No, Dr. Jaffe
Loup, Robert E.
NO, DR. JAFFE The National Chairman of United Jewish Appeal replies to a critique of the Jewish Agency It is a misleading disservice to the historical record and to the Jewish people to represent...
...Jaffe's image of the powerless, acquiescent, disregarded American Jewry, unable to penetrate the circles of Agency power or to oppose the Agency's disruption of its philanthropic intent is largely built on quotations from a letter written to him by a Jewish communal leader in the United States...
...He and they participate personally in those meetings...
...The total is not three out of 13, but six out of 13—and I cannot understand the alarm caused by a 7-6 balance "in favor" of resident Israelis in managing an agency that operates programs in Israel...
...In other countries, these functions are conducted by the Keren Hayesod, and it is Keren Hayesod that designates representatives to the Agency Assembly from those countries...
...The facts are that the Jewish Agency has been and continues to be a developer and innovator of vast social, agricultural, educational and developmental programs—the latest and most imaginative of which, Project Renewal, is one of the most impressive instruments for social justice, national cohesion and human self-determination anywhere in the world...
...The price we have paid for this "irresponsibility," he asserts, has been relegation to "third class status...
...A clear conviction had developed among the American leaders of these institutions—as well as in Israel and other countries of the diaspora—that it was not enough for Jews outside of Israel merely to raise funds...
...That is why Eliezer Jaffe does us a double disservice when he concludes, on the basis of his misrepresentation of reality, that we ought to abandon the effort, that we ought to bring to an end this unique cooperative effort between leaders of the Jewish communities of the free world and the people of Israel...
...Further, as a fixed rule, the Chairman of the Board of Governors is a diaspora leader...
...Jaffe knows that, as he must also know that a central guideline informing the Reconstitution agreement of 1971 is that "WZO party considerations are irrelevant to the Agency's operations...
...It is an enterprise in which American Jews can be proud to serve as equal partners...
...And that exact parity prevails as well on the Agency's policy-making Board of Governors, in which there are 31 representatives of each element, designated in exactly the same way...
...The document that Dr...
...Jaffe's message is wrong on three basic counts: ?Powerlessness...
...Ways had to be developed for them to be involved, as well, in determining the uses to which the funds they had raised would be put...
...Of course the Agency has problems—what organization of its scope does not?—but nowhere in Jaffe's assessment would the reader learn that the Agency has been and is deeply and energetically engaged in an ongoing effort to address those problems and to increase both its efficiency and its effectiveness...
...That is inevitable, and the effort to improve the Agency is, therefore, ongoing...
...Since 1971, when that new arrangement was established, of the 340 members of the Jewish Agency Assembly—the body that reviews the needs, programs, budget and policy of the Agency and elects its senior officers—170 are "Zionist" representatives (designated by the WZO, the World Zionist Organization), and 170 are representatives of diaspora leadership, designated in the U.S...
...Jaffe expresses concern about the alleged misuse of American Jewish philanthropic funds in Israel, and seeks to deliver a message to the leadership of the American Jewish community which is the source of those funds...
...Specifically, he informs us that in our relations with the Jewish Agency, we are the "powerless" dupes of a manipulative and "politicized" body to whose operating budget we forward funds from the United Jewish Appeal campaign...
...The minutes describe the provisions of an agreement proposed by the representatives of the Ministry of Housing, and the provisions of that proposal would, as Jaffe says, have radically restricted Agency responsibility for various aspects of Project Renewal...
...But the point—and it is astonishing that Jaffe so substantially misses the point—is that not one single provision that was proposed was in fact accepted...
...With regard to the matter of power, there are measurable facts that make clear the parity of world fundraising leadership on the governing bodies of the Jewish Agency...
...Jaffe has to say about this extraordinary institution and its remarkable achievements...
...Avraham Avi-Hai, is another...
...Jaffe's so-called "powerless" diaspora leaders...
...we have permitted ourselves to be deprived of a voice in the use of the funds we have raised and forwarded to Israel...
...The selection of Jewish Agency department heads and their directors-general primarily on the basis of political party affiliation is being reduced, and will be eliminated within this decade . . . largely through the efforts of Dr...
...JAFFE The National Chairman of United Jewish Appeal replies to a critique of the Jewish Agency It is a misleading disservice to the historical record and to the Jewish people to represent the Jewish Agency as Dr...
...In that re-examination, diaspora and Israeli leaders engage in in-depth study and in frank exchange of views...
...The direct appropriation of diaspora campaign funds for social welfare programs of Israel's political parties was abolished nearly 20 years ago...
...A leadership that asked for greater functional responsibility was not then, in 1969—and is not now, in 1983—one that would tolerate a manipulated retreat into "powerlessness...
...Since the Reconstitution of the Agency, the Chairman has been Max Fisher...
...Diaspora leaders who participated in that historic meeting expressed their willingness—indeed, their eagerness—to share responsibility in the planning and execution of the tasks of the Jewish Agency...
...Max Fisher is the third...
...Jaffe describes, and there is no such agreement now...
...Jaffe describes, one reduced to the ceremonial and the cosmetic, its important functions carried off by the Ministry of Housing under a mysterious and nefarious agreement...
...As National Chairman of the campaign that Jaffe claims is being subverted, and as a representative of the American Jewish leadership to whom he has delivered his message and expressed his concern, I am constrained to respond—and sharply, for the Jaffe message is misinformed in its substance and unjust in its assessment...
...Dr...
...The Agency continues to have a fully functional planning department...
...Jewish communities that are linked to that landmark social rehabilitation program...
...That is a most curious source for Dr...
...Jaffe notwithstanding...
...my Keren Hayesod counterpart, Dr...
...The selection of department heads and directors-general of the Agency is subject to consultation and consent of the Agency's disaspora partners...
...The signature of an Agency official that constitutes proof of the "deal" to Dr...
...The Agency continues to have voting representatives on every Project Renewal steering committee in the country...
...When Whitkon assumed his post, he did not find a program such as Dr...
...And what of the Jewish Agency Executive, the body that has direct, ongoing operational responsibility...
...The calls for parity between Zionist and "non-Zionist" (i.e., fundraising) elements in the Agency's management began to surface as far back as 1967, following the Six Day War...
...The most recent appointment of a department director-general through this depoliticized process is that of Gideon Whitkon, the new director-general of the Agency's Project Renewal department...
...Jaffe is in fact merely a signature that attests that the minutes were accurately rendered...
...Jaffe's ultimate misdirection, however, lies in the more general area of his characterization—really, mischaracterization—of the Jewish Agency...
...Project Renewal is not, as Dr...
...These are not merely routine assertions of cosmetic arrangements...
...There has never been an "agreement" regarding Project Renewal of the kind that Dr...
...Jaffe describes as an agreement, and on the basis of which he draws his grim conclusions, is clearly marked as the minutes of two meetings held last December...
...Jaffe is technically correct when he states that the UIA's American "share" (107) is but 30 percent of the overall Assembly membership—but that misses the essential point that total diaspora representation is exactly 50 percent of the membership...
...Project Renewal proceeds today as it did in the past, with the full participation of the Agency and of representatives of the linked American Jewish communities...
...Dr...
...the aim is to build a better Agency...
...He simply overlooks two more American and one diaspora member...
...They are active, as well, together with other diaspora leaders, on the commission established by the Caesarea Process...
...Project Renewal...
...And American Jewish leaders have consistently chaired the most pivotal of the Board's committees, thereby playing a key role in the shaping of policy...
...What is it that Dr...
...And American Jewish leadership in the Agency, far from showing benevolent (or any other kind of) tolerance for the intrusion of politics into its affairs, has been determinedly insistent that competence alone, and no other consideration, must be the basis for the selection of all candidates for Agency portfolios...
...Eliezer Jaffe did in the April issue of moment...
...We have collaborated in achieving this state of impotence, he maintains, by a "benevolent tolerance" of "the intrusion of Israeli politics into the distribution of American Jewish philanthropy...
...On the contrary: Although there was debate and there were differences, the upshot of the diaspora demand for greater involvement was a new distribution of responsibility...
...Jaffe to rely on, since, when he used those same quotes earlier on in an article he wrote in the Jerusalem Post, the leader in question informed Jaffe that he had been misquoted and his thoughts taken out of context...
...In the most recent period, the presence, involvement, influence and decision-making discretion of American Jewish communities has become, if anything, stronger than before...
...It is an example of the kind of intensive participation that Project Renewal involves, an illustration of American donor involvement that keeps expanding and that simply cannot be described as "third class...
...As I have already observed, the old tradition of allocating funds to Israel's political parties to subsidize their social welfare activities ended many years ago...
...Project Renewal has been and remains a partnership whose participants are the Jewish Agency, the Ministry of Housing and the linked diaspora communities...
...Since the proclamation of Statehood, and largely with funds generated by diaspora campaigns, the Jewish Agency has assisted in the absorption of nearly 1,800,000 immigrants . . . established over 500 agricultural settlements with some 150,000 settlers . . . provided more than 350,000 housing solutions for immigrants families . . . and enabled well over 150,000 youngsters to enter the mainstream of Israeli society through the programs of Youth Aliyah...
...The WZO is, to be sure, a political enterprise—but it is not, as Dr...
...Nor were the meetings kept secret from American Jewry, as Jaffe asserts they were...
...I am one of the three he doesn't count...
...Jaffe says it is, under the control of Israel's Ministry of Housing...
...And the fact is that every director-general now in office was selected by a search committee of the Agency Board without regard to political affiliation...
...At the invitation of Louis Pincus, then Chairman of the Jewish Agency, the response was led by Max M. Fisher of Detroit, who had served as Chairman of UJA, the United Israel Appeal (UIA) and the Council of Jewish Federations...
...It is worth reviewing the details of that reality, in order to put to rest its distorted characterization...
...Nor are we here describing a "paper" arrangement...
...Evaluation of Project Renewal continues to be provided by an International Evaluation Committee, a team of American, European and Israeli academics whose work is funded jointly by the Agency and the government...
...Fisher and his colleagues from around the world do not—as was the practice in the pre-State Agency—send delegates to represent them at Board of Governors meetings...
...Inaugurated by Fisher in 1980, and entered into willingly by all members of the Agency Board of Governors, the Caesarea Process involves a sweeping re-examination of the Agency's goals, governance, management and fiscal procedures...
...In one way or another today, the Jewish Agency programs and services directly—and positively—affect the lives of some 600,000 Jews in Israel— and, indirectly, very many more...
...And, as proof of all this, he points to an "agreement" on Project Renewal between representatives of the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency that purportedly eliminates any participatory role by the American Robert E. Loup, of Denver, is National Chairman of the United Jewish Appeal...
...I think it no exaggeration to assert that the Jewish Agency is a vigorous life force, responding compassionately and constructively to the needs of people...
...The issue was raised—and put to rest...
...That is more communities, earlier in the year, than have ever before engaged in this process...
...They are verifiable descriptions of an important reality, the misleading misinformation put forward by Dr...
...The position of American Jews in the Jewish Agency (along with our counterparts from Keren Hayesod countries around the world) is one of parity, not powerless-ness . . . and has been so for nearly 12 years...
...These facts have been a matter of record since the ratification of an agreement for the Reconstitution of the Agency in 1971...
...by the United Israel Appeal, Inc...
...Politicization...
...The United Israel Appeal is the United Jewish Appeal's constituent body responsible for transmitting campaign funds to the Jewish Agency and for approving and overseeing their use...
...What Jaffe describes is an entirely conventional episode, one that is virtually inevitable whenever different agencies with different mandates are brought together in a coordinated effort...
...This conviction was given form and bite at the Conference on Human Needs in Israel in June 1969...
...Jaffe's alarm regarding the "politicization" of the Agency structure, function and distribution of funds...
...In the first three months of 1983, delegates from more than 30 American Jewish communities met with local residents of their linked neighborhoods in a round of annual budget consultations...
...For a dozen years now, the Agency and the WZO have been separated in fact and in function...
...Jaffe seems especially disturbed by the appointment of membership on that critical body, contending that American membership is limited to three out of 13...
...Nor can I understand Dr...
...What he does not describe is the successful insistence, by the Agency, on its continuing responsibility...
...Jaffe maintains, the "action arm" of the WZO...
...Jaffe contends, the "parent" body of the Jewish Agency, nor is the Agency, as Dr...
...There may well be much in its operation, structure and administration that requires correction and.adjustment...
...Nowhere in Jaffe's presentation will the reader learn anything of the real, measurable achievements of the Agency as a life-building force during the 35 years of Israel's reborn independence...
...Yechiel Admoni, then director-general of the Project Renewal department, took part in the meetings and provided advance notice of them to the leadership of the United Jewish Appeal—and then reported their proceedings to us...
Vol. 8 • June 1983 • No. 6
