Leo Gallin; Fund-Raiser for Jewish Causes

Leo Gallin, major fund-raiser for Bonds for Israel and other Jewish causes and a leader in Los Angeles Jewish organizations, has died. He was 87.

Gallin died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his daughter said.

Already experienced in fund-raising organizations, Gallin came to Los Angeles in 1943 as the first executive director of the Los Angeles Jewish Community Council and its United Jewish Welfare Fund. At that time the combined organization represented 170 Jewish philanthropic and community groups.

The council later merged with another organization to become the Jewish Federation Council of Los Angeles.

“It is my hope that the estimated 130,000 Jews in the Los Angeles district will work together for the welfare of the community through planning rather than well-intentioned muddling in the near future and in the critical postwar period to follow,” the blunt-spoken Gallin said at the outset of his tenure.

He spearheaded area wartime and postwar planning and assistance to Palestine and then Israel. Overseas relief and reconstruction in Israel, he said at the Los Angeles group’s annual meeting in 1944, “will keep our community busy not for one or two years, but for generations.”

Known for his fund-raising abilities, Gallin created and served as director of the Los Angeles Committee for Israel Bonds. He also encouraged Southern California businessmen to invest in Israel.

In his later years, Gallin was an officer of the Jewish Communal Retirees Assn. of Los Angeles.

The native of Cleveland, studied journalism at Western Reserve University and earned a master’s degree from Ohio State University. He began his career with the Detroit Community Chest and then served as administrative assistant in the Baltimore Council of Social Agencies.

Before his work in Los Angeles, he served for five years as executive director of the Jewish Community Council and Welfare Fund in Hartford, Conn.

Gallin is survived by his daughter, Linda Carson; a sister, Hilda Block; four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter; and his caregiver, Viola Mortis. His wife of 60 years, Frances, preceded him in death.

Services are at noon today at Courts of TaNaCH Chapel, Mount Sinai Memorial Park.