Can Federations Survive?
;ARY ROSENBLATT EDITOR
There's a quiet
crisis taking
place among
Jewish fed-
erations around
the county. It
has to do with
Et
money, or the
ck of it in these days of
recession, but it goes far
deeper. It's a crisis of person-
lel and leadership — a sense
?hat there is a lack of profes-
onal and lay people of first-
Fate talent, knowledge and
mommitment to help the com-
munity focus on goals at a
time of great change. And a
'sense that we as an American
Jewish community are losing
r the threads that bind us
together — through assimila-
t. .on and indifference.
These observations are
on conversations with
'professional
profe ssional and lay leaders
of federations in various
parts of the country. These
,alks were off the record and
if confronted for attribution,
, -T.
most of the men and women
T, spoke to would no doubt
maintain that the great
American Jewish enterprise
of voluntary fund raising and
'providing services for Jews
at home, abroad and in
Lrael was going great guns.
Indeed, they could point to
the fact that American
Jewry now raises over $1
billion a year in philan-
;thropy and they could talk
about a renaissance taking
place among some Jews in
terms of renewed spiritual
'commitment, education and
involvement with Israel.
But privately, these
leaders whose personalities,
priorities and styles vary
eatly, voice deep concern
about a Jewish community
drift. They worry about a
decreasing core of caring,
committed Jews with a
diminishing sense of corn-
mon purpose.
[ Most immediate are wor-
ries about dollars to fuel the
federations and their consti-
tuent social service agencies.
Detroit, thanks to en-
dowments and careful plan-
7ning, maintained a $26 mill-
ion level. Federation
leaders, however, still refer
to the figure as a "flat" cam-
;
paign and are concerned
about the future.
But a community like Los
Angeles, which recently
slashed its budget by 17 per-
cent, has had to cut staff and
essential programming to
stay afloat. When the second
largest federation in the
land is virtually bankrupt,
the impact of such a radical
cutback can be deep and
widespread, and there may
well be more Los Angeleses
than Detroits among federa-
tions today.
Despite the dramatic spe-
cial campaigns for the reset-
tlement of Jews from Ethio-
pia and the former Soviet
Union, the annual federa-
tion campaigns around the
country in recent years have
been sluggish. Many experts
feel that the concept of cen-
tralized giving — the
backbone of the federation
philosophy — has peaked,
and that we will see more
designated giving in the
future and the increasing
growth of dozens of spe-
cialized Jewish philan-
Federation leaders
acknowledge that
federations' built-in
system of
consensus makes
them slow to act
and easily
paralyzed by
controversy.
thropies like the New Israel
Fund, which supports liberal
causes in Israel, and Mazon,
which combats hunger.
While federation ex-
ecutives disagree over
whether it would be good or
bad for the system to decen-
tralize, they acknowledge
that it is happening already
and that, at the very least, it
signals a need to re-think
how the Jewish community
should operate as it ap-
proaches the 21st century.
A case in point: the de-
mand for funding at home
Artwork from Newsday by Anthony D'Adamo. Copyright., 1990, Newsday. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
has prompted federations to
decrease the percentage of
dollars sent to Israel. But
the very concepts underlying
federation — the annual
campaign, the few deciding
for the many, leadership
training taking preference
over Jewish education —
need to be explored.
Some have suggested a
five-year campaign to
replace the annual cam-
paign. It would save on the
manpower needed to gear up
for fund-raising each year
and would allow professional
staff to concentrate on non-
givers and focus on more
specialized causes.
But such decisions require
bold, courageous leadership.
Until now, both lay and pro-
fessional leaders have been
fearful of confronting new
models for federation.
On a personal level, the
top federation professionals
talk of widespread burnout
among themselves and their
colleagues. Their jobs are
filled with pressure from all
sides of the community, with
wealthy philanthropists to
please, bureacracies to run,
special interest groups to
appease, and younger, unaf-
filiated Jews to attract — at
least theoretically.
For while federation execs
talk about the need to
expand the base of con-
tributors, they acknowledge
that they spend too much
time catering to the requests
of a relative handful of top-
level contributors.
Such pressure and resent-
ment take their toll, as does
the psychological awareness
that the moment they step
down as federation exec they
go from the most powerful
person in the Jewish com-
munity to relative obscurity.
Salaries run high — the
top execs of major city fed-
erations make between
$100,000 and $200,000 a
year, and more — but these
men (there are no women at
this level) are well aware of
the large gap between their
incomes and those of over-
worked, under-staffed, mid-
level federation profes-
sionals.
Finally, there is great con-
cern about the future sur-
vival of the Jewish commun-
ity and the relative im-
potence of the federation to
cope with the key issues of
the day. Privately, federa-
tion leaders acknowledge
that with its built-in system
of consensus, federations are
slow to act and are paralyzed
by controversy.
How can an organization
based on the outdated
slogan, "We Are One," take
bold action regarding
assimilation, lack of Jewish
education, and a myriad of
other problems, unless
everyone involved is in
agreement? This is espe-
cially true of religious issues
like intermarriage, where
federations hesitate to take
a strong stand, either liberal
or traditional, or to take the
bold step of underwriting the
cost of Jewish education.
The practical result is that
key conflicts are ignored, or
tabled, or addressed through
bland resolutions and
statements. To be effective
in the future, federations
will have to abandon the
consensus concept, but to
date that prospect is too
frightening.
Today, federations are do-
ing an excellent job of rais-
ing large sums of money
from a small, elite group. (It
is believed that more than
90 percent of charitable Jew-
ish dollars come from less
than 10 percent of the peo-
ple.) But federations do not
significantly engage the
majority of American Jews.
No one is more aware than
the executives that federa-
tions are doing a far better
job addressing "how" to
raise funds than "why." And
that's why they are so wor-
ried. 0