ar UNBEAT FAB ThL e Et DEAL See LARRY KAPLAN New Cars — Trucks Used Cars — Leasing 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. AMR' n - E an "THE UNBEATABLE DEALER' 28111 Telegraph Rd. & 1-696 (313) 355-1000 (313) 355-6414 Across from Tel-12 Mall COUPON C Dry Cleaning Sale 2 a *Bring in ANY 2 like garments; pay the regular price on the 1st item, get the 2nd one for only 1 0 . SUTTON PLACE only CLEANING Excluding other coupon specials. - Household items 23119 Lahsar at 9 Mile & silks THRU 7-5-86 COUPON Enlarged to show detail One, Two or 1 hree Row — Luxurious design in 18h Yellow Gold. exciting brilliant diamonds that make a total statement — and only by Jose Hess. Intelligently priced starting at $1200.00 the finest expressions of love come from ... V1 GEM/DIAMOND SPECIALIST Established 1919 AWARDED CERTIFICATE BY WA IN GRADING & EVALUATION 30400 TELEGRAPH RD., BIRMINGHAM, MI 48010, SUITE 134 18 Friday, June 27, 1986 Phone: 642-5575 Daily Thurs. Sat. 10-5:30 10-8:30 10-5:00 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? .