When leaders of the Jewish Agency for Israel decided that JAFI’s director general had to speak to some North American Jewish community leaders about coming JAFI budget cuts, they made Milwaukee one of his first stops.
And so last week, Moshe Vigdor appeared here as part of a five-city tour that included Toronto, Montreal, Atlanta and New York.
“It is important to note that the budget cuts just occurred at the end of November,” said Robin S. Levenston, a regional director in JAFI’s U.S. office, based in the D.C. area. She traveled with Vigdor and accompanied him to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s offices on Dec. 9.
“Milwaukee is one of the very first communities to be visited by the director general to tell them exactly what was cut and how this impacts the agency and how we’re going to work toward the future,” she said.
And Milwaukee is “always an important place to come” visit, said Vigdor. “We always remember that [Israeli Prime Minister] Golda Meir came from Milwaukee.”
Moreover, “the Milwaukee community through its federation always expresses a lot of understanding of the needs of Israel,” Vigdor said. He also pointed out that MJF President Bruce A. Arbit is a member of JAFI’s board of governors.
JAFI is the primary recipient of Israel and Overseas Allocations from the MJF annual campaign. In the past fiscal year, it received $1.69 million of the $2.875 million allocated in that area. (MJF’s other overseas partner is the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.)
According to news reports, JAFI announced that it would be cutting $45 million from its 2009 budget. According to figures provided by Jacob Dallal, director of public relations and marketing for JAFI-North America, the total budget for 2009 is 301.5 million, while the 2008 budget was $320.8 million.
The difference between those two raw numbers is $19.3 million, but Dallal explained that $45 million is the effective budget cut, given price inflation and changes in the value of the Israeli shekel relative to the U.S. dollar.
Vigdor said this is being done both because of the world wide economic crisis and because of the volatile shekel-dollar exchange rate.
Vigdor said about 2 million people are “beneficiaries from our programs world-wide.” These programs cover immigration (aliyah) and absorption in Israel, Jewish and Zionist education and partnerships with Israel.
Of the $45 million to be cut, $22 million will be cut from programs, such as youth villages in Israel, Jewish education in the former Soviet Union, absorption centers, aliyah and education emissaries, he said. So about 20 percent of the 2 million beneficiaries will be affected, he said.
The remainder of the cuts will be taken from administrative overhead, “because we are in a continuous effort to increase efficiency,” Vigdor said.
Vigdor also said that “to balance this cut,” JAFI is “looking for all types of partnerships” in order to “reduce costs and to continue to provide service to the Jewish people.”
Recently, for example, he said, JAFI agreed to “a collaborative venture” with Nefesh B’Nefesh, a private organization that seeks to encourage emigration from North America and Great Britain to Israel.
Vigdor discussed with MJF leaders “future cooperation under the shadow of the economic crisis” and “how can we explore” new ways “to produce more income from donors in order to overcome these challenging times.”
Vigdor said he had not planned to speak with MJF leaders about the resolution on conversion to Judaism that had been passed at the JAFI assembly in Jerusalem last month.
This resolution calls on Israel’s government “to be more flexible and to find a way … to enable easier conversion in Israel,” especially when it comes to immigrants.
Vigdor said JAFI “is discussing this issue … with the government routinely” and that “the dialogue will continue with any government that will come after the elections” scheduled for this February. “It’s a major issue, an issue which has to be discussed with all the streams in the Jewish world.”
“And that’s what the Jewish Agency is doing,” he continued. “The Jewish Agency is the center to bring all Jewish streams, all Jewish communities, all type of Jewish activities … around one table with Israel in the center.
“So we see it as our historical role to continue to be the focal point of the Jewish people in terms of providing them service [and a] platform to work together on any issue, including this issue.”
Vigdor’s academic training is in industrial engineering; but he has spent many years working in management, including helping to transfer technologies developed in academic institutions to industries.
He was vice president and director general of The Hebrew University in Jerusalem for 12 years before obtaining his JAFI post in 2005.
Engineers are often stereotyped as people who prefer, and are best at, dealing with things and numbers rather than other people, but that doesn’t fit Vigdor.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “it’s all about people, it’s all about relations with people and working with people in teams.”
“If you ask me what might lead you to success in anything you are doing, it is to understand people, to work with people … as equal partners in a team.…
“Today more than ever, it’s a world of working in teams. If you know how to work in a team, you can achieve and you will prevail. If you want to do it alone, no chance.”
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