Raising colossal sums for crises, the UJA became the envy of other charitable funds. Nonetheless, the UJA Solomon has taken over has never been so freighted with challenges. American Jews who see photos of Israelis with cell-phones and meet them traveling abroad aren't so sure that Israel needs their help anymore. Immigration has slowed from the former Soviet Union and few Jews remain in Ethiopia. We need to have general funds ready to respond quickly to crises in Jewish history.
Any negative publicity hits hard.
The UJA has also become a target of dissatisfied Conservative and Reform Jews, who want to show their anger over efforts by ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel to deny the legitimacy of their Judaism. I try to make them realize that punishing the sick, frail, vulnerable isn't the right way to express their anger. We're strictly humanitarian, and no one does as much to support the various religious streams in Israel as we. Her logic doesn't always prevail. In a renegade move last year, several federations withheld UJA-bent contributions to spend at their own discretion.