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July 29, 2008 | 10:16 am
In my cover story this week about Hard Times in the Jewish community, I mentioned how the dropping dollar was killing internationally oriented organizations, particularly the American Jewish Joint Distribution Comittee, which cut 60 jobs, including 52 in Israel.
Others, like the United Jewish Communities, Hadassah, the New Israel Fund, pretty much anybody with operations overseas, have been hard hit.
“We grant in dollars,“ Bennett Samson, national development director of the New Israel Fund, tells me. “So if we are giving a $1,000 grant, last year they were able to do 4,000 shekels worth of something with that. This year we give them $1,000, a flat renewal, and they are only able to do 3,200 shekels worth with that. We are giving our grants in dollars, but we know they can do less with that. And we are in the same boat; we’ve got 100 staffers in Israel.“
Now you can add Taglit-birthright israel, the wildly successful charity that since 2000 has taken 200,000 Jews, age 18-26, on their first trip to the Jewish state. Birthright’s not broke—how could an organization with an $80 million budget and sugar daddy Sheldon Adelson as its biggest benefactor be broke?—but co-founder Michael Steinhardt says that the dollar’s devaluation is crippling its resources and 2,000 fewer participants would be included on trips this winter.
Steinhardt speaks with the Fundermentalist after the jump:
Steinhardt insisted that talk of a Birthright budget crunch was not a ploy, saying that several factors came into play in terms of the program’sneed for more money. “It is true that the airline cost is really difficult this year because El Al is charging a lot more,” he said. “And because Israeli tourism has been so successful, the hotels have really increased their prices.”
The call for increased dollars, Steinhardt said, is directed across the board — not just at the Israeli government and the federation system. Specifically, he added, Birthright needs more private philanthropists involved.
“I have pushed the Jewish Agency for a long time to step up. And it is not secret that I am not a friend of theirs,” he said. “My hope of their stepping up is gone. I still have a faint hope of getting more money from the federations. But the major source of funds are firstly the philanthropists and secondly the government. We really need to make an effort to seek more philanthropic involvement.”
Birthright has been incredibly important to strengthening Jewish identity and, particularly, interest in Israel among my generation of Jews. This, obviously, is not the end. But the impact of any reductions—this would not be the first time—would not be insignificant.
Posted by Brad A. Greenberg in 10 Comments — Leave your comment
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The irony of all this has to do with how this may force community leaders to come together to review priorities. Is feeding helpless Jewish aged in th eFSU any less important than programs devoted to Jewish identity enhancement, or visa versa?
What criteria are to be used in setting new priorities for shrinking dollar values overseas? Who should decide?
How do the silent groups and individuals get fair consideration, considering the community’s proclivity for responding to the new and the glamorous?
There have been times in Jewish history when values and priorities have clashed. My hunch is we are on the brink of another such moment.
Gerald Bubis
I’m not so sure this is a bad thing. I agree that Birthright has done wonders to bring tens of thousands of young Jews to Israel, but the question has always been what they see (or, perhaps, what they are shown) when they are there. Are they really seeing, or is this a tool to sell a certain version of Israel?
I wrote a long blog essay about this last summer (http://semitism.net/2007/06/11/lech-le-chem/), recounting how I watched a group of 30 Birthrighters gather on a beach in Tel Aviv to usher in Shabbat. They did so to the jeers and mockery of the Israelis on the Tayelet. This hostility struck me deeply, and I have thought about it often, mostly because I think the average Israelis walking by felt that they were not actually a part of the picture the Birthrighters were being shown. Here is the last para from that post, which I directed at the participants on the trip:
So, lech le-chem. Open your eyes and take your time, Birthrighters. Get out and see the country and everyone in it while you are here. Understand the people a bit more, listen to their stories. Follow in Abraham’s way and do not build walls like those you see around you (do you see them?). Keep your tent, your bus, open on all sides; let everyone come in. Foster peace in your hearts and your connection with the land and all of the people in it, not division, not domination. As Abraham did, and as Avraham Burg now suggests again, look to the Judaism of morality rather than the Judaism of sovereignty.
Maybe Birthright can focus more on getting young Jews to Israel and then letting them discover what exists there for themselves.
I’m amused by Michael Steinhardt’s charity plea for an organization w. an $80 million budget & w. access to a sugar daddy like Sheldon Adelson. Who does he think he’s kidding?? Why should anyone step up when he’s got resources like that?
And I strongly disagree w. this statement:
Birthright does not strengthen Jewish identity in the long term. It provides a short term caffeine like high focussed solely on Israel as the core value of Jewish identity. Birthright does a deep disservice to those who see Jewish identity as consisting of a wide variety of values, only one of which should be Israel.
I don’t think that a ‘plea’ is the proper way to frame Steinhardt’s statement and attitude. Sure, he could continue to fund the entire cost of the program, but that would defeat the purpose of every philanthropist, which is to have his ‘baby’ grow up and be self-sustaining, which is also a validation of the original vision.
If I was Steinhardt, I would focus on bootstrapping the program by soliciting support from past participants who are beginning to hatch into earners and entrepeneurs.
I have no idea on what basis you ‘disagree’ with the statement of the obvious. Jewish identity is by definition grounded in the physical and social world taken as the substrate for that overlay of values, which cannot exist in the abstract. “Those who see Jewish identity as consisting of a wide variety of values” are quickly evaporating into the pool of those with no Jewish identity at all, and any money spent furthering that goal is down the crapper. Jewish affiliation and ccommitment is th key.
There is nothing that is NOT part of Jewish identity. One’s real world education, knowlege, experiences, outlook, lifestyle and practices all make it up. But it is as much Israel (land and nation) as part of oneself, as the reverse that is being promoted here. I am not a fan of many of Steinhardt’s ideas, but Birthright is an almost Chabad-like stroke of genius. The dividends of Birthright will not be realized for years to come, and will keep on giving.
I regret the need for the world’s 3rd wealthiest man to ask anyone for money in any endeavor he pursues.
Erm, I think the point of the above is that this is not a personal pursuit of Steinhardt’s. He is not asking for money so much as he is asking for participation, affiliation and committment. And in addressing ‘philanthropists’ he is talking about a class of fish among whom you and I don’t swim. Not passing the charity box around but recruiting other people who have more than enough money, and an impulse to use their discretionary amounts to advance worthy causes, on HIS terms, natch. Let’s not talk about purity beyond filthy lucre. Heck, even Richard Silverstein has a ‘Donate’ link on his blog (not to mention a little sales pitch for his services).
For years Birthright was used by the International Solidairty Movementto get anti-Israel activists over to the Holy Land for free to demonstrate against Israel’s existence. After I exposed this, Brithright began looking more closely at who they financed to go. If they need more money, let them clean up their act.
I like that typo ‘Brithright’. Speaking of typos, I read your website as ‘Stop Theism’ and I didn’t like you. Then I found out it’s ‘Stop the ISM’ and I love you.
Birthright comes as a triage solution to the rapid spiral of jewish continuity in america. As i’ve worked with birthrighters in Israel, it is amazing the number of participants who are having their first jewish experience through the program. As much as i disdain their tours which require a constant temperature of 72 degrees- physically and symbolicaly as they tour, it is none the less a tremendous opening for so many. The key however, is in the post-birthright world. When people return for a trip that takes them off the bus and into their hearts own interest in Israel and a part of their collective self. One hardship Birthright has wrought is the sense of entitlement young people feel to their free trip and the inherent cheapening of the experience as opposed to the “save money, strap on the backpack and go”-type traveller, which is a much rarer sight in Jerusalem hostels these days.
I hope there is an increase/ diversion of funding into the creative world of longer term Israel programming, where the real personal relationship between Jew and Israel happens…
It would make sense that the program would require some paying forward of a commitment, not necessarily too much or too soon. Until that aspect can be experimented with and fine-tuned it was correct to lower the bar as much as possible.