Last update - 00:00 09/07/2007
The invisible benefactor
By Amiram Barkat
If you were to ask the average Israeli which donor organization came to the aid of northern Israel's residents during the Second Lebanon War, the answer would most likely be "Arcadi Gaydamak." Few, if any, would mention others, such as Nochi Dankner or the Jewish Agency. However, only a handful of people are aware that the biggest contributor was actually the United Jewish Communities of North America (UJC). The UJC's emergency appeal launched in the wake of the war has so far raised $350 million. Some $200 million of that sum has already been sent to fund summer camps for children, the refurbishing of bomb shelters, aid programs for the elderly, emotional support for trauma victims and aid to various sectors in the north (the education network, the academic colleges, community services and small businesses.
Nevertheless, the UJC remains an anonymous entity to the Israeli public. Howard Rieger, the UJC's president and CEO, is not upset by this. "Frankly, I'm not so sure I care a lot about whether the average Israeli knows who we are organizationally," he said in an interview to Haaretz. "I would care that the average Israeli knew about the work that we do."
Rieger wants to expose the Israeli public to the nice side of the Jewish community in the United States; to encourage Israelis to contribute more to the community rather than railing against their government. Israelis, Rieger says, preach to American Jews about assimilation but do not understand that their Israeli identity "doesn't get you one or two or three or four generations out."
Rieger illustrates the difference between Jewish identity in Israel and the U.S. with a story about his wife's funeral, which took place in Jerusalem this year. The rabbi of his community, who came from Pittsburgh to conduct the ceremony, wept. "We were often guests at the rabbi's house and he knew my wife very well. When my wife died she was buried in Israel, people who were at the funeral came to me and said, 'Wow, we've never seen a rabbi like that.' Yet Rieger is careful to note that the UJC will not fight to instill American-Jewish values in Israeli society.
"I've learned over the years - and I've been in this work for quite a few years - that your greatest leverage comes when you base your credibility on a real partnership and a real ability to be honest with each other and share concerns. If it ends up becoming a competitive thing, saying 'OK so this is our money and we are going to tell you what to do,' I find those are the moments when you make the least impact. The way you are going to create the greatest impact is when you create the good will and the trust."
When the UJC did try to instill American-Jewish values in Israel, it ended in an embarrassing failure. About two years ago, the UJC and the Israeli government agreed to double the pace of immigration from Ethiopia, to 600 immigrants per month. The UJC, which agreed to raise $100 million for the campaign, launched a special appeal. About $70 million has been raised, but it later became clear that the government does not intend to uphold its side of the deal by doubling the number of immigrants. Rieger found himself in a difficult position vis-a-vis the donors. "I was very disappointed. The government of Israel didn't meet its commitment and it's certainly very frustrating that negotiations are conducted over something and the result is that nothing happens."
The UJC was created in 1999 as a merger of the two largest fundraising appeals for Israel and the umbrella organization of Jewish communities in the U.S. On paper, it is one of the strongest organizations of its kind in the world. The UJC raised nearly $2.5 billion in 2006: $900 million for the annual appeal and the remainder in grants and bequests to its endowment fund.
With a little over 500,000 donors to the annual appeal and representatives from 156 local federations and about 400 independent communities in the U.S. and Canada, the UJC is the only organization that can presume to represent the Jewish collective in North America. But in practice, behind the strength hides a great weakness. When the UJC was set up, the expectation was that the unified organization would succeed in significantly increasing fundraising among American Jews. That did not happen. The only organization that can speak in the name of five million American Jews finds it difficult to speak on behalf of the hundreds of organizations that belong to it, and it is not considered a serious political player in either the U.S. or in Israel.
The Jewish community in North America is wealthier than ever, but only a small share of the money reaches community institutions. Rieger says the Israel Emergency Campaign for northern Israel proved the donors' trust in the UJC. "We raised 360 million dollars. And of all the (other) Jewish organizations that went out to raise money I don't think there's another one that has passed 20 or 25 (million), so somebody out there is saying: 'We trust the federations.'"
According to Rieger, overall contributions to the UJC rise annually, but a look at the number of donors yields a rather gloomy picture: from 2005 to 2006, the number of donors to the annual campaign dropped by over 60,000 (from 564,343 to 503,052), a decline of over ten percent. "The reality is I'm concerned," says Rieger. "I think it's short-sighted to think that more and more money coming from fewer and fewer people will allow us to meet our mandate, which is to be a community-building enterprise."
Fear over the loss of donors is one factor prompting the UJC to avoid controversy. After long deliberation, only recently did the organization decide to offer financial assistance to evacuees from Gush Katif, nearly two years after they were evacuated from their homes. During the Second Lebanon War, Rieger decided that aid money would be given to Israeli Arab communities as well. A storm erupted in the UJC after right-wingers accused it of aiding Israel's enemies. Rieger took a courageous stand and rejected the claims outright. "I made it clear that as Jews who suffered discrimination, we would not draw a line and discriminate between citizens of the state of Israel due to their origin," he explains.
The main reason the UJC is unknown in Israel is that its activities here are carried out by two "partners," the Jewish Agency and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Jewish Agency officials are convinced that the UJC is trying to reduce its support for the Agency, and this frequently creates tensions between the organizations. The most recent example occurred last month, when the UJC announced plans to expand its small office in Israel, which is directed by Nachman Shai. UJC leaders received irate phone calls from leading Jewish Agency donors, and in ads in the Jewish press some Jewish Agency officials threatened to raise funds directly from the federations, bypassing the UJC.
Rieger is quick to clarify that expanding the representation in Israel would not be at the Jewish Agency's expense. According to him, in addition to Shai another executive director was appointed to coordinate all UJC activities outside the U.S. "We basically want to unite several functions in order to improve the management," he says.
In 2006, the UJC transferred $191 million to the Jewish Agency and $70 million to the Joint, but in recent years some competition has emerged for the Jewish Agency in the areas of visits to Israel and immigration. The Taglit (birthright) project brings over 20,000 young Jews to Israel annually. Masa, a similar Jewish Agency project, has not met its goals so far.
In 2001 a private organization, Nefesh B'Nefesh, was established to promote immigration from North America. Since it began operating, immigration from the U.S. and Canada rose by 80 percent. The UJC played only a secondary role in the success of the two programs: It gave Taglit $5.7 million in 2006 (an additional $5 million came from the Jewish Agency). The UJC gave Nefesh B'Nefesh just $166,000 (compared with about $1 million from the Jewish Agency).
Why does the UJC continue giving huge sums to the Jewish Agency and no longer assists other projects that are proven successes? "What Nefesh B'Nefesh basically has done is taken the easiest part of the aliyah equation. I'm not critiquing them for that, it might be actually a stroke of brilliance, but you know anybody can be reasonably successful with well-educated people from the West who show up in Israel and already have a job. I don't see Nefesh B'Nefesh having a mandate that says let's bring people out of Ethiopia. Taglit birthright didn't begin with us. We have been pretty significant partners, to the tune of 10 million dollars a year. I don't think we have to own everything but I'll tell you one thing: If taglit is going to exist ten, twenty years from now, it will only happen if the federations are at the table. We are not always the best with instant innovation, but we have sustainability."