Gideon Aronoff and the HIAS dilemma

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For the second time in less than a week, the head of a large Jewish organization has resigned abruptly.

This time, it was Gideon Aronoff of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, who announced Wednesday in a letter to friends that he will be stepping down effective May 31; Mark Hetfield, senior vice president for policy and programs at HIAS, will be the interim president and CEO.

The reason for his departure, Aronoff told me, is personal. In his letter, he noted a "time of significant transition" in his family, and he confirmed as much to me in a conversation on Thursday. He will be spending more time with his young kids. Here’s the letter:

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Dear Friends,

I’m writing today to share the news that, after more than a dozen years where I have been honored to serve HIAS (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) both in Washington DC and for over 6 years as President and CEO, I will be resigning my position as of May 31, 2012. This is not a decision that I take lightly since I sincerely believe that HIAS’ 130’s of service to the Jewish community and to Jewish and non-Jewish migrants in need is one of the truly compelling callings in the Jewish community. However, for personal reasons I must seek other opportunities to serve that better enable me to fulfill my obligations to my family during a time of significant transition.

It has been a great honor and pleasure for me to have the opportunity to assist so many of the world’s most vulnerable people through advocacy, service and education in the United States and around the world. While the exact contours of my next phase are not fully developed, I am confident that I will build on my experience at HIAS and seek new opportunities to make a difference. 

For all of your friendship and support over the years I am deeply grateful.

Aronoff’s tenure at HIAS was not without controversy. As president and CEO, he was an unapologetic proponent of HIAS’ advocacy and support for non-Jewish immigration to America — something some Jewish critics saw as outside the scope of HIAS’ raison d’etre.

Aronoff never saw it that way.

"I helped the agency look into its past and understand and discover both from a values standpoint and a history standpoint how you can be unapologetically focused on Jewish particularlist concerns and unapologetically focused on universal values at the same time," he said in an interview this week. "HIAS always had a focus on Jews in danger, which still exists – both the danger and the focus – but also historically and traditionally has used our skills and capacities to help people of other backgrounds when they turn to us in need.

"What I did was help the agency see its history more clearly and be more forthright that both sets of activities are core to what HIAS is," he siad. "People often try to portray some kind of a fundamental shift, but I don’t think the fundamental shift occurred in what we do so much as they way that the integrated program of HIAS is understood and described and discussed in the community."

Aronoff compared HIAS’ plight to that of the Jewish Agency for Israel, which has shifted away from its singleminded focus on aliyah to promote Zionist education but hasn’t abandoned the goal of aliyah. You don’t hear a Jewish organizational leader citing the embattled Jewish Agency as a model too often these days.

There’s also a pragmatic reason for pursuing a more universalist mission, Aronoff said: If HIAS simply were to be dormant except in times of great Jewish need, it wouldn’t have the capacity or ability to respond when the Jewish world suddenly needs it.

"It would be both irresponsible and unethical to not help others where we can and to not preserve and build capacity for future Jewish emergencies," he said. "You can’t run a resettlement network for a few hundred Jewish refugees nationally. It’s not possible to not have a resettlement network when, 10 years from now, you need it. So from a pragmatic basis, the work with non-Jewish refugees is essential."

When I asked him where those Jewish emergencies might emerge, he cited instability in a number of Latin American countries with Jewish populations, mentioned the political problems in Hungary, and said that French Jews were really shaken by the shooting attack at a Jewish school in Toulouse in March that left four dead.

As for the course he charted for HIAS during the six years he led the organization, Aronoff remains unbowed.

"The vision of HIAS as a social justice organization and Jewish values organization applies to our work as much as making sure each and every Jew and Jewish community that’s in danger gets the full commitment of the Jewish community," he said. "You can unapologetically serve Jews in need and unapologetically serve others who turn to us in help."