A conflict is brewing in the United Israel Appeal between representatives of Zionist organizations and representatives of community fundraising organizations.
At issue, according to reports, are “proposals made by community representatives of the UIA’s Board of Directors to radically change the composition of its membership by substantially increasing community representation while retaining the same number of Zionist representatives. “This is being challenged by the Zionist representatives of the UIA’s Board of Trustees.
The Zionist trustees, who met last week to discuss this proposed change, asserted that any attempt to change this ratio “would create disunity and would constitute a disrupting influence in the historic partnership between the Zionist movement and the fund-raising community in the U.S., which have traditionally worked harmoniously together in the tasks of upbuilding Israel, “according to a statement issued by the World Zionist Organization-American Section which selects the Zionist representatives to the UIA’s Board of Directors.
The major governing body of the UIA, the Board of Directors, now consists of 36 members: 12 Zionists from various parties and 24 representatives from the United Jewish Appeal and Federations elected from the communities. According to a spokesman from the Zionist representatives, fund-raising representatives are proposing to retain the present number of Zionists but to increase the community representatives to 60, thus enlarging the Board membership to 72.
NO FORMAL PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE
According to a UIA spokesperson, there is no formal proposal to change the ratio of representatives on the Board, and a “scenario” of a possible change was brought up by one Board member in the process of an ongoing discussion on updating the UIA by-laws. The spokesperson said that “no decision has yet been made” and that the discussion is “wide open.” The spokesperson expressed surprise that the Zionist representatives went public in the middle of a discussion.
Since 1950, the UIA has been a partnership between the UIA/Federations and the American Zionist movement “and throughout the years the community representation has been greatly increased on the Board of Directors of the UIA in recognition of the increased role of the Federations in the affairs of the UIA and the Jewish Agency in Israel,” the WZO-American Section statement said.
STATEMENT BY ZIONISTS
“In the reconstitution of the Jewish Agency in 1971, representatives of the fund-raising communities throughout the free world were brought into this partnership on a 50-50 basis to manage the affairs of the Jewish Agency. The Zionist trustees of UIA strongly feel that the present drive to increase community representation at the expense of Zionist representation in the UIA is a threat to this historic partnership and will also affect the current partnership in the Jewish Agency.
“The Zionist trustees expressed great understanding of the need for increased participation of the American Jewish communities in the work of the UIA, in order to meet the new and expanding needs of Israel and also to give greater voice to community leadership in that effort,” the WZO statement said. But, the Zionist trustees said, this does not have to be achieved by reducing the ratio of the Zionist representatives.
The three members of the WZO-American Section Executive who will deal with this issue are Bernice Tannenbaum, chairperson of the WZO-American Section Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; and Harry Taubenfield, honorary chairperson of Herut. They will convey the united Zionist position to members of the recently established special UIA committee dealing with this proposal at the committee’s next meeting in April.
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