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behind the scenes because it's
none of the business of the
Jewish public, raises serious
programatic, logistical and
ideological issues.
On the programatic side,
the Federations which want
to direct the expenditure of
Jewish charity in Israel, are
the same bodies which aren't
doing too well allocating
Jewish charitable dollars in
the U.S. With each passing
year, the Federations are fur-
ther removed from the pain
and the struggle of needy
Jews as they divert more of
their domestic dollars to such
urgent tzedakah activities as
country clubs for affluent
Jews and to other projects
which aid upper middle class
persons.
These are the Federations
which spend tens of millions
of dollars each year on travel
and conventions, which have
a large appetite for expensive
buildings and elegant offices,
and which believe that the
newspaper business is a form
of charity.
It is hard to accept these
agencies as the appropriate
arbiters of what constitutes
charity in Israel.
In the end, which may be a
long way off, the Federations
will be defeated. Logistically,
there is no way for Americans
to direct the operations of a
vast bureaucracy such as the
Jewish Agency which is lo-
cated six thousand miles
away. Astute professionals
usually are able to outwit or
outlast pestering lay leaders,
including those who are per-
sistent and breathe down
their backs. I expect that the
Israeli administrators will
make a show of obeisance to
the foreign fundraisers and
then, after some minor ad-
justments, go about their af-
fairs much the way they used
to.
The Americans must know
this. They are, I believe, aim-
ing at a goal which is more
limited or at least different
than their apparent desire to
exert operational control over
the Jewish Agency. What they
want to control is its heart
and soul, essentially its ide-
ology and commitment, by
imposing upon it their own
secularist ideology and
commitment.
It is revelatory and
remarkable that of all of the
issues over which the Federa-
tions could have confronted
the Jewish Agency, they have
chosen to become involved in
the question of religious
pluralism. No mater that this
is Israel's business or that for
all of their well-financed proj-
ects, the Reform and Conser-
vative are a minor presence in
Israel. This is a burning issue
for the Federations, not be-
cause it is innately relevant to
Israel or the Jewish Agency,
but because it is relevant to
what is happening in the
United States.
The ascendancy of the
Federations so that they in-
creasingly control UJA and
other communal funds which
are outside of their ordinary
scope of activity represents
the triumph of people of little
spirituality and even less lear-
ning who have been nutured
on a code of organizational
rules which is hardly compati-
ble with the lofty ideal of
Jewish peoplehood.
With their clout and strong
grip on communal funds, the
Federations are now a jugger-
naut. They brush off criticism
as a stroller swats a fly, never
stopping to think that in
what has been said there may
be a point worth considering.
One day there will be people
wondering why the scan-
dalous behavior of the
American Federations wasn't
challenged.
Soon we will have the
results of the WZC elections.
We will be told that the ex-
penditure of hundreds of
thousands of dollars —
maybe more — of communal
funds has resulted in the
selection of a "parliament of
the Jewish people," that
democracy has prevailed, and
that the Jewish public will
now have a voice in determin-
ing the activities of the
Jewish Agency and the World
Zionist Organization.
Instead of believing what is
fed to us by the public rela-
tions experts, we ought to ad-
dress the real issues posed by
the revelations of scandal in
the Agency and WZO. At
least, we should have the guts
or the sense to say that the
WZO is not needed — not its
waste, not its abuses, not its
duplication of the activity of
the Jewish Agency, not its in-
terference with the govern-
mental bodies of Israel, and
not its endless political in-
trigues. ❑
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See related story, page
50.
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