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Friday November 20, 1998

Jewish Agency struggling to reshuffle its priorities

MARK J. JOFFE
Jerusalem Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM -- Facing a future when its historic mission of rescue and resettlement may one day be done, the Jewish Agency for Israel is struggling to reposition itself and reorder its priorities.

And it is doing so at a time when the landscape of American Jewish philanthropy is rapidly changing around it.

Jewish Agency delegates from around the world grappled with that reality this week as they convened in Jerusalem for the organization's annual meeting.

After hours of debate that included a fair amount of criticism, they adopted a "Shared Vision and Mission Statement" that redefines both the agency's work and its plan to accomplish it.

The adoption of the statement is the first milestone in a planning process that may determine whether the agency will continue to enjoy the support of most Jewish community federations in the United States beyond Dec. 31, 1999 -- when its contract for funding by the United Jewish Appeal expires.

Many federations have been openly critical of the agency and have reduced their annual allocations to it over the years, in some cases funding their own programs in Israel separately.

If this trend leads to the abrogation of a binding arrangement between the federations and the Jewish Agency, it will change the way American Jews have been contributing money to Israel for the last half century.

But, in fact, that process is already changing, as the three central institutions of American Jewish philanthropy -- the United Jewish Appeal, the Council of Jewish Federations and the United Israel Appeal -- put the finishing touches on a merger into a single, streamlined entity.

While many of the specifics of the merger are still being ironed out, one thing is clear, said Bennett Aaron, chairman of UIA. "The federation system in North America wants to have much more control" over the money its donors send to Israel and how that money is being spent.

The mission and vision statement, adopted Monday after three days of extensive debate, was crafted to respond not only to changing needs in Israel but to the changing priorities of the federation system and its donors in North America.

The statement identifies five major areas of activity for the agency:

*Aliyah and rescue, which it defines as its "primary priority at this time."

*Strengthening the relationship between Israel and the rest of world Jewry.

*Enhancing Jewish unity.

*Enhancing Jewish identity.

*Strengthening the state of Israel as a state for all Jews.

All but the "aliyah and rescue" functions are essentially new.

The move to broaden the agency's mandate is "an attempt to grapple with a post-aliyah period," said Shoshana Cardin, immediate past chairman of UIA, which distributes and monitors the use of funds raised by Jewish federations in America for the Jewish Agency.

With just 50,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union now coming to Israel each year and with all but a few thousand Jews rescued from Ethiopia, Cardin said, "we had to have a vision of what the agency would do in the 21st century."

Whether changing the agency will succeed in countering its image as a bloated Israeli bureaucracy that is unresponsive to the needs of its donors remains to be seen.

According to some delegates, that change has already happened.

"This is not the same animal that existed a few years ago," said Nicky Capelouto of Israel, a member of the agency's board of governors.

Others warned that such changes could go too far.

"We have made a fetish out of efficiency and professionalism," exclaimed Jacques Torczyner of New York, a member of the board of governors.

Avraham Burg, chairman of the Jewish Agency, put the assembly's discussions in a broader context.

The Jewish world is "going through a very deep and difficult crisis about identity," he said. The real question, he said, is, "Can the Jewish people survive without an external enemy?"

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