HIAS and the wisest Jewish use of $55 million

It is a sign of success for a Jewish organization to fulfill its mission. HIAS has done so. It is now time to devote the great proportion of Jewish resources to current Jewish crises.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society had a long and distinguished history of service to the Jewish people, meeting many crises: the Russian pogroms of the 1880s, the massive dislocation of Jewish communities during WW I, the travails of Holocaust survivors, the mass emigration from the USSR in the late 20th century, to name some of the major historical benchmarks.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society no longer exists. It has become “HIAS,” not as a nickname, but as a formal name. The name change reflects far more than the marketing trend of the past few decades to shorten formal names into their familiar initials. HIAS no longer exists in this profound sense: for the past two decades or so, the major crises that prompted major movements of Jewish populations around the Diaspora have mostly ceased.

The only exception — and even this is on a drastically smaller scale than the historical crisis that HIAS alleviated — is Jews leaving the Ukraine. They are aided by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and they are mostly going to Israel. HIAS has no major role in resettling Ukaine’s Jews, if any role at all.

HIAS’ 2017 budget is $55 million. It is money not directed to aiding masses of Jews in distress, whether due to war or political upheaval. It is money that would be much better spent on those institutions that, in this day and age, do aid masses of Jews in distress. This $55 million is money in search of a Jewish value, not of Jews themselves. It is money in search of a mission.

HIAS’ new mission is the resettling or the welcoming of non-Jewish immigrants or refugees. It is also a task that is undertaken by a host of other agencies, be they private non-profits or governmental agencies.

It is beyond our skill set to know whether HIAS resettles or welcomes refugees more effectively than other agencies. For our purposes here, we shall assume, without evidence one way or the other, that HIAS is superior. It is still the case that tens of millions of dollars are going to an agency that has outlived its mission to the Jewish people.

For those who feel that in the present political climate it is a high Jewish value to resettle or welcome refugees — a complicated issue on which here we reserve opinion —it remains perfectly clear that Jews may express this value by helping these very same refugees through other agencies, whose mission it is to help them. A Jewish value of welcoming the stranger is not one whit less Jewish for being expressed through non-Jewish resettlement agencies or programs, be they secular, governmental or religious.

Indeed, the argument can be made that the most direct and effective way for Jews to communicate Jewish values around resettlement is through active participation by Jews in general social welfare organizations.

It is the continuity of the Jewish people that is the current Jewish crisis. It is the meltaway in Jewish identity that is the current Jewish crisis. It is the fact that less than 10% of the grandchildren of intermarried couples are being raised Jewish, by any definition. It is the drastic drop in Jewish literacy, in knowledge of Hebrew and of the vast array of Jewish sources in Hebrew, that is the current crisis. It is the decline of the nuclear Jewish family, the decline in synagogue affiliation, the drop-off among Jewish youth, the distancing from Israel, that constitute the current Jewish crisis.

A Jewish free loan fund in San Francisco no longer gives loans toward the purchase of a taxi medallion. It extended a lot of those loans to Soviet Jewish immigrants to the US some 40 years ago. Taxis were a relatively simple workplace to enter. Now, the same fund no longer extends loans for the purchase of a medallion; rather, it extends loans to purchase cars for Uber drivers. New times. New policies. New needs. New techniques.

It’s called sober adaptation.

HIAS should adapt by assuming its proud place in history, resting on its considerable laurels, letting others do the general societal refugee work, graciously folding, and encouraging its supporters to devote their resources to the current needs — specifically, to those who deal with the massive Jewish crisis of continuity.

We are well aware that resources directed to any agency deemed important by the donor will not automatically be redirected to those agencies more suited to meet the current crises in the Jewish people. But a considerable portion would be. Sooner or later, people adapt to the idea whose time has come.

We know that social justice projects can build the Jewish identity of some Jewish youth. We also know that social justice, inherently valuable, is a tributary, not the river. In any event, it is a tributary already available elsewhere. There is no Jewish wisdom in duplicating a salary structure, benefits, expenses, etc.

Those agencies best suited to meet the current challenges to the Jewish people in the Diaspora are intensive Jewish day schools and other Jewish literacy projects, with Jewish camping and culture potentially playing an important secondary role.

The most pressing Jewish value at this time is Jewish continuity. It is true that this can be achieved in a variety of ways, but there are certain ways statistically proven to be the best sociological bet. The direction of tens of millions of dollars to doing the work that others are already doing should change. The wisest use of the financial resources of the Jewish people will meet the most pressing Jewish crisis at this juncture in Jewish history.

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