I NEWS

JNF Alters Its Approach

After 89 years, the organization known
for its ubiquitous pushkes hires a
national campaign director to coordinate
fund raising.

IRA RIFKIN

Special to The Jewish News

F

ew images are more
familiar in the world of
Jewish philanthropy
than the Jewish National
Fund pushke, the little blue
and white metal box into
which Jews have been drop-
ping spare coins for the past
nine decades.
But it takes a lot more
than
nickels and dimes to
,
raise $135 million, which is
what JNF expects to collect
internationally this year
from all sources, including
the Israeli government.
Enter Paul Jeser. As
JNF's first national cam-
paign director, his role is to
develop a cohesive strategy
for obtaining contributions
in the United States. Given
the competition for Jewish
philanthropic doll ars, some
might say it's about time.

Mr. Jeser joined JNF in
July, and has spent much of
his time since then visiting
JNF regional offices around
the nation.
"Until now, JNF has been
like a bunch of franchises do-
ing their thing," said Mr.
Jeser, who at age 44 already
has more than 20 years ex-
perience as a Jewish organi-
zation professional. "While
JNF has never had a year in
which contributions were
down from the previous
year, JNF has not been rais-
ing enough money both for
who it is, given its history, or
for its responsibility.

"The feeling is we can do
better. Much better."
JNF, which is known in
Israel and much of the rest
of the world as Karen
Kayemeth Lelsrael, was
founded in 1901 as an agen-
cy to purchase land in Pales-
tine for Jewish settlement

through direct donations
from Jews in the Diaspora.
It was JNF that purchased
the land for Degania and Tel
Aviv, Israel's first kibbutz
and first modern city, re-
spectively.
After Israel's indepen-
dence in 1948, JNF shifted
its work to land reclamation,
development and afforesta-
tion. In the minds of many,
JNF became synonymous
with planting trees in Israel.
However, Mr. Jeser believes
that characterization gross-
ly underplays JNF's true
contribution.
JNF is not just trees," he
said. "JNF is really the
heart and soul of the quality
of life in Israel. It's about
parks, reservoirs, housing
sites and the entire in-
frastructure."
A prime example of JNF's
contribution, Mr. Jeser em-
phasized, is its role in the
settling of Soviet Jews in Is-
rael. JNF's responsibility in
that effort is to prepare
21,000 housing sites, which
includes leveling and clear-
ing land, building roads and
planting trees.

-

Paul Jeser: Veteran Jewish
communal official joins JNF.

American JNF is assum-
ing funding responsibility
for 3,000 of the sites at a
cost of $3 million, which is
being raised in a special
campaign dubbed Operation
Promised Land. In the past,
JNF operations were di-
rected by a national field di-
rector. Fund-raising efforts
were pretty much "event or

Lawsuit Over Territories Places JNF In A Box

Since 1988, the Jewish
National Fund has been
involved in a complicated
lawsuit brought against
it by supporters of Isra-
el's right-wing Tehiya
party that has cost the a-
gency tens of thousands
of dollars in legal fees and
brought it a good deal of
negative publicity.
The suit charged that
JNF America misled do-
nors by showing a map of
Israel on its collection
boxes that did not distin-
guish the territories from
Israel's pre-1967 borders,
the so-called Green Line.
JNF does not fund pro-
jects in the territories,
though the suit charged
that the map made it ap-
pear as if JNF did.
A New York judge rul-
ed that JNF had to place
a disclaimer on any boxes
depicting the map to
make it clear that JNF
America donations only
go to projects .7ithin the
Green Line. In July, a

New York appellate court
dismissed a JNF bid to
have the suit thrown out.
The case is still on ap-
peal, although sources
close to the matter have
said a settlement is in the
works that could give
membership on JNF's
board of directors to
Tehiya's U.S. affiliate.
In the meantime, JNF
in July began circulating
new collection boxes that
do not show any map. In-
stead, said Stuart
Paskow, JNF's commu-
nications and information
director, the new boxes
depict seven of JNF's ac-
tivities in Israel, in-
cluding afforestation and
land reclamation. "It
gives a much better fla-
vor of what JNF really
does today," he said from
New York.
Since the boxes do not
show a map, he added, no
disclaimer is required.
JNF contends that the
real issue in the case is

JNF collection box.

not alleged consumer de-
ception. Rather, JNF of-
ficials argue that the
Tehiya supporters are re-
ally out to force JNF and
other American Zionist
organizations to support
projects in the territories,
which Tehiya wants Isra-
el to annex outright.
JNF contends that U.S.
tax law and State De-

partment policies pre-
clude it from spending
money outside the Green
Line, a claim that is re-
jected by spokesmen for
those who have brought
the suit.
Hadassah Marcus, a
New York woman who
brought the suit, says she
wants to be able to donate
funds for projects in the
West Bank settlements
where her children and
grandchildren live.
So far, said Mr.
Paskow, JNF has spent
"between $50,000 and
$100,000" on legal fees to
protect itself "and it ain't
over yet."
He also said that the
negative publicity has not
hurt JNF fund-raising ef-
forts. although the suit
has been "annoying as
hell."
Paul Jeser, JNF's new
national campaign direc-
tor, added that his joining
the agency had nothing to
do with the suit.0
Ira Rifkin

project oriented," Mr. Jeser
continued.
His approach will be to
encourage regular annual
contributions apart from
any donations to special
campaigns, a tact that is
similar to that taken by
most successful Jewish
fund-raising groups. "I'm
trying to sell the concept of
an ongoing general cam-
paign as the foundation of
JNF," Mr. Jeser explained.
That's a big change for
JNF, but one that Avrum
Weiss, JNF's Baltimore re-
gional director, concurred is
overdue.
"Traditionally, JNF was a
populist organization, and
because it was, everyone
contributed," Mr. Weiss
noted. "But JNF remained
populist when the most suc-
cessful Jewish philanthropic
groups developed strong lay
leadership and sophisticated
fund-raising approaches .. .
We woke up one day and
realized you don't raise tens
of millions of dollars from
pushkes."
Mr. Weiss also said one
reason why JNF did not al-
ter its approach sooner was
that its board of directors is
comprised of representa-
tives of the various Zionist-
oriented Jewish groups that
support JNF. This has slow-
ed any nationally coordi-
nated JNF fund-raising at-
tempts, he said, because the
directors' first loyalties were
to the groups they represent-
ed. While the board setup is
not being altered, a special
campaign cabinet is being
established to help coordi-
nate national efforts. The 20
JNF regional Operation
Promised Land directors
will comprise the new cabi-
net.
In the U.S., JNF will raise
about $22 million this year,
according to Mr. Jeser, or
about a third of all monies
JNF collects outside of Isra-
el.
Prior to joining JNF, Mr.
Jeser spent six years as ex-
ecutive vice president of
CLAL — The National Jew-
ish Center for Learning and
Leadership in New York.
Before that he directed local
Jewish federations and
community centers in
Orlando, Florida, and
Lewiston, Maine. fl

THENTROIT JEWISH_NEWS _152