He insists that for him the concept of “full partnership” that underlays the “reconstitution” at the Jewish Agency is meaningful and imperative, not mere rhetoric. “I want the Board to be genuine partners in decision making — in deciding on the concepts and principles governing the work of the Agency — and hence shaping its budget,” Levinsky asserts.
Obviously, he says, the overseas members and especially the United Jewish Appeal and United Israel Appeal members, are a key factor in drawing up the income side of the budget. They have their fingers on the pulses of cash-flow, income assessments, likely influences on fund raising in the year ahead.
But Levinsky involves them equally in the expenditure side. “People who come to Israel for a short time cannot obviously go into the precise figures — they accept what we prepare for them. But they can and indeed must and do share in policy decisions — for instance — how long a new settlement should be under the Agency’s ‘wing’ or how long an individual immigrant should be aided by the Agency which brought him here before the government takes over fully.”
Another viral area of budget making in which all the Board of Governors and Executive members must share the responsibility is in setting a ceiling on the Agency’s borrowing. “This immediately and directly affects the order of priorities in the Agency’s work on the ground,” Levinsky explains.
ANOTHER NOTEWORTHY ADVANCE
Another noteworthy advance in the Agency in which Levinsky has had important input; the decision to publish the Agency comptroller’s annual report. This year, part was published (for the first time) and part held back (some of it sensitive material dealing with communities in distress or delicate fund raising work). In the future, Levinsky pledges, “the trend will be towards fuller and fuller publication.”
Levinsky is reluctant to discuss his own aspirations if and when the Labor Party returns to power in Israel (and thus, at the Zionist congress the year after, to primacy at the Jewish Agency). But, referring to press speculation that some Labor “outsider” might be “parachuted” into the chairman’s seat, Levinsky permits himself to observe that the high positions in the Agency deserve to be filled by people, who have grown into them and have had experience in Israel-Diaspora affairs.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
