New Priority North American olim landing. atBen-Gurion Airport were a less-frequent sight in recent years. Jewish identity becomes the new focus of the Jewish Agency. RACHEL POMERANCE Jewish Telegraphic Agency North America, which provide more than half of the Jewish Agency's $290 million budget The contours of the strategic plan — and budget decisions to match it — were expected to be mapped out this week at the group's board of gov- ernors meeting in Jerusalem. In addi- tion to strengthening Jewish identity, the plan calls for continued focus on immigration and absorption as well as fostering the involvement of diaspora Jews in Israel. Last year, 22,000 immigrants arrived in Israel. While Jewish Agency officials point out that that number represents a considerable increase from aliyah rates in the 1980s, it is a major slide from the 1990s when, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, 80,000 to 90,000 emigrants from the former Soviet Union arrived in Israel each year. But agency officials say that despite the decrease in aliyah, absorption costs have risen due to the immense needs of new Ethiopian immigrants. Now, the Jewish Agency is preparing to manage the expedited aliyah of some 20,000 Falash Mura — Ethiopian Jews whose ancestors converted to Christianity but who have returned to W ith immigration to Israel down, the Jewish Agency for Israel is shifting its prior- ities in an attempt to maintain its rele- vance — and its funding from North American Jewry. Long focused primarily on aliyah and absorption, the agency is poised to put into action a strategic plan that lists strengthening the Jewish identity of young Jews around the world as one of its top priorities. To that end, it plans to devote more resources to Zionist educa- tion and youth programming in Israel. Positioning itself as something of a rescue operation in the fight for Jewish continuity, the agency said in its plan, which was approved last fall: "Without focused and dramatic intervention, further decline is certain. Jewish- Zionist education is a front-line response in a battle we simply cannot afford to lose." That battle cry fits neatly with a top concern of many Jewish communities worldwide, particularly in the highly intermarried Jewish communities of TUC Assessed New study on UJC merger prompts debate. TOM TUGEND Jewish Telegraphic Agency Los Angeles merican Jewish leaders who created the United Jewish Communities umbrella organ- ization out of three separate agencies in 1999 are largely frustrated and dis- appointed by the outcome of their labor, according to a new study. The two-year "From Predictability to Chaos? How Jewish Leaders Reinvented Their National Communal System" found that some top leaders of the Jewish federation system felt they had missed the chance to form a truly representative and forward-looking voice for American Jewry. A 2/24 2005 26 Among the apparent losers in the merger, according to the study, are Israel and overseas beneficiaries of the federa- tion fund-raising system, as well as rab- binical, intellectual and Zionist segments of the American Jewish community. Howard Rieger, who took over as president and CEO of the UJC last Sept termed the study "construc- tive and useful," but questioned some specific points and recommendations. UJC and federation leaders from around the country were slated to discuss the study in New York with its two authors, Gerald Bubis and Steven Windmueller, respectively founding director and current direc- tor of the School of Jewish Communal Service at Hebrew Union 0 r . . New York 0 Jewish practice. After a meeting with Jewish Agency officials Jan. 31, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that Israel would double the rate of Ethiopian immigration to 600 per month, which would complete the group's aliyah by 2007. It will cost $10 million per year for the next three years to run the compounds housing the Falash Mura in Ethiopia, agency officials said. Absorption of the Falash Mura in Israel will cost the agency some .800 million, most of which will be shoul- dered by Israeli taxpayers, said Sallai Meridor, chairman of the Jewish Agency's executive. About $20 million of the Jewish Agency's budget is spent on the 7,000 Falash Mura still living in absorption College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles. The three constituent organizations in the merger were the Council of Jewish Federations, which focused mainly on serving the needs of 229 North American communities with federations and social welfare funds; the United Jewish Appeal, which oversaw fund-rais- ing, mainly through the federation sys- tem, for Israel and overseas needs; and the United Israel Appeal, which moni- tored and distributed funds for Israel by way of the Jewish Agency for Israel and monitored U.S. government allotments for refugee resettlement. While praising the dedication and good intentions of the organizational leaders, "the study reveals a tale of unclear expectations, unshared visions, mixed motivations and multi- layered power games," the authors say in the report. Toting up perceived "winners" and "losers" in the merger, the study cites local federations as coming out on top, with executives of large-city feder- Streamlining The study is based on written responses and in-depth interviews with 88 "stake- holders," mostly men and women involved in the merger, augmented by other prominent Jewish personalities. As the study describes, attempts to combine the alphabet soup of American Jewish fund-raising and communal institutions date back more than 60 years. It took seven years of discussion To establish the UJC. The merger represented the largest 20th-century effort of its kind in the American nonprofit sector, and the "most significant institutional trans- formation in modern Jewish life," according to the study. One major impetus, the study notes, was the desire to streamline the entire federation system and make it more accountable.