Israeli cabinet meeting, LA-style
Israeli prime minister, opposition chairman, MKs to participate in annual United Jewish Communities General Assembly. UJC president: 65 percent of programming geared towards events of past summer in israel
Participants of the assembly would not only include Jewish leaders from North America, but from Israel as well.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson, Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, Education Minister Yuli Tamir, Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog, Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eliyahu Yishai, and Opposition Chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu were all participating in the GA.
In an interview with Ynet, UJC President and Chief Executive Officer Howard M. Rieger said, “The Israel issue is certainly at the core of the GA, I would say about 60-65 percent of the programming is probably geared towards the events of the past summer. Only about one third of the agenda will focus on domestic issues here.”
Rieger, who has served as UJC president for the past two years, headed an impressive effort to raise emergency funds for the good of the Northern towns following the second Lebanon war.
How much money have you collected for Israel?
“We’re right now at about USD 342 million. We met about a week ago and allocated about USD 22 million. I would hope that potentially by the time the year is over we’ll have made commitments to allocate about half of those funds. We’re still getting pledges. Everyday we get pledges. I would hope that by the time the GA rolls around we’ll be close to about USD 350 million. We are looking at ways to examine the needs and maybe figure out ways to raise even more money.”
How much of this sum will be transferred to Israel?
“One hundred percent of it, it doesn’t go anywhere else. My guess is I’d be surprised at the moment if USD 90-100 million is not already there and having been utilized.”
For what purpose was the money collected?
“Initially we spent millions of dollars evacuating young people from the north to safer places, to be in summer camps that were secured and out of fire, maybe about USD 20 million. We spent millions of dollars refurbishing bomb shelters with televisions and air-conditions. Those were heavily the initial allocations that we made. We allocated a million dollars to food assistance to people in the north, particularly during the holiday season. We’ve allocated money to scholarships for eight of the colleges in the north that were experiencing anywhere between 20-40 percent reduction in enrollment because young people just decided they weren’t planning to go to college in the north this year.”
What about the complaint that money was allocated to Arab villages in the north?
“I think it is a bizarre complaint and my attitude is that everybody has a right to their opinion. Our opinion is as follows: we were asked to help evacuate kids from the north, we didn’t start counting who was Jewish and who wasn’t Jewish. It’s Israel, the vast majority of the kids we helped were Jews, there’s no question about that, and we’re proud of that. We’re also proud that we did what was right for others.”
Israel isn’t the only thing on the agenda
Other than dealing with Israel’s issues, the GA will also discuss domestic issues, such as the personal safety of Jews in North America. Rieger explained, “If I worked in the Jewish community center in Seattle that had their campaign director murdered, and 4-5 members of their staff shot and wounded, some of them critically – then yes I would feel vulnerable.”
“Bombs go off anywhere, guns can be fired anywhere and it happens in this country as well. There was an attack on a school outside of Montreal, fortunately for us I don’t think we face the same vulnerability Israelis do on a daily basis, but it’s there and we need to be vigilant, and I think in many instances we aren’t careful and cautious enough,” he continued.
For those who worry that many of Israel’s ministers are abroad for the GA, Rieger announced that the next UJC GA in 2008 would take place in Jerusalem to mark 60 years since Israel’s establishment.
