c. 2006 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ American Jewry’s largest fundraising organization is under fire for using some of the money raised to aid Israeli war victims to help non-Jewish Israeli citizens.

Some center-right Jewish organizations have criticized the United Jewish Communities (UJC), the umbrella organization of local Jewish federations and communities in North America, for allocating a portion of the $350 million it raised through its Israel Emergency Campaign (IEC) to Christians, Muslims and Druze. The money was raised during and after last summer’s brief war with Hezbollah.

Others are hailing the UJC’s decision, believing that Judaism requires Jews to help all who are in need, regardless of their religion.

The criticism focuses a spotlight on the fact that Israel _ a self-defined Jewish nation _ has a large non-Jewish minority population that is overwhelmingly Arab. It also raises the question of how much responsibility, if any, Jews around the world have for assisting those minorities.

The debate over the UJC’s use of the donations began in October, when Helen Freedman, former director of Americans for a Safe Israel, fired off a missive to the organization’s supporters. Freedman’s group opposes territorial compromise with the Palestinians.

“Let the Arab countries take care of (Israeli Arabs)” Freedman wrote. She referred to Arabs in Israel as “a fifth column” that is “working to support Hezbollah and Hamas. … We foolish Jews are saying there is no difference between Israeli Arabs and Jews who were victims of this war.”

Freedman stated _ incorrectly _ that the UJC planned to allocate one-third of the donations specifically to Israeli Arabs, who comprise 18 percent of Israel’s population. UJC officials insist that less than 3 percent ($9 million) of the money distributed so far is being given specifically to the Arab sector. Exactly how much money will ultimately reach Israel’s minorities has yet to be decided.

No one disputes that Jews and non-Jews in Israel suffered the same fate when Hezbollah rockets began to rain down on northern Israel during the summer. Hilly, green and rich in biblical history, northern Israel is dotted with Jewish and Arab communities, often in close proximity.

Much of the aid provided by local nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations during the 34-day war was funded by North American Jews through the UJC. Those donations helped defray the costs of upgrading bomb shelters, delivering meals and health care to the elderly and infirm, and providing activity kits for children in shelters and summer camps outside the war zone. Now that the war is over, the emphasis is on rehabilitating the north and its war-weary residents.

Of the money being earmarked specifically for minorities, $2.64 million is being spent on a school-readiness program “at the request of the (Israeli) Ministry of Education,” according to the UJC’s Web site.

Another $3.3 million was spent on summer camps for “Israeli Arab children who did not want to be separated from their families.”

Another $15 million went for overnight summer camps “for Jewish, Arab and Druze children,” the Web site says.

All citizens benefited from numerous emergency services. “From its outset the IEC was aimed at assisting all vulnerable Israelis under fire from Hezbollah terrorists, whether Arab, Druze or Jews,” the UJC said in a statement in response to the storm of criticism.

“Israel has never applied an ethnic or political litmus test to those in need, and the government today follows the same principle in its own rebuilding efforts.”

Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, a staunchly pro-Israel organization, agreed that “the Israeli government has an obligation to care for all its citizens, but the UJC isn’t the government. Jewish charities should be going to Jews, and if not, it has an obligation to tell donors the money is going to both Jews and Arabs. When you give money to the federation, you assume the money is going to help Jews.”

Glenn Rosenkrantz, the UJC’s spokesman, said the UJC had fully disclosed its intention to support projects for non-Jews from the start.

“Any assertions to the contrary are false. We have always stated clearly, in our marketing materials and in all national appeals, that monies raised would benefit all Israelis.”

But if anyone should provide money to help Israeli Arabs, “it is Arab organizations,” Klein said.

“I wouldn’t expect Arab donors to help Israeli Jews, just as I wouldn’t expect Jewish donors to support Arabs, many of whom cheered Hezbollah during the war.”

Established Christian and Muslim aid organizations in the Holy Land say they have been preoccupied with assisting Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. They admit to having provided little aid to their fellow believers inside Israel.

“Our community suffered a great deal during the war, but not as much as people suffered in Lebanon and Kiryat Shemona,” a Jewish town in northern Israel, said Archbishop Elias Chacour, metropolitan of the Melkite Catholic Church in Israel. “Our community lost 10 persons.”

Chacour, who is known for his outreach to people of other faiths, believes that donations by Jews to non-Jews “can help build bridges.”

“It all depends on what American Jews want to achieve. Do they want to encourage (Israeli) Jews to live in isolation with themselves, or do they love their fellow Jews so much that they will help them to share what they have received with others? The challenge in Israel is to make peace with justice, not only to receive money or to be poor or wealthy.”

KRE/PH END CHABIN

Editors: Glenn in 16th graf is CQ