J.J. Goldberg, in the course of his incisive (and entertaining) column on the New York Jewish Community Relations Council’s annual congressional breakfast (“Bagels and Iran: The Congressional Breakfast,” February 3), feels obliged to parse for the perplexed the difference between public-affairs groups like the JCRC and fund-raising-and-allocations bodies such as the UJA-Federation: The Federation is Park Avenue liberal and Armani; the JCRC is middle-class, polyester, and black yarmulke.

Cute — but Goldberg misses the point. The difference between JCRCs and federations obviously has everything to do with role and mission: The federation system is all about coordination of fund-raising for social services, allocations and social planning; JCRCs coordinate public policy and inter-group relations on the local level.

But there’s more.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

This division of labor derives from an agreement hammered out in 1944 that in effect created the discrete sphere of Jewish community relations. The dilemma in recent years, and resultant confusion, arises from the fact that the federations, in disregard of the hoary 1944 contract, have gone into the public-policy arena big-time. Israel, anti-Semitism, international affairs, heretofore the province of community-relations agencies national and local, have been “hijacked” by the federations. These are “cash-cow” areas for fundraising.

It’s all about the money.

Jerome A. Chanes
New York, N.Y.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount