JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Federation leaders meet with Obama

By Ami Eden · November 9, 2009

From JTA's Eric Fingerhut:

About 50 leaders of The Jewish Federations of North America and Jewish federations across the country, met with President Obama and other top administration officials Monday afternoon at the White House.

The hour-long reception, scheduled after Obama had to cancel his scheduled Tuesday speech to the group's General Assembly because he'll be attending a memorial service for the solider killed at Ft. Hood last week, featured short remarks from Obama. Mostly, though, it was an opportunity to talk and schmooze one-on-one with the president and aides such as chief of staff Rahm Emanuel (who will speak at the GA on Tuesday), top advisers David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag, Special Assistant to the President Dan Shapiro, Office of White House Public Engagement director Tina Tchen, White House Jewish outreach officials Susan Scher (also chief of staff to Michelle Obama) and Danielle Borrin.

Obama, who dropped by for about 30 minutes, said that the Jewish Federations of North America "perform every day of every week selfless acts of tzedakah," according to a person present at the meeting, and spoke about his experience with Chcago's Jewish federation. He also made a pitch on health-care reform, talking about the importance of passing it and stating that he could "see the light at the end of the tunnel." He also said he looked forward to meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later Monday evening.

William Daroff, vice president of public policy and director of The Jewish Fedrations of North America's Washington office, said that the group discussed "issues of concern to the Jewish community, including social services, foreign policy and the recession" with the president and his senior staff.

"To have the opportunity to speak one-on-one with the president and socialize with White Hosue staff is a once in a lifetime opportunity for which we are grateful," Daroff said. "It helped to move the ball forward on our public policy goals."

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The Jewish Agency implements structural changes

By Jacob Berkman · November 9, 2009

This is one of the reasons the GA is great for philanthropy reporters.

This is a pretty important story for which we never saw a press release.

Moshe Vigdor, the director general of the Jewish Agency for Israel, said that the organization implemented a series of serious structural changes Nov. 1.

Vigdor, speaking at a GA workshop about  streamlining Jewish communities, described some of the attempts of the Jewish Agency to cut its budget over the past several years as it attempts to transform into a better-run organization.

“We decided to take the financial crisis as an opportunity,” Vigdor said. “We had a 25 percent shortfall [last year] and other definciencies. We had a problem with the shrinking dollar and other cuts, and we  wanted to ensure that we worked as one unified entity.”

The changes were also due to mounting pressure from the federation system, to which he alluded.

“We believe in the collective system, and we had to prove to the collective system that we are using the dollars correctly,” Vigdor said. “There was no outside consultation, just meeting every other day or three days and talking about what we need to do to have a unified entity.”

Among the changes the Agency has implemented:

• The Agency created one financial center, where it used to have several.
• It centralized its Financial Resource Development. Instead of having different parts of the Agency going to federations looking for money, the Agency will go to the federations now as one entity.
• The group consolidated its marketing operations and now has one marketing center.
• The Agency has resized its the staff, cutting it down by 25 percent. It has also turned most of its staff into are project workers, neither of which was easy to do with unions in Israel Europe and Latin America, Vigdor said.
• The Agency has attempted to downsize by taking some of its branches and turning them into separate yet wholly owned subsidiaries. Small operations are much more attractive to donors who seek economical optimization, he said. (This idea came from Jewish Agency board member Eitan Wertheimer, a close ally of Warren Buffet. The idea was to take this large entity and break it down into a bunch of smaller groups that answer to a central office or Agency.)
• Beyond that, the Agency defined its employees' roles and job descriptions. 
• It has made employees sign service level agreements.
• And it has merged its alliyah and education departments.

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Recalling Soviet days, Sharansky hits home for Jewish Agency

By Jacob Berkman · November 9, 2009

Yesterday, the CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Steve Schwager gave his pitch for more money from the federation. Today it was the turn of the new chairman of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky.

This was the fourth time that I have seen Sharansky speak in the past week, and he clearly saved his best for the biggest stage, 2,000 or so people here for the warm up act for Israel's prime minister, Bibi Netanyahu.

Sharansky, who is a longtime personal and political ally of Netanyahu, and who was put in place as the Jewish Agency head by Netanyahu, certainly gave his friend a rousing set up. 

Sharansky got received a standing ovation as he took the stage to regal music, befitting of the savior that many in the embattled Jewish Agency believe that he is.

On the 20th anniversary of the day that the Berlin Wall fell – an event in which Sharansky the former famous Soviet dissident played a major role – the Jewish Agency chairman drew more heavily on his past than I have seen him on this speaking tour.

When he was a foot soldier in the struggle for the freedom of Soviet Jewry and the fight to bring down the Iron Curtain, Sharansky said that he was often told that he had to choose between the universal cause and the specific national Jewish cause.

But that choice that he had to make in the struggle for freedom is not all that different from the struggle for identity that Jews today face.

“In the post nationalist, post identity world where people are once again asked to make a choice.  Do you believe in the universal value of human rights you are told why do you hold onto individual nationalism. Do we really want to shelter ourselves in the cocoon of a Jewish state?” he asked. “When one young Jew believes he or she must make a choice that he or she cannot belong to both, then they make the choice in favor of universalism, then assimilation erodes our community. Our detractos sense our weakness and our hesitation.”

Sharansky is clearly positioning the Jewish Agency as an identity building organization.

“Identity strengthening is the best answer in the struggle for the freedom of Israel,” he said. The most important thing today, like yesterday, 20 years ago is the return to our Jewish roots. Rebuilding our Jewish identity can allow us to fight for tikun olam everywhere, for justice and for freedom for everyone.

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A GA pitch for Birthright

By Jacob Berkman · November 9, 2009

Susie Gelman, the former chairwoman of the Birthright Israel Foundation, and a major federation lay leader of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and one of the official hostso fo this GA, just made a pitch for Birthright in front of a couple of thousand folks at the GA's second plenary.

Birthright advocates have certainly been ringing the fund-raising bell louder in recent weeks, bolstered by a new study by Brandeis that they say shows that Birthright is it in terms of Jewish identity.

Yet three applicants are wait listed for ever one person aged 18-26 that is able to go on the trip each year, Gelman said, adding that Birthright has a waitlist of 13,000 people.

“We are trying to do more with less,” she said. “But we cannot allow ourselves to be so consumed with the present challenges that we bankrupt our future. The solution is right before our eyes – Birthright Israel.”

Birthright funding is very much on the GA map. Yesterday I tweeted on an event at the Israel Embassy at which Michael Steinhardt, Charles BRonfman and Natan Sharansky spoke about Birthright, and later todya there will be a session at which the Brandeis and Birthright folks talk about the results of the study that Gelman referenced... which you can read about here.

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Silverman: We can get through this stronger if we work together

By Jacob Berkman · November 9, 2009

Jerry Silverman just gave his first stage of the federations address as the CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, delivering the messag eof hpe that many have attached simply to his hiring.

In our past interviews, Silverman has tried to assuage some of the more extreme in the system who think that he is going to be able to come into the system, hit the ground running, and cure all of the federations' problems in one fell swoop. He's gone as far as saying, “I'm not the Messiah.”

The federation system has some deep rooted problems – which no one involved will deny. If anything, though, Silverman is a harbinger of hope, and he tried to put forth that message Monday morning, just before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to speak.

Silverman and the federations must raise as much cash as possible for a system that saw its intake drop by at least $80 million last year.

No easy task for a system in dire need of some serious change. Silverman repeated a message that he took from a meeting with Les Wexner, the chairman of The Limited, and a  major federation donor in Ohio: “What got us here wont get us there,” he sad. “We as a community need to work on what is going to get us there.”

That will take a new leadership model, Silverman said, one that he is confident the federation system can build if it works together as a cohesive unit. 

“We have all the necessary expertise to make sure our global Jewish community will flourish and that we will be able to raise that bar. But we will have to stop making Shabbat individually and start  celebrating Shabbat together,” he said. “We must work differently as a Jewish community to build a common language with younger Jewish adults so we can make kiddush together with them.”

We need to engage new consumers and a plethora of new investors who connect with our big ideas,” Silverman continued. “I am proud of our system. We have shown that if we can take a punch and still move forward, we can build a leadership model for the future.”

Silverman has been saying that there are five areas on which he would like the Jewish Federations to focus so that they can move forward:  The collective, positioning the federations for the future, really thinking about lay and professional leadership and the overseas agenda, being preeminent and strategic in thinking of financial resource development, and enhancing our ability to influence public policy and increase the productivity of our Washington office.”

“We have many problems to solve, and we wont agree on any point,” he said. “But we have shown in the last year of challenge the ability to make real and unprecedented progress... If we work together effectively, ther eis no limit to what we can accomplish. After all anything is possible.”

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Some philanthropy details

By Jacob Berkman · November 9, 2009

Morlie Levin, the former president of Hadassah read off  some general findings on the impact of the economy on Jewish philanthropy, according to the JPPI study, which has not been released yet: The vast majority of Jews, now 90 percent live, in economically affluent and politically stable environments.

Israel ranks 27 out of 179 countries on the UN's Human development Index, which looks at a country's citizens' life expectancy, individual GDP and education.

Germany ranks 29, the U.K. Ranks 22 , and the U.S ranks 13.

There are longstanding trends in philanthropy, it is becoming decentralized, there is a proliferation of nonprofits and an increase in competition for dollars – and donors have become more focused and specific in their giving. There has also been an increase in giving.

The age of the average donor is becoming older.

There has been a proliferation of foundations.

Staffs at foundations have become more professional.

Because of the recession, endowments are down significantly.

Madoff had an impact, not only in dollars loss but in the way institutions now work.

There have been reductions in staff.

But, the general sentiment of the report, according to Levin, is that the economic crisis will not have a multilateral effect on longstanding trends in philanthropy. That is not to say that organizations are not being effected, they are struggling to adapt in the short term, but we believe it is a short term situation. 

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JPPPI and the Iran threat

By Jacob Berkman · November 9, 2009

Okay. Maybe I missed the point of this session.

The preview for this session said that panelists would discuss the JPPPI's “2009 Annual Assessment on the Situation and Dynamics of the Jewish People,” including the “impact of the economic crisis on the Jewish People and b) The Israel/USA/Jewish community triangle.” No mention of Iran and Islamists and war in the preview, but I guess that I should have known given the list of speakers. Stuart Eizenstat, including the JPPI's president, who happens to be a former IDF head of intelligence.

I guess its a product of my training, but I hear economic impact on the Jewish people and I think “how am I ever going to afford day schools.”

According to this panel, it seems that economic downturn means that Islamists are now more powerful in their fight against Israel. 

The world is in an economic decline. So  what does it mean for the Jewish people and Israel, according to Eizenstat?

There has been a dramatic shift of economic power to China, Brazil and Russia, and the US properly has recognized the reality of moving from the old G-8 countries to the G-20, he said. There are more countries sharing geo-political economic power, but that changes the playing field for Israel, he said.

“The US does not have the capacity to solve the world's problems alone. It has to cooperate with countries that do not always share the US's deep commitment to Israel,” he said.

Jews have always suffered instabilities, and Israel has already been a principal beneficiary of globalization, namely that it is at the forefront of the tech boom and much of the global shift in money is based on technology.

“I think will be to a great advantage,” he said.

But globalization and an increase in technology has its pitfalls, Eizanstat said.

Namely: “Jihadists Web sites on the internet are used for the communication and planning of terror attacks,” and “Just like the arms race during the cold war, there is a race for internet supremacy.”

Israel now needs to reach out to the china's India's Brazil's of the world.

There has been a rise in radical Islamists. (“We should not approach this as a war of civilizations between West and Israel,” he said. “It is much more a war within the Muslim world. This is a battle between pro western modernizing states and pro western autocratic states and rejectionist radical Jihadist states supported by Iran,” he said.)

And Iran is close to developing nuclear power.

So what should Israel do?

“The US, notwithstanding the fact that the gap between itself and the developing world remains Israels most important ally and only dependable ally. We must do anything to keep America's economic stability intact. There is no other country willing to tackle the kins.

Also, he said, Israel has a role to play in stabilizing the Mideast  region  by sharing its technology and educational resources.

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Iran? Really?

By Jacob Berkman · November 9, 2009

For some reason this session on the economic crisis started off with an address by Canadian Parliament member Irwin Cotler, about the threat of Iran.

After focusing on Iran's military threat, he turned to “the matter of domestic repression” built on “the murder the beatings the imprisonments, the rape and the like, and the things we don't know about."

"There have also been Stalinist show trials with forced confessions,” he said.

“If we want to combat Ahmadinejad's Iran, we have to focus in the aggregated four effects,” he added. “We have been focusing on the nuclear threat, but may have sanitized the threat of genocide.”

Cotler then turned to the Goldstone report.

Fundermentalist's take: I hope it's not going to be one of these days...

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Edelstein: A time to cut?

By Jacob Berkman · November 9, 2009

Yuli Edelstein, Israel's minister of diaspora affairs, just opened up a workshop given by the Nadav Fund about the findings of a soon to be released Jewish People Planning Policy Institute.

I'm interested in this panel because it will essentially give Israel's thoughts on where we are as a Jewish world in the pos-recession world, a view that differs slightly from that in North America.

Edlestein is an interesting character for the federation world, as he played a very public role in placing Natan Sharansky as the head of the Jewish Agency this summer, essentially telling the Jewish Agency through the press that if it did not accept Sharansky, it could lose its exclusive partnership with Israel's government -- exactly the kind of old school political influence the Jewish Agency at the time was very much trying to escape.

Sharansky's nomination ultimately was pushed through, and we will see how it works out. 

But that also gives an interesting backdrop for Edelstein's introduction, in which he pressed giving up some of the old in order to push through this tightened economy.

“The headlines and analysis from different newspapers have very practical influence on what a school in a distant Jewish community has to think in temrs of planning the budget form next year.

“Now communities are struggling institutions are struggling,” he said. “We have to really set our priorities and this I guess is a really good time.”

Edelstein said that it might be time to think about cutting back on certain nonessential projects, at least for a year or so until the economy loosens up -- that is aside from reaching out to young people.

“The younger generation we cant really neglect for a month. Just a year or two could make all of the negative difference,” he said. “The old code phrases” like the Holocaust and Israel's wars “are not working so much with the younger generation.

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