The American Joint Distribution Committee the JDC or Joint is asking the national federation system to change the way it allocates its overseas funding. For some 50 years, the JDC has received 25% of the funds allocated for overseas needs, while the Jewish Agency has received 75%.
This no longer makes sense. JDC Executive Vice President Steven Schwager is right to ask for a fundamental recalculation of the allocation not for a few more dollars this particular year or for that particular program, but a fundamental change. A jacked up percentage for JDC, a jacked down percentage for the Jewish Agency.
The Jewish Agency is an anachronism, a huge bureaucracy with a glorious history now looking for a raison detre. Thats not a reason to send it 75% of some $160 million to $200 million per year.
At one time the Jewish Agency was busy with the sacred work of resettling immigrants in Israel. With every major Diaspora Jewish community in distress now largely settled in Israel, the purpose of the Jewish Agency has been served. Even its charismatic head, Natan Sharansky, says he intends to spend most of his budget in the future on Jewish identity building.
To the extent that immigrants from Diaspora locations in distress continue to trickle into Israel, it is long overdue for the Israeli government itself to pick up the slack. Israel is not the poor basket case it was in 1948, nor even the struggling economy of the 1980s. Israel is a roaring economic success. To be sure, Israel cannot meet every last one of her needs and yes, of course, it would be nice if the Jewish Agency could still resettle immigrants. But the very slight relief that federations dollars provide to the enormous Israeli national budget does not justify leaving other Jews, out of Israel, unfed, unclothed, unkempt, uncared for.
There is no one else to care for Jews in distress around the world other than the JDC. There is someone else to care for Jews in distress in Israel, or for Jews coming to Israel, and that is Israel. Once, the Jewish Agencys funding to Israel provided approximately 50% of Israels total budget. Now, the figure is down to a single percent, perhaps a bit less or a bit more. What is a very small segment of Israels budget is a very big segment of the Diasporas tzedakah resources.
They need to be spent more efficiently and they can be, by the JDC. Jews around the world who are too old or unwilling to come to Israel need the basics: food, shelter or Jewish education. The JDC deserves the bulk of the federation monies raised in the Diaspora for overseas needs.
No one needs the Jewish Agency to assume the work of Jewish identity building. Where will it do this in the Diaspora, in Israel, or both? If Sharansky intends to build Jewish identity in the Diaspora, we already know what builds Jewish identity in the Diaspora. That is Jewish day schools and, to a lesser extent, Jewish camps. Diaspora communities can support them directly, which is infinitely more efficient than sending the same money to another bureaucracy to the Jewish Agency which would then send the money back to the Diaspora. Thats a lot of waste.
If Sharansky intends to build Jewish identity in Israel, again we ask: Why the Jewish Agency? Why not the Israeli government? That is what a government is for. It makes no sense for Diaspora tzedakah to do the work of an Israeli government that is an economic success.
As we say, the Jewish Agency is an anachronism looking for a new mission. Its time has come and gone. The best thing it could do for the Jewish people now would be to scale back drastically or to close down.
The mission of JDC remains vital. It needs and deserves the bulk of federations overseas allocations.
