The Israeli government must take it upon itself to fund the renovation of bomb shelters in southern and northern Israel, instead of relying on donations from abroad, the president of United Jewish Communities (UJC) told Ynetnews in an interview.
Howard Rieger, who heads the UJC, spoke of his "frustration" at having to direct funds towards upgrading the shelters, and added that his organization was not supposed to carry out jobs traditionally reserved for the government.
The UJC represents over 400 US Jewish communities and 155 Jewish federations across North America, and runs a number of initiatives to help the Israeli people.
But the organization was not designed to fill in for the Israeli government, Rieger said.
He added that after the Second Lebanon War, it was difficult to understand how bomb shelters in the north were still left unrenovated, and addressed the state of bomb shelters in Sderot.
"We're still confronted with bomb shelters not fitted properly in Sdeort, that has been under fire for seven years," he said.
"I wish there was a way to separate here, where does government money belong, where does our philanthropic dollar belong?" he added.
The UJC would, however, continue to fund the works until the government stepped in, Rieger vowed.
The UJC has also initiated Operation Promise, which is aimed at helping Ethiopian-Israelis assimilate into Israeli society. But here too, the Israeli government has failed to play its part fully, Rieger said.
"Part of the agreement of Operation Promise made by the government of Israel was that they were going to increase the flow of remaining folks out of Ethiopia to Israel, moving it from the level of 300 a month to 600 a month," while the UJC would help fund their absorption, Rieger said.
"The government never met that commitment," he added, recounting how it changed the agreed level of 600 immigrants a month back to 300, and even halved it to 150 immigrants a month.
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