Year In Review/America
Photo by Nefesh B'Netesh
As we celebrate this
New Year 5769,
_
Eight first-generation Israeli babies at a Yom HaAtzmaut celebration on
April 29.
We wish joy and good health
To you and your loved ones
.
Scott Leemaster
President
Allan "Geli" Gelfond
East Central Regional Director
Jo Strausz Rosen
Detroit Chapter Director
Barb Zeevi
Administrative Assistant
v
AVM
American
Technion
Society
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Farmington Hills, MI 48334
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A86
September 25 • 2008
Ai
slide in stock and real estate markets
could force them to cut their allocations
Samuel Dubbin,.the Florida attorney and significantly.
former Department of Justice official push-
At the annual gathering of the Jewish
ing the bill, contends that the right to sue is
Funders Network, held in April in
fundamental and should not be abridged.
Jerusalem, philanthropists and founda-
He also charges that the official body cre-
tion professionals openly expressed
ated to resolve the insurance issue, the
concern that a philanthropic recession
International Commission on Holocaust
was coming.
Era Insurance Claims, or ICHEIC, was a
"People are beginning to be nervous,
failure, paying out only a fraction of the
especially in places where the economy
estimated value of Jewish insurance poli-
is so based on banking and real estate,'
cies held before the wax
said Richard Marker, an independent
Not surprisingly, the European insur-
philanthropy adviser and a professor of
ance industry has lobbied hard to defeat philanthropy at New York University. "And
the bill. But Dubbin and his client, the
I don't think that the Jewish community
Holocaust Survivors Foundation, also
is going to be exempt. There is going to be
have found themselves engaged in leg-
tremendous pressure on both the philan-
islative combat with the largest Jewish
thropists and the nonprofit world:'
groups and the Claims Conference,
At the same time, the dollar's decline
the principal Jewish organization for
hit Jewish groups operating overseas. In
Holocaust restitution.
July, for example, the Reform movement
Those groups claim that the flood of
announced that because of the falter-
potential lawsuits would do little to help
ing dollar, its Israel center was facing a
survivors and would jeopardize ongoing
major budget shortfall. The movement
restitution negotiations with European
issued a mass appeal for assistance, say-
companies andgovernments.
ing it needed $500,000 to "save" its Israel
The fight has grown increasingly
'operation, which was facing a decline of
acrimonious. An official of the Claims
more than 30 percent in its budget.
Conference accused Dubbin of unreal- •
"We're going to find out who the
istically raising the survivors' expecta-
strong and the weak are. Ifs an almost
tioris in the hopes of reaping millions in
Darwinian survival of the fittest:' said
legal fees. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., a
Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American
chief backer of the bill, wondered dur-
Jewish history at Brandeis University.
ing a congressional hearing in February
Though the faltering economy is cast-
how Jewish leaders could sleep at night
ing a long shadow in the waning days of
knowing they were preventing survivors 5768, the year was .not without celebra-
from being compensated for defaulted
tions.
policies.
In November, the community marked
Advocates for the legislation have said the 20th anniversary of the struggle for
the bill would benefit needy Holocaust
Soviet Jewry, a campaign that mobilized
survivors, many of whom may find
tens of thousands of Jews across the
themselves with even less communal
country on a scale unequaled before or
support in the coming year if the falter-
since. What began as a student-led effort
ing economy hits the Jewish philan-
in the 1960s blossomed into a worldwide
thropic world as hard as some expect.
movement, leading to the largest Jewish
Economic concerns have risen to the
exodus in history and, some say, playing
forefront of the Jewish agenda as 5768
a role in the ultimate fall of the Soviet
draws to a close. In the wake of the March Union.
collapse of Bear Stearns, a major Wall
Henry Feingold, the author of a
Street bank and a significant source of
recently published work on the struggle,
Jewish charitable financing, philanthropy
summed it up: "It was probably
professionals worried that a continued
American Jewry's finest hone ❑
5768: America from page A85