Loose Change: Backlash over UCSJ plan, cuts in Baltimore and plans in North Boston and St. Louis

Here’s your pre-holiday Jewish news from the local Jewish papers:

• Rabbi Steve Wernick, the new head of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, is catching flack from some segments of the Conservative movement for his recently announced plans to revamp the USCJ, reports The New York Jewish Week.
• The Washington Jewish Week has also been all over this story.
• The New Jersey Jewish News talks about how the USCJ’s restructuring will affect the Conservative movement locally in New Jersey, including the merger of two UCSJ offices there.
• J. The Jewish Weekly of San Francisco, gives its reportage of Daniel Sokatch’s decision to leave the federation in San Francisco to take over the top spot at the New Israel Fund.
• The Forward says that a Palestinian-led boycott is in part behind the financial downfall of diamond mogul Lev Leviev. And the paper has its own story on Daniel Sokatch.
• Jewish Communal Services in Baltimore is preparing for a major cut in funding for ist special needs programming from the state government, reports the Baltimore Jewish Times. And a small historic shul in a small town on Maryland’s Eastern shore with a small Jewish community, struggles to survive.
• The Cleveland Jewish News has the details on a prospective $16 million gift that the Mandel family would give to the federation there if it moved from downtown Cleveland to the suburb of Beechwood.
• A Harvard professor and four Harvard grad students have released the results of a study into the Jewish community in the North Boston suburbs and have suggested sweeping changes, according to the Jewish Journal of Boston North.
• The occurrence of bias crimes in New Jersey was slightly higher in 2008 than 2007, according to the New Jersey Jewish Standard.
• Sanford Neuman, the new president of the Jewish federation in St. Louis, urges more cooperation between the area’s Jewish organizations, reports the St. Louis Jewish Light.
• The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle remembers Irwin Goodwin, the philanthropist who died recently.
• In Philadelphia, out-of-work attorneys are finding employment in different fields, including in the Jewish communal world, according to the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.