MS-763: Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman Collection, 1930-2004. Series H: United Jewish Appeal, 1945-1995. Subseries 4: Administrative Files, 1945-1994. Box Folder 55 1 "UJA Study Missions: 1961-1963." 1961-1963. For more information on this collection, please see the finding aid on the American Jewish Archives website. 3101 Clifton Ave, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220 513.487.3000 AmericanJewishArchives.org THE STORY OF THE FIRST UNITED JEWISH APPEAL YOUNG LEADERSHIP MISSION TO EUROPE AND ISRAEL Members of the Mission meet with Israel President ltxhak Ben-Zvi at tour's end. His eloquent state­ ment of Israel's meaning and importance mode a deep impression on all of us. "Questions and Answers" This i an account of a voyage of disco,.ery and facts than any other UJA Mission." R abbi H er­ elf-di~overy taken by 140 young American Jews ben A. Friedman. UJA Executive Vice-Chairman -member of the first UJA Young Leadership and Mi ion leader. told our group at its closing Mission. se.,sion an Jcru alem. Wednesday evening. June Since the end of World War IJ . the UJA has 14. And not one of u in h1), audience. sunburned, sponsored or given its blessing to many group sur­ tired .1 ftcr ~ •>.tee n days of strenuous travel and veys of Jewish life in Europe and Israel by Amer­ study, yet excited and happy, was ready to dis­ ican Jewish leaders. agree with this summary. The top level annual United Jewish Appeal Study Mission has become a vital and impressive The Fint UJA Young Leadership Mission fixture of American Jewish communal life. Each " Somewhere In Europe", we heard the full story of • Ho•~ did we come to be on thif Mission, and UJA aided programs in 26 lands outside of Israel. fall l!i nce 1954, this Study Mission has brought how did such a Mis1ion come about? some I 00 Jewish community leaders from throughout the country to overseas lands and • What duJ we 1u. and do, and what did we Israel, at their own expense. to look into prob­ wam to Imo•~ ' l lems and progress in Jewish life. • What dtd we learn? And how did we feel abow A similar, though smaller, UJA Women's Di­ what we learned? vision Study group also makes a yearly fall pil­ The-.e arc some of the questions that this grimage. Annual!}. too, many locaJ Jewish com­ report seels to ans"cr The answers may prove munities affiliated with UJA end abroad study inadequate because we did o much, learned so group of campaign leaders. much and c\pcrienccd so much. But in half a Each one of these many missions-as their hundred communities throughout the Land there partidpants can testify-provides its own inspir­ will be better answers given in the months ahead ing and unforgettable experience . Bm none of by those who acLUa lly participated in the Mission, them htic; been marked by t1 greater sense of per­ enjoying to the full its extraordinarily wide and sonal discovery or a more significant final pur­ vivid range of experiences. pose them this mission of young leaders. In a three day stay in Europe, before going " You worked harder, travelled more, saw to Israel, we of the Mission received a view in more, a ked more questions and learned more extreme closeup of the status of Jews in various Charles H. Jordan, JDC Director-General overseas, gave us a vivid picture of the a gency's neech. Wed. U Jl European, African and Asian countries. Then, in 29, l 961, when its 140 members boarded an El 13 days in Israel, we saw the land and met Al 707 jet airliner at New York's Idlewild Inter­ Israel's people as few penons have had the op­ national Airport, bound for a destination that can portunity of doing. We held question and answer only be given here as "somewhere in Europe". sessions with Israel's foremost leaders, including Who were we, it can be asked. Most of us. men Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. President and women alike, were in the 30 lo 40 year age ltzhak Ben-Zvi and a roster of other officials group. We came from 42 American communities which reads like a miniature Who's Who of the from coast to coast. Almost all of us had given country. We also had ample and fruitful opportu­ evidence of our interest in UJA through active nity to put hundreds of questions to Israel's Man­ participation wd leadership in our local commun­ In Israel, we got ovr flr$f briefing from in-the-Street. Robbi Herbert A. Friedman, Mission leade r. ity campaigns. Each member had undertaken to Fri., June 2 T he route of che Mission took us from one of pay his own way ($795), plus expenses for a six. Israel's northernmost spots, the development town day free-time stay in Paris at the end of the of Kiryat Shmoneh, to the country's soulhernmost Miss1on 's tour of Israel. point, the port of Eilat. Some other data: The Mission included ap­ Since U JA's humanitarian funds are used in proximately sixty married couples, with each wife Israel to resettle, receive and absorb immigrants, active in local Jewish affairs and the United Jew­ M ission members spent much time in meeting and ish Appeal in her own right. Almost alJ of the talking with newcomers. We boarded an incoming Mission members had been born in the U.S., and immigrant ship in Haifa harbor, visited an im­ almost all were college trained. About forty mem­ migrant development town at New Nazareth, ex­ b ers of the Mission were businessmen and almost amined the immigrant farm region of Lachish, in­ as many were professionals. The professfonal spected immigrant housing al Ashdod Yam, and group included 11 doctors. l 4 lawyers and 12 saw the care given to aged and handicapped new­ o lhers, among them an architect, social workers, comers by the Joint Distribution Committee's re­ accountants and a rabbi. Finally, only about six markable Malben program. of our group had been to Israel before. At the same time. the Mission saw many other Behind these outward facts stood some others sides of Jsrael life, including economic, educa­ worth noting: tional and defense aspects. Above all, the Mission While the Mission formally began on May 29, was arranged o that we could come in intimate its actual beginning was, io another sense, much association with Israel's young peopJe, particularly earlier. For several years, the Executive Vice­ the fine young men and women who serve in the Chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, Rabbi Israel Defense Forces. H erbert A. Friedman, bad been concerned with and had discussed with the officers of the Appeal, How the Mission Came Into Being a problem of major importance to American In a formal sense, this first UJA Young Lead­ J ewry: " What .vhould we be doing to train up ership Mission began on Monday evening. May those younger leaders who will some day have We hear from Molben's Shulomith Lubin ofi Neve Avol, model old age home on a former slum site. S1111., June 4 10 carry on A merican Jewr)''s re1ponsibilities 10 fathers. We admitledly knew little of the Easr The the people of Israel and Je"'s overseas?" European Jewish life from which we mtJinl)' UNITED After long planning, part of the answer came sprang, or of the trends and principal events of in a highly successfuJ Nation<il Young Leadership Jewish life of the last hundred years, or even uf JEWISH C.onference at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New comemporary Jewish life outside of the United APPEAL York City, November, 1960. Stales. But we hungered to know. A Reawakened Generation The UNITED JEU-ISH APPEAL "A Living Dialogue" is the major American agency rais­ Here. for three days. some three hundred active and interested young American Jewish ing funds for immiKTants to I srael At UJA's Natmonal Young Leadership Con­ and refugees and distressed Jews communal leader mcl to consider, learn about ference-now destined to be an annua] gathering overseas. It supports tire humanitar­ and analyze our Jewish past, present and future. -a proposal was made that if enough young ian programs of twu constituenz We heard from some of the most notable figu res age11cieJ. the Um"ted l!.7ael Appeal leaders were interested in making a tour at their in lhe American Jcwi h community and in Israel (Jewish .Agency for Israel, Inc.) and own expense to Europe and lsrael. lhe UJ A life: Ed ward M . M. Warburg, Chairman of lhc the Joint Distribution Committee, would try to arrange for such a mission at a and of the New York Association Joint Distribution Committee: Dewey 0 . Stone. minimum rate. for New Americans, a member Chairman of the Jev.ish Agency. Inc.; Philip M . agency. Klutznick, then about to become General Chair· T he gifted Israel writer and commentator, Through the JDC. it contributes man of the United Jewish Appeal and now a mem­ Moshe Shamir-whom the Mission had the pleas­ the of ure of meeting in T el Aviv-has noted lhe follow­ toward work ORT, the Or­ ber of lhc U. S. Mission 10 the United Nations ganizaJion for Rehabilitation through with rank o f Ambassador; Avraham Harman, ing of A merica's young Jewish generation: Training. The United Hius Service, resettling Jews in countries other Israel Ambassador to the U. S.• and others. For •· ft seems to me that a large part of the an­ than Israel, also benefits from VI A three hours, we lbtened spellbound to a compre­ swer ro the question of what it means to be a campaigns.