What size of umbrella?

Editorial

Another reorganization of “our” national Jewish advocacy infrastructure is in the works. We write “our” because most community members probably have little or no idea of the current state of Jewish advocacy in Canada, let alone an opinion about the direction in which it should head – not that anyone in Toronto or Montreal is asking our opinion, but that’s another story.

The silence on the future reorganization was broken by Canadian Jewish Congress, which fears that the latest round of musical chairs is going to leave them standing in the cold. While the details are being kept quiet, CJC has expressed its concern publicly, and released the report that it submitted to the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) restructuring committee in response to CIJA’s request for input.

According to its website, “CIJA is a non-partisan, umbrella organization for Jewish community advocacy efforts, directing strategies to improve the quality of Jewish life in Canada and abroad, increase support for Israel and strengthen the Canada-Israel relationship.

“As the advocacy agent of UIA Federations Canada, and working with the Canadian Jewish Federations and Regional Communities, CIJA oversees and coordinates the advocacy work of Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), Canada-Israel Committee (CIC), Quebec-Israel Committee (QIC), National Jewish Campus Life (NJCL) and University Outreach Committee (UOC),” the latter of which is the “newest member of CIJA’s family of agencies.”

CIJA itself was created in 2004 (in a previous round of reorganizing, we intuit) and it seems to control, to some extent, the five groups listed above. The reorganization – which was delayed until at least June at a recent UIAFC board meeting in Montreal – would be of this relatively small part of UIAFC.

The motivation for the streamlining is ostensibly the still-struggling economy and, therefore, the need to reduce costs. According to Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver chief executive officer Mark Gurvis, in his Dec. 17 community e-mail, “Collectively, the Canadian federations provide more than $8 million in funding annually to support the advocacy work” of CIJA, CJC, CIC, UOC, Hillel Canada and others.

As with most efforts made in the name of efficiency, the buzz is about merging the organizations under CIJA and having a single national advocacy/public affairs group, as if somehow one monolithic entity is inherently more efficient than several smaller ones. However, regardless of one’s views of monopolies and how consumer-friendly and cost-efficient they are, isn’t CIJA already kind of one entity? If CIJA “oversees and coordinates the advocacy work” of CJC, CIC, QIC, NJCL and UOC, then what independence does any of those organizations really have? And, if CIJA has enough duplication to make streamlining an attractive option, then what about UIAFC as a whole?

UIAFC’s stated responsibilities include organizations, financing and administration: Canadian National Young Leadership, Canada Israel Experience, Regional Jewish Communities of Ontario, women’s division, Regional Communities’ Forum, Partnership 2000, March of the Living, bequest and endowment fund, budget and allocations, CIC, CIJA and CJC. Under “National Collective Responsibility,” UIAFC lists CJC, Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada (JIAS) and NJCL.

UIAFC’s budget and allocations committee “has the responsibility of recommending funding to support national services and programs. The committee analyzes and evaluates budget requests from national Jewish organizations affiliated with UIAFC (CJC, JIAS and National Jewish Campus Services) and national program initiatives (National Jewish Demographic Study, Jewish Telegraphic Agency).”

According to its website, UIAFC “was established in June 1998, as a result of the reorganization of the United Israel Appeal of Canada Inc. and the Council of Jewish Federations of Canada.” This one entity now asserts influence over a good portion of mainstream Jewish communal life.

Our own local federation, according to its website, “was formed in 1987 as a result of a merger between United Jewish Appeal and the Jewish Community Fund and Council.” JFGV initially “oversaw the development of relationships with 14 beneficiary agencies, which grew to 33 within three years.” It now has 39 partner agencies, with more than 10 of those seeming to fall under the UIAFC umbrella (for example, CJC and CIC).

In his Dec. 17 e-mail, Gurvis correctly identifies that one of the key issues is how the advocacy reorganization “will connect effectively with the communities in large and small population centres across Canada.” He also notes that, locally, CJC, CIC and JFGV “have started discussions over the past few months about how our community can best be organized to relate to whatever new national structure evolves from the process.”

In those discussions, it may be appropriate to bring up the question of just how big should be one agency’s umbrella, given our community’s diversity. And to consider whether some organizations might represent communal interests better if they had to brave the rain and sun on their own.

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