By Julie Wiener

New York (JTA) — The North American Jewish federation system launched an emergency campaign for Israel and Argentina this week, raising an initial $13 million from its board of trustees.

Meeting in New York on Monday, the United Jewish Communities moved forward with a plan to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for emergency needs for the Jewish state, such as assistance to victims of terrorism, crisis management and rebuilding infrastructure damaged in terrorist attacks.

At the same time, UJC’s president and CEO, Stephen Hoffman, announced preliminary plans to cut the federation umbrella group’s $44.7

million operating budget by 5 percent as of July. Details still need to be hammered out by the budget committee and board.

In addition to generating an influx of new funds for Israel, the new campaign, called “We Stand With Israel Now and Forever,” also will incorporate most of an existing $42.5 million campaign for Argentine Jews, who are suffering from a national economic crisis.

Most of the funds for the Argentine campaign was to resettle Jews who immigrate to Israel. A small portion, which is not being folded into the Israel campaign, goes for relief efforts and community needs for Jews staying in Argentina.

The new Israel campaign differs in its magnitude and centralization from previous federation campaigns. One such effort, called “Israel Now,” was launched last year and has raised approximately $90 million.

Regarding the new fundraising campaign, UJC board chairman James S. Tisch said in an announcement last week, “The costs of long-term terror relief in Israel increase with each blast. Social service needs are increasing exponentially as government resources are necessarily diverted to security. Thousands of IDF reservists are also being called up, which is creating further economic hardship for their families — another place our dollars will surely make a difference.”

Richard H. Meyer, executive vice president of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, who attended the N.Y. meeting, said, “It’s clear that the 200 federation leaders who gathered recognize the direct and immediate threat to Israel, and we want and need to respond.

“Over the last few weeks, many members of the Milwaukee community have asked what the organized Jewish community is doing for Israel, and more important, what they can do to help. At a time like this, solidarity and support are best displayed by tangible actions. Historically, financial support has been shown to make the biggest impact.

“Milwaukee has always understood its responsibility, its obligations and its undeniable connections to Israel and to strengthening Jewish life. The extraordinary crisis in Israel has put an unbearable burden on the entire country, and we cannot simply sit back and say, ‘It’s business as usual.’ Although we face financial challenges locally, Israel’s ability to maintain her core and basic functions — the safety and security of her citizens — is at stake. This is one of those moments in Jewish history where we must come together and contribute financial support above and beyond our usual efforts.”

Many federation activists at the New York meeting noted that they expect raising money for the campaign to be fairly easy, as large numbers of American Jews are concerned about Israel now and eager to do something to help.

The UJC is also hoping to coordinate pro-Israel rallies in communities around the country in the coming month.

In a caucus session of the board of trustees meeting that was closed to the media on Monday, individual lay leaders took turns making pledges for the new campaign, with cash gifts of more than $13 million promised.

The meeting adjourned an hour early, so that 34 people could leave for Israel. Another 160 departed for Argentina on Monday night. MJF Community Campaign 2002 chair Jody Kaufman Loewenstein joined the group for that trip.

Monday’s board meeting — which began with a 10-minute service marking Holocaust Remembrance Day — was marked by an atmosphere of urgency.

That was particularly evident in the brief discussion over the budget, an issue that has been highly contentious in past years.

The 5 percent cuts proposed were considerably less than most large-city federations have been clamoring for. The cuts will also likely reduce services smaller federations enjoy, but no one raised objections to the budget at the meeting.

“Issues such as budget become peripheral when the threat to Israel’s survival becomes central,” said Dr. Conrad Giles, a lay leader with the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and a former president of the Council of Jewish Federations, one of three organizations that merged three years ago to become the UJC.

At a time of crisis, such as now, Giles added, “our national Jewish organization becomes so clearly central to our ability to act as a Jewish people that the question of how much it is costing is less relevant.”

UJC’s Hoffman also said he expects the UJC to cut its budget further in coming years.
“We are going to be digging deeper into operation costs” and hope to cut the budget to $40 million by the 2003-2004 fiscal year, he said.