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Battered Women's Center in Israel.

The New
Israel Fund
is trying to
increase its
size without
losing its
grassroots
appeal.

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Growing Pains

ROBERT S. GREENBERGER

Special to The Jewish News

O

pportunity knocked
on the door at the
New Israel Fund's
Washington headquarters
early one morning in Octo-
ber.
In Israel, hundreds of mil-
itant Israeli settlers had oc-
cupied a half-dozen houses
in the Arab neighborhood of
Silwan, in east Jerusalem. In
Washington, Norman
Rosenberg, executive direc-
tor of the fund, which sup-
ports civil and legal rights
efforts in Israel, learned of
the incident and began
mobilizing to hold a press

conference to protest the Is-.
raelis' action. Later, after
further consultation, the
plan changed, mostly be-
cause the initial reports
from Israel had omitted de-
tails which made the legal
issues less clear.
But even considering such
a high-profile reaction is
highly unusual for the 11-
year-old fund.
"In the past, people have
heard from the groups in Is-
rael we give grants to on
these issues, but not from
the fund itself," says Aviva
Meyer, New Israel Fund's
associate director. "But now
we want to have more of a
presence."
The quest for higher visi-

bility is part of the major
changes under way at the
New Israel Fund as it stands
at an important juncture.
Mr. Rosenberg says that
change is both inevitable
and necessary if the fund is
to grow and continue serv-
ing the causes it supports in
Israel.
So the New Israel Fund is
discarding the small, home-
spun fund-raising paities
that focused as much on
educating the donors as ex-
tracting funds. It is replac-
ing its staff of generalists,
whose common denominator
was a devotion to Israel,
with professionals who un-
derstand the uses of com-
puters and development

programs. And it is seeking
to expand five-fold its
10,000-member donor list by
reaching out to those Amer-
ican Jews who are involved
with liberal causes in Amer-
ica but who have little con-
nection with Israel.
Yet there is a dilemma.
The maturing of the New Is-
rael Fund is alienating some
early supporters who were
attracted precisely because
its grassroots focus was dif-
ferent from the mainstream
groups, like the United Jew-
ish Appeal, that the fund
now seems to be emulating.
"At one time I was very
involved," says Alyza Dor-
tort of Washington, D.C.
"But by shifting emphasis

