Masorti Movement in Israel Loses Funding from Seminary

The Masorti movement, the Israeli branch of Conservative Judaism, has lost the large chunk of its funding that came from the Jewish Theological Seminary and is now looking elsewhere for support.

JTS, which had agreed to raise money on behalf of Masorti two years ago, cut off funding in order to balance its own budget, say seminary officials.

As a result, Masorti is putting together a staff of Washington-based paid fund-raisers who, supplemented by volunteers, will canvass individuals and congregations within the movement to try to make up the shortfall.

“We’re going to become closer to America now,” Rabbi Philip Spectre, executive director of Masorti, said in an interview during the annual gathering of Conservative rabbis, held at the Concord Hotel here May 17-21.

“Our rabbinic colleagues are very supportive. They have realized that they have the responsibility of funding us,” he said.

And the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the movement’s congregational arm, “has embraced us in a closer way. We’re planning joint fund-raising efforts,” Spectre said.

But Masorti may have a difficult time raising all that it requires because of the confusing multiplicity of Conservative groups targeting the same population. That, in fact, is one of the primary reasons why Masorti and JTS agreed to join fund-raising forces in the first place.

The organizations signed a three-year contract two years ago that was supposed to provide the Israeli movement with $565,000 annually, said Masorti President Allan Warshawsky.

That sum would have equalled just over a third of Masorti’s $1.5 million 1992 budget, according to Spectre. The rest comes from foundations, synagogues and individual contributors in North and South America.

The seminary was unable to raise the amount for Masorti that it was supposed to, said Spectre, because “JTS never emphasized the Israel component of the campaign properly.”

FUNDING FOR BEIT MIDRASH INTACT

The Masorti movement helps fund the 40 congregations under its aegis, as well as a kibbutz, a moshav and a Nahal program, or training program for young Israelis in the army.

Masorti also lobbies the Knesset on behalf of religious pluralism and is currently suing two municipal religious councils in order to get them to allow Conservative Jews to participate.

While cutting off all funding to Masorti, JTS will continue to help support the movement’s Beit Midrash. It will receive $375,000 in fiscal 1993.

It will ordain four Israeli Conservative rabbis this year and has a total of about 60 rabbinic, graduate and other students pursuing degrees.

“JTS is, by definition, pushing a wedge between the Beit Midrash and the rest of the movement in Israel,” said Warshawsky. “It’s extremely unhealthy.”

Said Rabbi Michael Greenbaum, vice chancellor and chief administrative officer at JTS, “We regret deeply the tensions that this has brought about. But I don’t think that this funding decision is the source of tension between the Beit Midrash and Masorti.

“There were always limited resources, and that fact was, in itself, a cause for tension,” he said. “The seminary’s commitment to Masorti is unchanged. We are simply unable to continue the funding we were doing.”

The seminary itself, like many Jewish organizations, has been grappling with a serious budget crisis. Its own projected budget deficit for fiscal 1992, which ends June 31, nearly equals Masorti’s entire operating budget.

The seminary, whose 1993 budget total $14.5 million, according to Greenbaum, has trimmed $6 million off of its expenditures over the past three years, laid off 15 of its approximately 250 staff members in the last year and cut back on the financial aid it offers students.

“It’s been a very difficult time,” said Greenbaum. “But there hasn’t been a balanced budget in anyone’s memory, and it’s important for us to have our fiscal house in order.”