Stanley Stone said difficult cuts are being made in the hope that the Central federation will come out of the financial crisis “on both feet.”
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February 19, 2009
The Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey last week cut three senior staff positions, calling it a measure to sustain programming and funding for partner agencies here and in Israel in the face of reduced income.
Felice Maranz, director of Jewish community relations; Stephen Wechselblatt, director of marketing and communications; and events manager Lillah Nussbaum will be leaving.
Executive vice president Stanley Stone said the cuts were made very reluctantly. Nussbaum’s post will be eliminated for the foreseeable future; marketing will be reoriented, and the community relations function — which includes political advocacy and interfaith relations — will be divided among remaining staff members.
“We hope that we will be able to reinstate the post of CRC director in the future,” he said.
Stone said the dismissals were all the more difficult given the caliber of the people leaving. “They are each and every one of them consummate professionals who brought their utmost to serving the mission of federation, and their association only enhanced our organization,” he said. “They were all extremely gracious and understanding about the decision, and they will be missed.”
Falling funds
Already, the annual fund-raising campaign has fallen 10 percent behind where planners hoped it would be by now, and a further 5 percent drop is anticipated, Stone said, “though we are doing everything we can to avoid that.”
He said the federation’s intention is to put as much money as it can into programs and services. Allocations to its partner agencies are to be maintained at existing levels this year, in an effort to compensate for the severe losses they are facing in grants from foundations and other sources.
Locally, the Jewish Educational Center in Elizabeth is facing a growing number of requests for financial aid for its students, and Jewish Family Service of Central NJ is dealing with record levels of appeals for emergency food and financial assistance, as well as psychological counseling services.
Overseas, the Jewish Agency for Israel has seen a $45 million drop in its funding. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has also reported a drop of several million dollars. Their situation has been aggravated by the falling value of the dollar.
Barak Herman, executive director of the JCC of Central NJ in Scotch Plains, said that the center is “managing very carefully right now, hoping to maintain current staffing levels to ensure quality services and that value is maintained.”
Grant funding is down along with membership revenue, he said, which poses “a challenge for the JCC to deliver core services as well as financial assistance for those in need. Requests for financial assistance are up from last year,” due in part to job losses.
With major commitments to its beneficiaries — as well as to the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations, whose budget is growing — the decision was made to make the Central federation cuts now, rather than put them off until later in the year.
Stone said the move was part of the effort “to ensure that we come out of this on both feet.”
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