JDC Approves 1987 Budget

The Board of Directors of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee approved a $57 million budget for 1987 at its recent annual meeting.

The budget represents a six percent increase over the 1986 budget of $54 million. It will fund JDC programs in Israel and more than 30 other countries. JDC president Heinz Eppler called it a responsible budget and said: “It addresses the needs of the Jewish communities around the world.”

The annual meeting was the culmination of a week of meetings and programs that illustrate the national and international scope of JDC activities. Committees organized by areas of the world reviewed operations and deliberated questions of program and budget.

JEWISH EDUCATION HIGHLIGHTED

Jewish education is a major focus of JDC work in Western Europe and Latin America. Executive vice president Ralph Goldman described a major study of educational programs in France, a joint project of JDC and the Jewish Agency Jewish Education Subcommittee.

The study will produce an inventory of what exists and a plan for what is needed,” Goldman said.

He stressed that the local community is involved with the study. “We are not seeking a JDC program or a Jewish Agency program. Rather, we want to help develop an indigenous French Jewish community program for Jewish education.”

Eppler reported on a plan to form a training school, or “seminario,” in Argentina for Jewish communal workers. He said that this will strengthen JDC’s effort to increase the professionalism of social services in Latin America’s Jewish communities.

The Board approved a new direction of service, in which the JDC will reach out to a general community in need, if that will also help a Jewish community.

FOCUS OF THE PLENARY

The focus of the plenary luncheon meeting was JDC’s work in Israel. The keynote speaker was Avraham Harman, president of Hebrew University from 1968 to 1983 and Ambassador to the United States from 1959 to 1968.

In a summary of current social and political circumstances in Israel, he noted that the JDC, UJA, and similar agencies account for about 10 percent of what is spent on social services and community development.

“That’s the context in which I think the JDC and the UJA should view their role in Israel,” he said. “You are indispensable to what we want Israel to be, to how we want the people of Israel — and the new immigrants who join us — how we want them to live.”