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the close connection between the two as
characteristic of the Israeli system.
When the proposals for basic changes in
the structure of governance of the Agen-
cy failed to pass at the 1984 Assembly, the
leaders of the WZO no doubt thought this
would be the end of the matter. Recent
moves by American federation leaders,
however, indicate that the governance con-
troversy is not dead and that it will in fact
be revived soon, possibly at this year's
Assembly in Jerusalem in June.
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
0
z
ate last year, federation
leaders active in Agency
affairs and eager to ex-
pand their direct influence
in this arena took two
steps that could eventual-
ly have far-reaching consequences. One was
a change in the size and composition of the
Board of Directors of the UIA engineered
by the communities that dramatically in-
creased their direct representation. And
the other was a strong resolution passed
by a recently-established Jewish Agency
Committee of the CJF calling, in effect, for
the depoliticization of the Agency. Both
steps, taken for the most part by the same
people, but in different frameworks; en-
hanced the potential of the CJF and UIA
to become the key instruments of Ameri-
can Jewry for applying political pressure
to the Agency.
The changes in the UIA Board of Direc-
tors increased the size of the board from
39 to 63, giving most of the new positions
to community federation representatives.
The other members include national of-
ficers of the UIA, UJA, CJF and JDC; the
Agency Treasurer and Chairman of the
Board of Governors; and the members of
the American Section of the WZO Execu-
tive. The changes were fought by the
American Zionists, whose representation
was increased only slightly from the 12
seats that they previously had. The
changes will make the UIA Board into a
more critical and active oversight forum
for the Agency, and will provide an avenue
for more federation leaders to serve on the
Agency Board of Governors. What is more,
the communities are allowed to select their
own representatives, instead of leaving it
to the heads of the UIA to decide which
ones to coopt.
The CJF Jewish Agency Committee was
established recently with the aim of pro-
viding a national forum for federation lay
leaders and professionals to thrash out
issues concerning the Agency and to pro-
vide a channel for the views of local corn-
munities to reach the Agency. It was also
established apparently to serve as a forum
where a purely federation viewpoint on the
issues could emerge without having to take
into account the perspectives and interests
of other groups such as the UJA or the
American Zionists, both of which are rep-
resented on the UIA. It is a safe bet, for
instance, that the CJF resolution to be ex-
amined here would not have been brought
up for discussion in the UIA for this
reason.
Jewish Agency committees have been
forming in local federations for the last
several years, and now exist in 21 com-
munities. Thus for the first time, these
federations have a forum to discuss where
most of their money goes.
The resolution adopted by the CJF
Jewish Agency Committee last November
calls on the Agency to adopt a number of
the original recommendations of the
Caesarea Governance Commission such as
the redefinition of the role of Chairman of
the Executive as a "chief executive." It also
recommends that the "head of each depart-
ment should be the professional chosen for
his competence in his field ... Thus, we
recommend (a) the elimination of political
party designation of Jewish Agency de-
partment heads and (b) the elimination of
department 'seats' to the WZO (known as
the 'key')."
The latter clause seeks to end the prac-
tice whereby Agency department heads are
nominated by the WZO on the basis of the
coalition agreements in that body. Thus at
present, the fact that a Labor Party figure
heads the Youth Aliya Department and a
Herut figure the Aliya Department reflects
internal WZO politics and is not germane
at all to the needs and priorities of these
departments. These recommendations go
far beyond the mild reforms won by the
Diaspora leaders in the last five years,
But
even if the Agency
were performing
brilliantly, it couldn't
possibly serve all the
worthy causes there
that the government is
unable to support.
which gave them veto power over the selec-
tion of new department heads nominated
by the WZO and the right to reject the
renomination of department heads who are
already serving.
The importance of the Project Renewal
experience for the federation leaders is
clearly apparent in another item, which
recommends that the work of each depart-
ment be guided and supervised by a com-
mittee of the Board of Governors, to be
chaired by a "lay volunteer" with an Israeli
as vice-chairman, "which is similar to the
Project Renewal model." At the insistence
of the Diaspora leaders, the Project Renew-
al Department was the first to be depolit-
icized when the project was launched in the
late 1970s.
Where Do All Our Dollars Go?
.