THE DETROIT. JEWISH NEWS • . Friday, Jandery 24, 1986 25 Ascertaining the accuracy of either pic- ture is a job complicated bythe organiza- tion's size and decentralized structure. BBI claims 500,000 members. Branch bud- get and membership figures touch at many points, with whole areas (such as Hillel membership), being mere approx- imations. B'nai B'rith International has seven commissions (the Anti-Defamation League, Hillel, Youth Organization, Career and Counseling Services, Adult Jewish Education, Community and Volunteer Ser- vices and the Israel Commission). In ad- dition, there is an international council, several committees (planning and research, cults, senior citizens' housing, members' insurance and the Klutznick museum), and three cabinets (leadership, fund raising and membership). B'nai B'rith women today is wholly separate, having its own structure and funding. Jewish public awareness of BBI doesn't begin to comprehend this structure or the interaction of its part& Many people are more cognizant of the organization's past directives than its current thrust. This, ex- plains BBI president .Gerald Kraft, is because "after World War II, B'nai B'rith made a conscious decision to remove itself from areas of concern covered by other organizations ... and move on to something new." A fraternal organization succoring , widows, orphans and the needy at its outset, B'nai B'rith turned its attention overseas and to relief work around 1875. In the early 1900's it downplayed the fraternal order and developed various branches, emphasizing community and volunteer service, during the war years. Today it is strongly, in the field of senior citizens housing, being the single largest owner of such units in the country. Along with a sometimes antiquated perception of its work, BBI has another image problem. The branches, or family members, that most people know about are the ones that have field staffs and the ones that have drawn the most "press?' Hffiel, the Youth Organization, Career and Counseling Services and ADL all have field workers. ADL, Hillel, B'nai B'rith . and - Ernai B'rith Women get the most coverage, for good and bad reasons. B'nai B'rith currently has 200,000 mein-. bers with an average age of 67. Members participate on one or many levels, starting with the local lodge or unit, and pyra- miding to councils (i.e. greater Baltimore), states, districts (a total of seven in the U.S.), and the international (active in more than 40 foreign countries). Fixed, per capita dues go to the international ($22) and the district ($11-30), but lodges levy their 'own dues, which may be as high as $100 and are a turnoff to many prospec-. tive and current members. The three dues are lumped into one annual bill, which the lodge member pays, often being unaware , , Wise Free Synagogue in New.York, thinks this isn't the case. "A split between ADL and B'nai B'rith is emerging quite clear- ly," he says. As evidence, he points to ADL's recent resignation from the Inter- national Jewish Committee for Inter- Religious Consultation. "B'nai B'rith has stepped in to cover the hole," which reveals the animus between the two organiza- tions," reasons Brickner. "ADL doesn't want to put itself under the discipline of a community," Brickner further opines. "It wants to be what it has always been — a maverick." A member of the B'nai B'rith family with less financial independence is Hillel. Established 63 years ago, this B'nai B'rith arm serves college and university students on-campus. Hillel claims all Jewish students on campus as members, but Rab- bi Sam Fishman, Hillel's national associate director, points out that Hillels operate with varying degrees of success, 'having fulltime professionals on only 100 campuses: Another 200 schools, those B'nai B'rith International with less Jewish presence, have less Hillel headquarters on Rhode contact. Island Ave., N.W. in Hffiel, says Fishman, naturally does bet- Washington, D.C., was built ter on residential campuses with "quality" in two stages; the first wing Jewish students. Not surprisingly, these opetie.41 in 1957. Shortly after successes 'correlate with communities that the second wing opened, in have strong Jewish federations wiling to •• March, 1977, the building chip in financially. Starting in the '70s, was the scene of a Hanafi federations increasingly assumed respon- Muslim takeover in which sibility for Hillel staff salaries and one person was killed. operating budgets, though their contribu- tions are usually funnelled through B'nai B'rith. On the University of Maryland of how the money is apportioned or what campus at College Park, for' example, the is happening beyond the local level. correct name for the organization is the The most notable BBI "offspring" is the B'nai B'rith Hillel-Federation Jewish Stu- Anti-Defamation League, a "matured" dent Center. It recently moved into a new child that has reached financial in- building which was funded by B'nai B'rith, 'dependence The 73-year-old ADL once the UJA in Washington, and the •received $300,000 from' BBI yearly, but Associated Jewish Charities in Baltimore, now gets only half that amount. ADL's but not without conflict — over name and associate director, Abe F,counan, calls the ownership. present BBI allocation "more symbolic With their mUltiple funders, rabbis at than meaningful," when compared to Maryland's' Hillel have salaries that "at ADL's total budget of $24 million (40 per- least approach the 'level they should be cent of which comes from non-Jews). All ,at," says executive director, Rabbi Robert B'nai B'rith members are automatically S aks. But the College:Park rabbis are in ADL "constituents," or contributors, but sympathy with Hillel rabbis elsewhere, the reverse is not true. (ADL says it is not who are underpaid by congregational stan- a membershiporganization, but has dard& Hillelleaders contend that starting 60,00Q, supporters in addition to its salaries are $6:7000 below thOseoffered by 200,000 BBI constituents.) synagogues, and the fact that B B'rith - "The number one reason for affiliation employs more rabbis than any other or- with B'nai B'rith (given in a question- ganization is small consolation. naire), says. Foxman, "is ADL 'Work. The Youth Organization was founded That's'the sexy item." Even though half - concurrently with Hillel, but better fills the members of ADL's policy-making na-`" the role of family "baby," everybody's - tional commission are not BBI members, favorite. BBYO is clearly identified with Foxman says the two groups are totally B'nai'B'rith and receives the bulk' of its identified with each other; "We are they," funding ($3.1 million this year) from the he claims, "the membership does not ex- parent organization. Its members are all perience competitivenes& Problems, if high school students, 25,000 in North _ they exist, are at the top levels." . America and another 10,000 overseas. The Rabbi Balfour Brickner, of the Stephen youth programs accentuate community .