Metro

Dues Dispute

Federation, UJC battle
over annual payment.

Alan Hitsky

Associate Editor

A

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December 13 • 2007

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to be focused on the needs. We also
believe in transparency:' he said. "We
don't hide our dues payments in our
overseas numbers."
UJC was created in 1999 as a cost-
saving merger of the Council of Jewish
Federations, the United Jewish Appeal
and the United Israel Appeal. Its 2007
budget is $40.2 million, a 3.7 percent
increase over 2006. According to the
Forward newspaper in New York, the
5 percent assessment was supposed
to be recalculated every year but has
remained in place since 2003.
The UJC represents 155 Jewish
federations and 400 non-federa-
tion Jewish communities in North
America, said its media director,
Glenn Rosenkrantz. UJC helps the
communities with their fundraising
and serves as a "collective advocate
he said, "with over $2 billion in annual
fundraising muscle."
TheNew York-based organization
also sponsors emergency campaigns
after natural disasters worldwide.
JFMD President Nancy Grosfeld
said Detroit's leadership "believes in
a strong national system. But we have
concerns. And we are working with
the UJC to reach an amicable conclu-
sion:' She said Detroit has proposed "a
more equitable fair-share formula and
we want to see more of it sent to Israel
... Our board leadership has voiced
its concerns about the size of the UJC
budget and the size of our dues pay-
ment."
Two members of the JFMD board of
governors, Michael Horowitz and Dr.
Richard Krugel, are members of the
UJC's budget and dues committees,
and will attend the Dec. 17 meeting.
Horowitz said the UJC asked com-
mittee members not to engage in pub-
lic debate on the issue. But he did tell
the Jewish News that "Detroit is com-
mitted to change. If the UJC doesn't
change, Detroit will withhold its dues.
We hope it will change. But part of the
problem is that if our dues go down,
others' will go up."
He added that the Detroit
Federation "has been trying to put
forth constructive ideas on the budget

five-year fight over money
will begin to find some
resolution next week, or the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit (JFMD) and
the United Jewish
Communities (UJC)
will officially be on
opposite sides.
JFMD leaders will
attend a meeting
on Monday, Dec.
17, to try to reach a
Robert
compromise
on the
Aronson
UJC dues structure.
UJC is the umbrella
agency for Jewish
federations through-
out North America
UJC charges its
members approxi-
mately 5 percent
of their Annual
Nancy
Campaign
total each
Grosfeld
year. For JFMD, that
is $1.5 million for
2007. But JFMD lead-
ers argue that donors
want more of their
funds going to local,
national and overseas
needs and less going
111
to administration.
Michael
They also say
Horowitz
Detroit is being
penalized for high
achievement, having
the fourth highest
campaign total in the
United States coming
from the 25th largest
Jewish community.
"After five years
Richard
of discussions, our
Krugel
leadership has decid-
ed that this is ineq-
uitable," said Robert Aronson, chief
executive officer of JFMD. The Detroit
leadership has voted to withhold
$600,000 — 40 percent — from its
UJC dues if the issue is not resolved.
Aronson said Detroit has "signifi-
cant community challenges" that need
more funding, and the "dollars have
Dues on page A17

