign totals for these cities have reached $63,564,502 the CJFWF report stated. “This is 12.9 percent over the amount raised by the same cities in 1956, $56, 305,076), and 35.4 percent better than 1955 ($46,954,135).

These striking gains after the years of decline since 1948 have been attributed by Jewish communal leaders to a variety of causes; the emergency immigration into Israel, emergency flight from several countries, and immigration opportunities in other lands, reflecting growing populations in communities, shifts of population, new advances in services, rising price levels general economic prosperity; strengthened campaign leadership; and reorganization in community structures.”

LARGE CITIES CONTRIBUTE 10,8 PERCENT OVER LAST YEAR

The bulk of the campaign total came from the large cities. Twelve cities reported fund receipts of $43,343,097. This compares with $39,119, 538 in 1956, an increase of 10.8 percent. (These figures do not include New York or Chicago)

Eleven cities in the 15,000 to 40,000 Jewish population group raised a total of $9,778 606, an increase of 14.5 percent over 1956. The 5,000 to 15,000 group, with 15 cities reporting, raised $6,476,566, an increase of 18.1 percent over 1956. In the group with less than 5,000 Jewish population, 26 cities reported a total of $1,966,255 an increase of 25.6 percent over 1956.

All four groups of cities achieved a gain of more than one third over 1955, with the small cities soaring to a plus of 49.2 percent and the large cities registering just above a third (33.5 percent) over. The increase for all cities over 1955 was $5.4 percent.

These gains take a different perspective when set against the experience of the past 10 years. With 1946 as the base year (100), 1957 campaigns stand at 109, or 9 percent higher. In 1950 the comparative figure was 105; in 1948, the peak year, 153. Thirty-two of the cities surveyed showed increased totals in 1957 over 1946. These included a majority of the large an intermediatediate cities. Thirty-one, mainly small cities, still fell short of the 1946 campaign level.

The larger cities achieved uniformly more stable results than the smaller cities. In 1948 all groups went more than 50 percent over the base year 1946) The 5-15 000 Jewish population group, however, registered a 63 percent increase over 1946 while the 15-40,000 group showed a 58 percent increase. Both the large and the small cities did 50 percent better. In all other years, however, achievement was greatest among the largest cities with the narrowest gains among the smallest cities, the CJFWF points out.