ON THE ROPES

new visibility and expand its fundraising base. Those in-
clude housing for the elderly and senior citizens' service
centers, two issues that reflect the concerns of the organi-
zation's aging membership.
B'nai B'rith's best-known program is its college campus-
based Hillel Foundations, which provide an array of ser-
vices to Jewish students. But Hillel has been forced to seek
more outside funding as its parent organization's fortunes
have waned.
At a board of governors meeting in late 1991, Hillel was
essentially told to pursue its own economic future — and
to expect additional cuts in B'nai B'rith support. Hillel
then hired its own development director to help with inde-
pendent fundraising, a first for a B'nai B'rith entity.
"Hillel is moving in the direction of receiving more and
more support from the community. That's healthy for them,
and I've been helping them," Mr. Clearfield said.
"Whether [Hillel] becomes more like ADL or remains
more closely tied to B'nai B'rith, our hope is to continue our
commitment. But for the pursuit of its
mission, it needs the resources of a wider
segment of the Jewish community?
(ADL, the Anti-Defamation League,
was created by B'nai B'rith in 1913. But
after World War II, the group was in-
corporated as a separate entity, with a
strong B'nai B'rith presence on its gov-
erning board. Since then, ADL has grad-
ually pulled away from the B'nai B'rith
orbit, and today ADL is for all practical
purposes an independent organization
competing with B'nai B'rith for mem-
bership and money, and succeeding.)
Hillel's director, Richard Joel, declined
to discuss his group's tricky relationship
with B'nai B'rith. But sources within the
organization made it clear that Hillel's
leadership has made a conscious decision
to distance itself from ari ailing B'nai
B'rith.
"The need is to get a more mixed fi-
nancial base," said one Hillel official,
who asked not to be identified. "B'nai
B'rith can't give money it doesn't have.
This current recession has demon-
strated the danger of being dependent
on any single source of funding. And
as Hillel becomes more independent
financially, it will become more inde-
pendent programmatically."
This is no trivial matter for B'nai
B'rith; if Hillel does follow ADL's ex-
ample, B'nai B'rith will be left with-
out its most successful program,
which could hasten the organization's
41 decline.

yi

et another long-term problem that may keep
B'nai B'rith from rebounding is the very na-
ture of its leadership. B'nai B'rith has always
fancied itself a kind of organization for the Jew-
ish common man. So while other Jewish groups seek suc-
cessful leaders from the corporate world, B'nai B'rith
has continued to rely on a more inbred form of leader-
ship that some say guarantees mediocrity.
"There is a regrettable insistence on people coming up
the long ladder, without recognizing the need to reach out
to shining stars and bring them into the leadership fold,"
said Seymour Reich, Mr. Schiner's predecessor.
A few years back, B'nai B'rith decided to accept women
as full members, a decision that became part of the group's
nasty public battle with B'nai B'rith Women, which began
as a kind of semi-autonomous women's auxiliary but went
on to demand full equality.
But according to several sources, B'nai B'rith has done
little to recruit women, and nothing at all to bring women
into leadership positions — in part because of resistance
from local districts, which have unusual latitude in setting
membership policies.
During his tenure as B'nai B'rith president, Mr. Reich at-
tempted to centralize policy-making in the Washington of-
fice and to scrap the traditional system that allowed broad
local autonomy.
Because of resistance at every level, that program was
deferred. Now, Mr. Schiner is beginning to traverse the same
treacherous ground.
Bureaucratic gridlock also results from the fact that B'nai
B'rith lay leaders are often reluctant to delegate responsi-
bility to the professional staff.
"Everything is part of a very complex process here," said
Hillel Kuttler, B'nai B'rith's former Soviet Units coordina-
tor. Mr. Kuttler was recently laid off when the grant that
funded his program was not renewed.
"When you're a professional, you have a degree of inde-
pendence," he said. "If every detail has to be cleared by the
leadership, it's very frustrating. The leash has to be length-
ened."
With rumors of more layoffs to come, some B'nai B'rith
insiders speak of shattered morale.
But other B'nai B'rith workers take heart that the Schin-
er-Clearfield administration has at least acknowledged the
seriousness of the group's problems.
"There's a sense that they are approaching the problem
with more honesty," said one B'nai B'rith employee. "So
while morale is not high, there's a feeling that there's more
realism at the top levels."
Mr. Clearfield, the group's chief professional, insists morale
is on the upswing.
'There's been a substantial improvement in morale over
where we were a year ago," he said. "But when an organi-
zation is in the process of change, when there's a rethink-
ing of priorities, it makes for rather uncertain times." ❑