Learn the role · Guide
Who is across the table, and what has changed
A great deal of the misunderstanding in these partnerships comes not from language but from structure. Israeli council staff speak with "the community in Seattle" without always knowing whether they are facing a federation, a volunteer committee, a salaried professional or a private donor — each with a different calendar and a different authority.
The bodies, in brief
- The local federation. The communal umbrella body of a city or region in North America. It raises an annual campaign and allocates it, in decisions taken by volunteer committees alongside professional staff. This is usually the body facing an Israeli regional council.
- The Jewish Agenc’ Partnership2Gether network. The framework connecting a local authority in Israel with a community, or a consortium of communities, abroad, through a joint steering committee. Several models exist: a geographic partnership of one community to one authority, a consortium model in which several communities face one authority, and tri-community and thematic models. The network spans dozens of partnerships and well over a hundred communities; the figures change and are updated.
- A congregation or local community. An independent body, usually smaller, where decisions are quicker and the relationship far more personal. A partnership with a congregation looks nothing like a partnership with a federation.
- Family foundations and private donors. Fast decisions and a personal relationship, alongside a high dependence on one individual.
- Youth and young adult programs, and shlichim. The channel through which actual people meet — and therefore the most important channel for a partnership that intends to last.
What has changed, and what it means for what you ask
The emergency campaign that raised unprecedented sums in North America after October has closed and been converted into a long-term phase of rebuilding. Contrary to what many assume, the donor base did not contract — it held and even grew. What changed is how the money moves: from fast emergency grants to structured investment. Federations describe this as a shift toward funding the capacity of local leadership to solve its own problems, toward a relationship between two centers of Jewish life rather than donor and recipient, and toward an offer that is not money at all: access, mentoring and connections.
Three distinctions worth a whole conversation
Four words worth knowing
For Israeli readers, four terms whose practical meaning differs from the obvious. Mission is an organized community trip to Israel — a delegation, not an emissary posting. Allocation is an annual budget assignment decided by a committee. Lay leadership is the volunteer leadership as distinct from salaried staff — the term that explains why a volunteer chair matters on the Israeli side too. Campaign is the annual fundraising drive from which everything else follows.
Addressing "the community abroad" as a single body with one purse and one voice
Establishing exactly who is across the table, who decides there, and when the next decision window opens
Where this comes from
Partnership models and the steering committee structure — the Jewish Agenc’ Partnership2Gether network. The emergency campaign figures, donor retention and the move into the long-term phase — publications of the North American federations and of individual federations on changing their funding model in Israel.
Tomorrow morning
One question by email to your counterpart: "Who decides about the partnership on your side, and when in the year is it discussed?" The answer will organize your whole working calendar with them.
כלי אחד בשבוע, ישירות אליכם
כל יום שלישי בבוקר נפתח כאן כלי אחד מהמטע לשבעה ימים. משאירים מספר, ומקבלים הודעה אחת בשבוע - בלי קבוצה ובלי רעש.