The Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit

1998 Jewish gook Fair Would Like
To Thank You For Your Helping
Hand In this Wonderful Event

Honoring the 47th Annual
Jewish Book Fair ...

Spend It Here

...Steering Committee...

Survey of U.S. lay leaders shows preference
for funding local needs.

Co-Chairs

Sylvia Gotlib - Andi Wolfe"

Vice-Chair

Teri Sinkoff

Advisory Council

Eleanor Korn • Cis Maisel Keliman
Joyce Sherman' • Ethel Yollick

Sook Selection

Marilyn Kent • Sandy Zeskind'

Children

Karen Lovinger - Sharon Silverman

Community Liaison

Cheryl Kirsch

Decora-iio PIS

Danie Allan

Hospitality

Pam Salba

JPM Chairs

Eileen Polk • Cathy Tasman

Local Authors

Marilyn Weiss • Irene Winkler

Patro n Event

Gail Fisher • Cheri Victor
Suzy Gershenson

Preview Event

Carrie Kusher"

DEBRA NUSSBAUM COHEN

Special to The Jewish News

I

t's not just the average American
Jew who is feeling less connected
to Israel these days — the leader-
ship of American Jewish organi-
zations is as well.
A growing sense of estrangement
from Israel, which has been well docu-
mented in recent surveys of randomly
selected American Jews, is also true of
professional and lay leaders of Jewish
communal organizations, according to
Gerald Bubis and Steven Cohen.
They released their study a week ago
in Jerusalem to coincide with the mas-
sive gathering of Diaspora Jewish lead-
ers at the General Assembly of the UJA
Federations of North America.
The estrangement is being felt by
Israeli leaders as well — Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, in his keynote
address at the G.A., which was held for
the first time in Jerusalem, announced
government plans to spend $5.1 million
in the coming year on Zionist educa-
tion among Diaspora Jews.
Cohen, who teaches at the Melton
Center for Jewish Education at
Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and
Bubis, a vice president and fellow of
the Jerusalem Center for Public
Affairs, the study's major under-
writer, found that both lay and pro-
fessional leaders of Jewish federa-
tions, national agencies, community
centers and social service organiza-
tions consider Israel and other Jewish
communities overseas a less com-

Debra Nussbaum Cohen is a writer
for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Sidelines

Sandy Panush

Organization Outreach

Carol Weintraub Fogel

Volunteer Coordinators

Gloria Firestone • Helen Miller
Lois Posner

...and a special thank you to all the
volunteers who made Book Fair Possible.

"Past Book Fair Chairs

11/27
1998

16 Detroit Jewish News

pelling philanthropic cause than
needs closer to home.
About three-quarters of respondents
said Jewish social and human services
and Jewish education should get a lot of
support from Jewish federations.
Just over half — 58 percent — said
the same of Israel and other overseas
needs.
The more than 100 Jewish federa-
tions in the United States and Canada
raise money from donors in their local
communities and then disburse it to
local agencies, such as nursing homes,
soup kitchens, synagogues and day
schools.
Some of the money — a shrinking
percentage in many federations in
recent years — is sent to Israel for char-
itable causes there; some is sent to aid
needy Jews in other parts of the world.
When asked how they would like to
see funds divided from their own com-
munity federation, just 2 percent of
respondents said they would keep the
local-overseas split the same as it is now.
A majority of the volunteer and pro-
fessional leaders — 58 percent — said
that they would like to allocate more
funds locally.
Only 40 percent said that they
would like to see more sent overseas.
"This study should serve to provoke
those who a,re committed to a strong
relationship to search for ways in which
American Jews can develop meaningful
relationships with Israel in a philan-
thropic context," Steven Cohen said in
a telephone interview from Jerusalem.
"It's reasonable to question whether giv-
ing money to UJA-Federation and the
Jewish Agency is the best way to use
one's philanthropic dollars.

Giles Defends Detroit Allocation

The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit allocates 50 percent of its
annual campaign dollars to be spent
overseas. Nationally about 40 percent
of the dollars collected goes abroad.
For the United States as a whole this
year, $309 million will be spent over-
seas, most of it in Israel; the remaining
$450 million is budgeted for local
domestic operations, according Jay
Yoskowitz, the executive vice president
of the Council of Jewish Federations.

Detroit, by contrast, is sending
$13,580,000 overseas, out of a planned
total spending of $25.3 million. The
total includes about $800,000 that goes
to national organizations; the rest is
spent locally. The Detroit Jewish com-
munity's overseas contributions are the
largest of any city in the country.
Dr. Conrad Giles, a Detroiter who
heads the Council of Jewish
Federations, said it is fair that Detroit
send the money abroad.

