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GA conference / JA Chairman Ze'ev Bielski blames $45 million cutback on financial crisis By Cnaan Liphshiz In a well-timed move, the Jewish Agency held a press conference two weeks ago to announce internal cutbacks and layoffs. The announcement allowed JA Chairman Ze'ev Bielski to arrive at the organization's annual assembly, which concluded yesterday in Jerusalem, with one less closeted skeleton to worry about. Indeed, given the assembly's broad and well-publicized forum made up of 1,000 Jewish Agency officials and partners, it might have been difficult to keep rumors of impending dismissals under wraps and out of the papers - as Bielski himself is quite willing to concede. Advertisement "After some deliberation we decided to go public instead of having it leak little by little," Bielski told Haaretz in an interview ahead of the assembly this week, which preceded the United Jewish Communities General Assembly. The two events this year drew thousands of people from all over the world, and constitute the most important gathering for the leaders of North America's Jewish communities. By citing the world financial crisis as the reason for the $45-million slash, JA workers would be more understanding of the move, Bielski said. "We needed to signal to our staffers that all is not well, that these are difficult times," Bielski elaborated, adding this could help persuade workers to take on new duties that would not entail a raise in pay. And it may prove instrumental in obtaining much-needed funding from the UJC and other partner groups - despite the financial crisis. Arguably, their trust in the Jewish Agency may increase when they hear the organization is streamlining. "We are not feeling the effects of the crisis in donations yet," Bielski said, "but we were hit hard by the devaluation of the U.S. dollar." He adds: "We lost tens of millions of dollars to this, and the money's got to come from somewhere because we already committed ourselves to projects before the dollar plummeted." Josh Schwarcz, JA secretary-general, told Haaretz on Friday that the cutbacks also manifested themselves at the assembly itself. "We went for a partial, two-day program and incorporated it into the GA to bring down expenses," he explained. Yesterday, Bielski said that despite the crisis, some of the agency's partners had pledged to transfer the same volume amount of donations in 2009 as in the previous year. "With a little bit of effort, they might even top that," he says. Bielski did not specify which partners he meant. Noting a recent conversation with UJC President Howard M. Rieger, Bielski says: "I explained the significance of the cutbacks to him, and who knows, maybe UJC will decide they want to borrow for us. To say: 'Hey, this is a tough period for the Jewish Agency and we need to help.' Because the partnership with UJC is not temporary, its a steady cooperation." Still, Bielski concedes that the slashes are only partly connected to the crisis. Indeed, the Jewish Agency has been downsizing for many months now - as can be observed in the sale of its former absorption center near Tel-Aviv University and in Arad, and most recently in delegating immigration-assistance organization Nefesh B'Nefesh to act on the Agency's behalf in North America. "It's true," Bielski says. "We have been downsizing because we need to adapt. We used to get 60,000 new immigrants every year and now we only get 20,000. So we have to let some people go." He noted, however, that the crisis "is sure to affect donations from abroad," and that the agency needed to brace for this. "The current cutbacks are a result of both issues." Bielski says he plans to jointly develop two parallel modi operandi for weathering the crisis. "When donors decide to tighten their belts, that's when we need to work on making donations for Israel an exception. To tell them that we know what they're going through, but persuade them that we are something different." The other course of action, which Bielski says is more up to UJC, is to tap into new reservoirs. "There are many Jewish people in America who are not donating money to Israel, and the UJC has to work very hard now on finding ways to engage them." The Jewish Agency has its own exceptions, too, according to Bielski. He says the slash and layoffs will help the Jewish Agency better address the needs of the South African Jewish community. "South Africa is very, very high up on our priorities, and I have talked about this with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. If the South African community isn't the most Zionist community in the world, then it's certainly high on the list. We owe them." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Crime boss killed Ya'akov Alperon was killed just after his son was indicted for alleged murder attempt Peres at GA, Jerusalem Peres stresses that strong U.S. Israeli ties will not change under Obama's administration

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