Jewish Agency, WZO Slash Budgets by over $30 Million

Officials at the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization have decided to slash their budgets by more than $30 million.

“Today I say no to past accounts, no to past errors and no to past commitments,” Avraham Burg, the newly elected chairman of the two bodies, said after the decision was made last week.

“I received a difficult, inexact and irresponsible budget in deficit. From here on, my job will be that of a cruel surgeon who amputates limbs in order to save the patient,” said Burg.

Sources close to the process confirmed that the cuts are part of an overall strategy aimed at combining WZO and the Jewish Agency into one organization before 1997, the centennial of the official creation of the Zionist movement. The first Zionist Congress took place in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland.

Burg addressed the idea of consolidating the two bodies when he held his first news conference for foreign journalists last week.

At that time, he complained about the duplications and over-politicization of the two organizations, adding that he envisioned one body replacing both.

To make his point, he coined the phrase: “One people — one body.”

Burg said he would present a comprehensive and detailed plan for the future of the two bodies at the June meeting of the Jewish Agency Assembly in Jerusalem.

Burg, a Labor member of Knesset, was recently elected acting chairman of the WZO and the Jewish Agency. He will officially be named chairman in June.

The Jewish Agency is the primary recipient of funds raised for Israel by the United Jewish Appeal in the United States.

The WZO undertakes Jewish educational efforts in the Diaspora and provides the mechanism for Diaspora Zionist organizations to participate in Jewish Agency decisions.

The decision to cut the Jewish Agency’s budget by some $30 million for the current fiscal year came during a meeting last week of the Agency’s Executive, which includes both Israeli and Diaspora representatives.

The Agency’s 1995 budget of $486 million suffered a deficit of some $26 million, which the new budget cuts will cover.

“This is an essential budget cut, a pruning to allow for growth, giving the Jewish Agency hope of a future life. Today we began a process of reform,” Burg said at the end of the Agency Executive meeting.

Agency Treasurer Hannan Ben Yehuda said that without the budget cuts it would be difficult for the Agency to continue its operations.

He said the exchange rates and the weakening of the U.S. dollar were partly to blame for the budget deficit.

The budget ax will hit the various departments of the Agency in a manner proportionate to the current operating budget of the departments, the Executive decided at its meeting.

Each department will have to decide by the end of the month which of their programs to cut.

At a separate session of the WZO Executive, Burg and Ben Yehuda announced that the WZO’s $30.8 million 1995 budget would have to be cut by $1.7 million.

The planned cuts will include reductions in the budgets for Zionist federations abroad and the cancellation of the “Fulfillment” program, which was meant to bring young people from the Diaspora to Israel.

The cancellation of the Fulfillment program brought strong criticism from several Executive members, including Yehiel Leket, Youth Aliyah department head. Leket served as acting chairman of WZO when the decision to establish the program was made.

“This is a black day for the WZO,” Leket said at the meeting. “Once again, we have cut back on the future, and the money is being distributed to political party representatives.”