Federation's Budget and Allocation panel weighs needs locally and abroad

The down economy has caused increased urgent needs and shortages in the Jewish community locally and around the world as more Jews — all ages from children to the elderly, singles and families — become desperate for basic services. “Concerned” is a mild description of what Les Rubin, Budget & Allocations Chair, and other members of the Budget& Allocations committee are feeling when they think about this year’s upcoming budget and allocations task, and Jewish needs here locally and abroad.

“Who will be cut? What programs can we no longer fund? Should we limit our support to only our community? Who should we make a priority? Our seniors, our children, our grandchildren, Israel?”

These are but some of the many questions our committee will be tackling this year when we sit down to allocate the diminished funds raised during the current Annual Campaign.

It has been a double-edged sword working with our agencies that are in crisis this year. By doing the most that the Federation can for them it ultimately hurts the campaign as people only have so much to give.

For the second year in a row this has been the case with our beloved Pinellas County Jewish Day School. Budget and Allocations finance committee members have made it their business to step up and monitor the Day School’s situation as well as recommend to the Federation board that an accountant be hired by the Federation

to better understand the finances so we can report that to the community first hand.

The biggest problem is that after all the agencies have done their fundraising they will all come to the Federation to see what we can do. We are usually the first and last stop for our agencies and our donors.

Thankfully, the Federation leadership is made up of the entire community. This helps in keeping everyone focused on the needs we have to accomplish in order to make the tough decisions.

Funding for overseas needs By MARGOT BENSTOCK

Budget & Allocations, ONAD chair

After all is said and done at Budget and Allocations a formula is applied to the amount of money we have allocated to overseas needs (ONAD).

This formula breaks down how much of the overseas dollars can be reallocated to specific programs that our community feels deserves attention.

In the past these dollars have followed a class of underachieving seventh graders in Israel, mostly Ethiopian, through their matriculation to ensure they succeeded, graduated and were accepted in the army. We built dorms in an absorption center for lone soldiers.

We refurbished seniors apartments to make them handicap ready. We brought a group of 20 young Russian teenagers on their first Jewish camping experience in Riga. We have built bomb shelters, provided wheelchairs, and huggy bears to the families in southern Israel. We have changed the lives of so many with this program that the ONAD committee members, including myself find this committee to be the most rewarding. It is also through the ONAD programming that we have been able to partner with seven other communities in the Southeast region to twin with Hadera Eiron in Israel. Through this program we have had many teens visit our community, our teachers visit their community and have made long and lasting friendships. We must continue to raise more money for the annual campaign so that we can continue to help those in Israel and the former Soviet Union that need our help. I have heard others say that charity begins at home and I believe that but Israel is our homeland and we cannot forget about them either.

The only way to ensure we can continue the wonderous work Annual Campaign gifts make possible here, in Israel and around the world, is to raise more money. Even though times are hard for everyone, the down economy has made a bad situation worse for many that we serve here and abroad,

So many people are counting on us. We can’t let them down.