December 26, 2008

Straight talk from Baltimore’s Richie Pearlstone about pitting funds for local vs. international Jewish needs.

By Neil Rubin
Editor

Richard “Richie” Pearlstone is upbeat while chatting candidly from a fourth-floor conference room of the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. Yet he has many millions of concerns in both people and dollars.

The veteran Baltimore Jewish philanthropist, who divides his time between here and Aspen, Colo., just oversaw the slashing of $45 million from the 2009 operating budget of the Jewish Agency for Israel, whose board he chairs, as it tries to help Jews around the globe with a dizzying array of needs.

Mr. Pearlstone spoke with the BALTIMORE JEWISH TIMES last week about his work.

BJT: In this economic meltdown, how do explain the need to send millions of dollars overseas?

Mr. Pearlstone: There’s always been a connection between the Jews everywhere worldwide. I don’t want to be pitting local needs vs. overseas needs. I don’t want to be pitting an abused Ethiopian kid in Israel vs. one in Baltimore. It’s still a need. The same values ought to apply.

It’s easy to say there are more important needs in your backyard, but that’s not good leadership, and thank God Baltimore has good leadership.

Talk about the Jewish Agency’s partnership with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, an evangelical group run by an Orthodox rabbi, a move many Jews see as controversial.

The IFCJ believes unconditionally in Israel for their reasons and not ours. They are extremely generous to us and raise $80 million to $90 million on their own a year. They just gave us $15 million last year. It’s been positive from the business point, but a lot of Jews find it uncomfortable that we’re taking money from them. That’s an issue, and it’s not going to go away.

They give to us because the money goes to the State of Israel, and I’m not going to say it’s bad.

Federations once sent around 50 percent of their allocations overseas, and now its 30-40 percent for many. What should it be?

Today, it’s not 50-50, and maybe that was needed then. I just don’t want to see it go 80-20 because then the disconnect [between American Jews and overseas ones] will deepen. The support today has gone down because a lot of communities have been in distress over how they have been organized and reorganized. San Francisco, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are examples.

What are the Jewish Agency’s main priorities?

There are three main changes now:

• The day of aliyah [moving to Israel] in distress is now by choice, and while it’s not big numbers, the people who come are very well-educated and motivated and that’s the future of Israel.
  
• There’s a tremendous youth at risk issue that’s primarily on the periphery [of Israel], and these people have to be brought up not to be hamburger flippers.
  
• We want our kids and kids in Russia to have a Jewish identity and connection to Israel and Jewish issues.

If that’s not important to you, then don’t give. I want people to give for the right reasons. I don’t beg.

In five years, what will be the Jewish Agency’s focus?

We’ll still be the same. These are cornerstones. We’re centralizing our office to be efficient for the first time in history, and we’re going to have to supplement our income with endowments.

I have to find new sources of income, like the IFCJ. There also are Russian oligarchs whom we’re talking to and Israeli philanthropists. This all has to happen rapidly for us to make it.

We won’t make it 10 years like we are now. But that business model will absolutely depend on our relationship with the federations and connecting their philanthropists to our model.

For example, in Baltimore about 10 percent of the community is Russian and there are basically few of them in [the Associated] system. We’re trying to connect Russians to Judaism through education and camps.

Final thoughts?

People ought to know that in tough times, we’re doing our part to make sure that Jewish life is preserved everywhere and that we believe that we have a valuable place in American society as well. We believe in collectivity and working through the system. We’ve been here a long time together, and we’ll be here a lot longer.

We still have a mission to do, and it’s relevant.