A Blessing in Disguise?

It is a known fact that when the JAFI BoG comes to town, both Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post are extensively read to see what is being said about them and the programs they hold dear. Particularly the Friday and Sunday editions. Writing in today’s Haaretz about the cash crunch at the Jewish Agency, Anshel Pfeffer tell us:

“What can we do? Every time the dollar goes down another ten agorot, that’s another $3 million of our budget.” That was the neat equation Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski offered members of the Knesset Immigration Committee this week to explain his organization’s financial woes. How simple – it’s not us, it’s the weak dollar…

And Bielski, of course, is not making it up. Across the Jewish spectrum, organizations are griping about the greenback’s descent…

[eJP: but, and here’s the kicker] “The dollar is not the agency’s biggest problem; American Jewry still has enough money to save it,” said one of the organization’s more experienced hands. “The problem is that fewer wealthy Jews of the younger generation in the U.S. are prepared to give money to Jewish causes. And if they are, they prefer to give it to local organizations. And if they want to give the money to something in Israel, they don’t want to do it any more through their local federation’s general fund; instead, they set up their own family foundation. And more often than not, these foundations are going to fund projects run by small, independent organizations. The agency just isn’t sexy enough.”

For the rest of Anshel’s particularly insightful article click here.