A significant portion of recent cuts to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s staff have come from its division that carries out its nonsectarian work.
The JDC’s executive committee recently approved significant budget cuts, including $1 million in personnel cuts. Around 20 percent of those cuts will come from the organization’s International Development Program.
The JDC is cutting three staff members from the IDP program, which primarily deals with helping non-Jews in the developing world. The organization lost one of four staff members in New York, as well as two working overseas.
JDC officials say that the cuts do not signify a shift away from IDP’s mission.
"Nonsectarian work is critical to what we do a decision," said JDC spokesman Michael Geller. "This is a decision based only on budget constraints."
IDP has had a budget of about $500,000 per year for staff and infrastructure — which will be cut by roughly 40 percent — but it runs about $10 million per year in projects. None of the budget for the nonsectarian programs comes from the JDC’s core budget and is raised by either IDP or partner organizations overseas. The program budget will remain around $10 million per year.
