c. 1998 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ In a reversal of past practice, Israel will funnel money to North American Jewish communities by co-financing a massive new program that will offer a summer in Israel to virtually every Jewish teenager who wants to visit the Jewish state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the announcement Monday (Nov. 16) at a gathering of more than 2,000 North American Jewish leaders meeting here this week. The meeting marks the first time the annual General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations has met in Israel. The federations represent local Jewish communities in the United States and Canada. The gathering, which coincides with the 50th anniversary of modern Israel, has drawn Jews from dozens of communities around North America.

Netanyahu, speaking at the meeting’s opening session replete with political speeches and a symphony performance, said Israel’s offer to help finance visits to his nation by Jewish youths as part of the”Birthright”program was evidence of a fundamental shift in Israel’s relationship with Jews living elsewhere.

In the past, Israel has been on the receiving end of Jewish diaspora gifts and development aid. Now the state will begin to give something back by co-funding a program designed to help diaspora Jewish youth strengthen their Jewish identities _ which, it is presumed, will also strengthen their ties to Israel.”You’re shocked, but yes, Israel is going to give money to the diaspora to promote Jewish education,”said Netanyahu.”After 50 years it is time we give something back.” Conrad Giles, president of the Council of Jewish Federations, said”Birthright”would combine an annual Israeli donation of $20 million with another $40 million to be pledged by Jewish philanthropists and local Jewish communities for the program, which will cover at least half the estimated cost of a summer in Israel for each Jewish teenager. “There is no question that there are changes in the way Israel relates to the worldwide Jewish community. It’s no longer a matter of the poor Israelis and the rich North American cousins,”Giles noted, adding that Israel is now a relatively affluent and developed country.

North American Jewish communities, meanwhile, are faced with rising assimilation and have turned to Israel for help in strengthening the Jewish identity of future generations. An effective way of doing that is through cultural and educational programs that bring youngsters to Israel for a brief period and immerse them in the experience of living in a Jewish state, said Giles, who is from Detroit.”We see Israel as a cultural resource that can help bolster Jewish identities and Jewish life in North America,”he said.

Giles also said that more diaspora donors are demanding a”personal, rather than institutional relationship”with Israel, which receives more than $1 billion in donations from North American Jews each year.

Reflecting that new approach, the four-day session offered participants an opportunity to experience contemporary Israeli culture through a smorgasbord of seminar meetings with leading Israeli teachers and thinkers, from the noted Orthodox Jewish writer Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz to the popular Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua. Participants also joined dozens of issue-oriented tours of the country designed to explore topics ranging from women’s rights to the environment. “We cut a wide swathe of individuals and groups _ authors, politicians, business people and jurists _ in order to engage people and improve communication,”said Giles.

The session meeting is also focusing on an upcoming merger between three of the largest North American groups dealing with Jewish communal life and fundraising _ the Council of Jewish Federations, the United Jewish Appeal and the United Israel Appeal.

Within three months the merger between the three organizations is scheduled to be completed, streamlining communal Jewish bureaucracies and the fundraising apparatus that channels monies to Israel.

In the past, monies sent to Israel passed from local federations to the UJA and finally the UIA. In the future, one single organization, the UJA-Federations of North America, will be responsible for both fundraising, management of local communal institutions and channeling a percentage of local funds to Israel. “It’s an effort to stave off decreasing amounts of contributions, in some cases, and to also be more effective in raising new monies,”said Roberta Fahn-Schoffman, a Jerusalem-based strategic consultant who deals with Israeli-diaspora community relations.

She said the move will also give local Jewish communities more control over how their donations are used in Israel. “As years go on, the priorities have changed and people want to earmark their money,”she said. For instance, some North American communities have sought to finance institutions working on behalf of religious pluralism in Israel, Arab-Jewish dialogue or other causes that have not traditionally received diaspora aid.

DEA END FLETCHER