JPost: American Jewish Committee and American Jewish Congress in merger talks
The American Jewish Committee and the American Jewish Congress are in merger talks, reports The Jerusalem Post.
According to the story, the talks are being prompted by the AJCongress' dire financial situation:
Even before the financial collapse, which may have cost the group as much as 90 percent of its roughly $24 million endowment, the congress lacked a large membership and donor base.
According to its Internal Revenue Service Form 990 for 2008, its net assets dropped from $16.9m. in 2007 to $3.8m. in 2008. It has spent much of the time since the collapse trying to find a replacement financial base.
Now, The Jerusalem Post has learned, theorganization is speaking to the AmericanJewish Committee in an effort to initiate some type of merger with the much larger advocacy group, whose 2008 Form 990 showed net assets of $117m.
The 104-year-old committee is one of the largest and most influential US Jewish organizations.
The contacts are still in the initial stages, though congress officials have been considering a merger for some time, according to sources.
Share
2 Comments
Comments RSS Feed Reader Comments
Leave a Comment
To leave a comment, you must first be logged in to JTA. If you are not registered, please click here.
Already a JTA member?
Need to know? Get JTA's free e-newsletters!
Moishgil
04/26/10 10:42 PM
For me, as a committed, observant Jew who subscribes to more progressive views on American and Israeli politics, nothing troubles me more than Jewish people and Jewish groups who honor and sing the praises of pro-Israel individuals and groups, regardless of their track record on human rights and social justice. Last year, the AJ Committee permanently burned its bridge with me when it chose to honor Rupert Murdoch. In my estimation, no one has done more damage to the term “objective news reporting;” no one in the media has done more to cheapen the noble profession of journalism that this billionaire who, if he is not selling sleaze in low-brow tabloids, offers the world right-wing propaganda the guise of news. Nothing does more damage to the cause of human rights and democracy than selective news reporting. Let’s hope that if there is a merger between the American Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee, it will bring leadership the helm of the new organization that has more respect for truth and Jewish values.