March 1, 1946
From an article titled “Refugees’ Hope In Palestine Told Here”
A stirring description of the situation in Palestine was given in San Francisco on Monday by Leo Herrman, international secretary of the Palestine Land Fund at a luncheon held under the auspices of the United Palestine Appeal.
Dr. Herrman, who is touring the country to tell American Jews just how urgently needed is their support, gave eye-witness accounts of the condition of Jews in Europe “who were kept alive by hope—not for their own lives—but for the future life of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael.”
He told—and his telling brought tears to his listeners’ eyes—of the trainloads of Jews leaving for the extermination camps singing “Hatikvah.” He told of the offices of the Joint Distribution Committee in Prague whose walls are covered by the names of thousands of Jews who passed through looking for relatives and who left pathetic messages attesting their desire to go Palestine.
Then, Dr. Herrman, who has spent his life working for Palestine, declared: “It is for these reasons that immigration is the one thing on which we will not compromise. These men and women are our brothers and sisters. For them no sacrifice that we can make is too great.”
“The economic capacity of Palestine is dynamic and can expand to shelter these Jews from Europe,” Dr. Herrman said, “just how great that expansion can be depends on the support that the United Palestine Appeal receives from American Jews.”
March 1, 1996
From an article about what is now the Union for Reform Judaism’s Camp Newman, “UAHC buys Santa Rosa property for second camp”
In a move that marks the fulfillment of a longtime dream, the Reform movement has purchased a site just north of Santa Rosa to be used as a second summer camp and community conference center.
The sprawling 475 acres, former home of a maritime cooking school, is twice the size of the mountainous Saratoga property where the Reform movement’s Camp Swig has been nestled since 1953.
…
The second camp has not yet been named; like Swig, which was named after the late Fairmont Hotel magnate Ben Swig, the new camp may be named after a multimillion-dollar contributor.
The Saratoga site, which serves campers from 7-17, has drawn participants from the West Coast through El Paso, Texas, as well as Alaska and Hawaii.
It “has been so successful and so popular that it’s overcrowded,” said Rabbi Morris Hershman, director of the regional office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the overseeing body of the Reform movement. “Therefore, we need more capacity.”
…
According to Raquel Newman, president of the Camp Swig board of directors, the community conference center in Northern California is the fulfillment of a dream born more than a decade ago. “We are thrilled,” she said.
