Time To ‘Retool’ the Jewish Agency

from the New York Jewish Week:

The Jewish Agency for Israel’s (JAFI) decision last week to outsource the entire aliyah operation in North America to Nefesh B’Nefesh, a 6-year-old American group promoting aliyah, is indicative of both the need for change in the American Jewish community’s relationship with Israel and in JAFI’s relationship to the organized Jewish community…

The time has come to institutionalize the direct relationships among federation leadership and Israeli philanthropists.  It is not only a way to work together to meet the human service, social, health, educational needs, among others, in Israel, but it is also an approach that will lead to closer ties between Israelis and American Jews…

Utilizing the decision to outsource aliyah service to Nefesh B’Nefesh should be taken as heralding the beginning of new ways of working together with non-profits in Israel.  It should be replicated in other service areas and the connections should be made directly, thus strengthening the ties between Israel and the North American Jewish community.

Excerpts are from the article , Time to ‘Retool’ Jewish Agency by Stephen Donshik, formerly director of the Israel Office of UJA-Federation of New York. Click the link for the complete article.