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The apartment where Maxwell Salter grew up in New York was so crowded that his widowed mother hung a curtain across the dining room to create a sleeping area for some of her five children.
But even during the Depression when she took in boarders to make ends meet, destitute strangers often gathered around the big family dining table or slept on mattresses that Salter's mother rolled out on the floor.
Salter, chairman of the board of Beno's family apparel stores, said his mother always offered a bed or a meal to the needy because she believed she had an obligation to care for those less fortunate.
Others attending a recent United Jewish Fund banquet with the Beverly Hills city councilman recounted similar experiences, and Salter said their early indoctrination into giving might explain UJF's fund-raising success.
From a pool of about 600,000 Jews in Los Angeles County, the fund-raising arm of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles raised more than $44 million in fiscal 1985-86.
United Way Collection
By comparison, the United Way of Los Angeles, with a base of more than 8 million Los Angeles County residents, raised $84.6 million. During the previous four years, UJF collected an average of $39.4 million per year while United Way secured $67.2 million.
Of the $44 million raised last year, the UJF sent $18.4 million to social service agencies in Israel and other foreign Jewish communities and $14.7 million to domestic and local organizations. The largest local payments of more than $2 million each supported Jewish education, Jewish community centers and Jewish Federation Council programs including leadership development and community relations.
About $11 million of the $44 million remained undistributed. The drive budgeted $2 million for uncollected pledges and $4 million to pay for data processing, benefits administration and other functions for federation agencies. UJF also spent more than $5 million for campaign costs. This year's campaign leaders hope to raise $50 million. The prime events of the drive are concentrated in 13 weeks ending next Thursday.
Leaders think they can reach their goal through a well-organized effort that capitalizes, in part, on Jews' desire to support Israel. But the key to the campaign, said...