JENNIFER FINER STAFF WRITER
Dr. Conrad Giles'
nomination to the
CJF presidency
comes at a time
when the future of
Jewish
philanthropic
agencies is in
question.
JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER
e Politics
r. Conrad Giles is confident his of power in the hands of what he
upcoming presidency of the Coun- called an "international Jewish
cil of Jewish Federations (CJF) parliament."
Currently, federations deter-
will be smooth sailing.
As the captain of the ship, he mine how much of their annual
sees his main role as navigating campaign results are kept at the
a role for the federations of North local level and how much is sent
America in a probable merger overseas through the UJA. The
with the United Jewish Appeal UJA then distributes the money
(UJA), creating one large philan- to UTA for funding to the Jewish
thropic agency. The original
plan also had United Israel
Appeal (UIA) eventually join-
ing the new, larger agency;
the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee
(JDC) then would continue its
independent status but have
a supervisory role with the
agency.
"I am totally supportive of
streamlining our national
structures, and I firmly be-
lieve that placing the United
Jewish Appeal, the Council of
Jewish Federations, the Unit-
ed Israel Appeal and the Joint
Distribution Committee in
one organization is in the best
interest of the Jewish people,"
Dr. Giles said.
"When this merger occurs,
it is clearly my responsibility
to make certain that the fed-
eration system is properly
represented and that the
transition from one of sever-
al organizations into one large ,
organization moves as effi-
ciently and quickly as possi-
ble," he said.
But the seas may be a lot
rougher than he bargained
for. Charting a course that
leads to the proposed super-
agency may be difficult at
best.
Perhaps more treacherous
may be convincing the skep-
tics who balked two weeks
ago during an open forum
quarterly CJF meeting that
drew representatives from
many national and interna-
tional Jewish groups in Wash-
ington, D.C. Questioning the
logic of placing nearly all of
the resources and decision- Dr. Conrad Giles
making power in the hands of
a few Jewish leaders, some par- Agency in Israel or to JDC for
ticipants in the forum wanted funding of humanitarian relief ef-
more time to analyze and digest forts in the world outside of Israel
and America.
a proposed merger plan.
The proposed merger would re-
Ambassador Martin Wolf, JDC
president, said there are "details quire federations as a group to
I, as an individual, think are dan- make strong assurances to allo-
gerous," citing the concentration cate at least $310 million to the
phased-in approach," said De-
troiter Joel D. Tauber, honorary
national chairman of the Unit-
ed Jewish Appeal and a co-chair-
man of a panel planning the
merger.
Aside from the controversy sur-
rounding the future of the na-
tional organizations, Dr. Giles is
eager to start his new leadership
role and to begin serving his
one-year term. The president
can serve three consecutive
terms.
"The prospect of leading
this organization is one that
I look forward to," he said.
Dr. Giles, an ophthalmolo-
gist who practices in South-
field, is the fourth CJF
president to hail from the De-
troit Federation. Former pres-
idents include Max Fisher,
Martin Citrin and Mandell
(Bill) Berman.
Aside from being a former
Federation president and a
volunteer affiliated with a
number of Jewish organiza-
tions, Dr. Giles is probably
best known for his leadership
of a commission that central-
ized Jewish education in met-
ropolitan Detroit. Following
a study of United Hebrew
Schools and the state of local
Jewish education, the Giles
Commission recommended
the dissolution of UHS and
the formation.of the Agency
for Jewish Education.
Most recently, he has
served as the treasurer of
CJF and chaired its research
and long-range strategic plan-
ning committee. Locally, he
co-chaired the 1993 Miracle
Mission to Israel and received
the 1993 Fred M. Butzel
Memorial Award for Distin-
guished Communal Service.
Detroit Federation Execu-
tive Vice President Robert
Aronson said, "Conrad Giles'
tremendous abilities and
commitment to our commu-
nity
and our people have been
PHOTO BY BENYAS KAUFMAN PHOTOGRAPHERS
demonstrated over and over
again."
The election of Dr. Giles and
the mid-May meeting, the merg-
er was indefinitely delayed from full slate of officers will be pre-
its scheduled unification date of sented as a part of the CJF Gen-
Jan. 1, 1997. When the merger eral Assembly which is scheduled
occurs, which leaders are confi- for Nov. 13-16 in Seattle. ❑
dent it will, it is more likely to
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
happen in the next millennium. .
"We are looking at a more contributed to this report.
overseas distribution in the first
three years of the super-agency.
Faced with declining campaigns
and federal cutbacks, some fed-
erations, particularly those serv-
ing smaller communities, are
reluctant to lock into specific an-
nual allocations, potentially at the
expense of local programming.
Because of the issues raised at
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