Major changes ahead for UJC

The United Jewish Communities will undergo a major restructuring, according to the top leaders of the umbrella organization of North American federations.In an internal e-mail memo dated March 30, President and CEO Howard Rieger wrote that UJC would reorganize into two major teams – “a global operations group based in Israel and managed from Jerusalem, and a community capacity-building group, to enhance our engagement with federations.” As part of the restructuring, UJC will dissolve its current pillar system, which divides UJC responsibilities into several domains. UJC will launch a plan in the coming weeks, Rieger said in the e-mail.UJC’s top lay leader, Joseph Kanfer, told JTA that the organization would be moving toward a more collaborative model. He said the new model would be designed to eradicate some overlap in the organization that resulted from various pillars not being fully aware of what others were working on.UJC likely will be able to disclose more of its plan in mid- to late May, he said. Kanfer said the organization still did not know how it would affect staff configuration.