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CLASSIC CUISINE
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A History
Of Giving
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The dollars may have shrunk,
but the Detroit community is still giving generously to Israel.
LYNNE MEREDITH COHN
Staff Writer
I
Jewish Campaign total went to Israel
in the country's early days, he said.
But after the 1970s, when Israel was
more financially independent, the
percentage shrunk to about 50 per-
cent of Campaign contributions. In
the `70s, Detroit raised around $10
million per year that went to Israel.
Now, the number hovers around $13
million annually, Drachler said,
although contributions last year were
$1 million less than in 1990-91.
Bob Aronson, executive vice-presi-
dent of the Federation, anticipates
that for at least five years into the
n the 50 years since Israel
became a state, Detroit's Jews
have come to its aid financial-
ly, whatever the pressing need.
But with the times of rescuing
refugees and building up a nascent
infrastructure within the Jewish state
mostly in the past, dollars going to
Israel through the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit are ear-
marked for programs rather than
needs. What originally funded the
resettlement of refugees and
displaced persons in Israel
now goes toward the future,
via programs like Partnership
2000, which pairs U.S. and
Israeli interests. Basically, said
Sol Drachler, executive vice
Allocations of the Jewish
president of the Federation
from 1975 until 1982, the
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
money sent by world Jewry to
to Israel and other countries have
Israel is "being used for the
same purposes.
held fairly steady since 1990:
"The state itself and
money and population is so
much more significant and
1997
$13,600,000
successful today than it was
[50 years ago], and also the
assistance that U.S. Jewry
$13,425,000
1996
renders in the form of contri-
butions is relatively smaller, if
$13,541,595
you compared it to the gross
1995
national product of Israel," he
said.
$13,445,000
1994
Until 1967, the Detroit
community sent under $5
million per year to Israel.
$14,119,950
1993
With the onset of the Six-Day
War in 1967, however, that
number doubled —
1992-1993
$13,868,397
Detroiters raised just under
$6 million in the regular
campaign for Israel, and then
$14,422,252
1991-1992
a month later garnered an
additional $5.7 million for
the Israel emergency fund,
1990-1991
$14,719,890
Drachler said.
For years, roughly two-
thirds of the local Allied
Diaspora Dollars
\- 3
future, Israel will continue to need
"support for core services of the
Jewish Agency for Israel, immigra-
tion and absorption. However, [there
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Israel receives just
under half of
Campaign
dollars.
will be] an increase in new
funding, both from the
Federation and from individu-
als to support individual pro-
grams and projects in Israel,
beyond the Jewish Agency."
That means, Aronson
explained, that the total dollar
amount raised for Israel over-
all will continue to grow,
although the percentage that
goes toward "core services"
may not.
"Growth in Israel dollars
will be what I call the people-
to-people programs that create
direct connections between
people in our community and
people in Israel," he said.
"That will include giving to
other causes in Israel, hopeful-
ly through the Federation and
things like Partnership 2000.
We are already seeing a
growth in giving to that pro-
ject."
Partnership 2000 links the
Detroit Jewish community
with people in the Central
Galilee region, through devel-
oping relationships and pro-
jects.
"In Israel, people are going
to want to fund programs that
they can touch and feel and
experience personally,"
Aronson said. ❑
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5/1
1998
17