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M AY T H E E A RT H H E A R T H E WO R D S O F M Y M O U TH
July 17th, 2009 | 25 TAMMUZ 5769
Jewish Schools Can Generate $100M A Year
Vol. 9, Iss. 26
Pg 40
www.JewishVoiceNY.com
OBAMA TRIES TO ALLAY US JEWISH LEADERS' CONCERNS
BY E.B. SOLOMONT
Jewish day schools in the US could generate $100 million annually through better financial management, a new study has found. he study identified lapses in financial planning and missed fund-raising opportunities in a survey of school board presidents. Among its findings, only 24 percent of board presidents said their schools had comprehensive long-range plans. The "f irst-of-its-kind" study, by the Institute for University-School Partnership at Yeshiva University, underscored concern in the American Jewish community regarding the affordability of Jewish education. As a basis for identifying areas for improvement, researchers surveyed 72 board presidents, assessing their answers to questions about f iduciary responsibility, fund-raising, strategic planning, and the board-head of school relationship, among other things. Less than 40% of board presidents said their schools were fulf illing basic obligations for f inancial planning. Only a third thought that board members gave their schools their top personal philanthropic gifts or generated f inancial support for school events. "If we just grasp that opportunity in of itself, we can make a huge turnaround," said Harry Bloom, the study's author and the director of planning and performance improvement at the institute. Jewish day schools make up a $2 billion enterprise, according to Bloom, who said f inancial aid coffers stood at $500 m. and were
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INDICTED FOR GENOCIDE BY SIMON STURDEE
President Obama 0indicated that US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were close to reaching an agreement on the settlements after weeks of shuttling back and forth. BY HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
In their first official White House meeting, US President Barack Obama tried to reassure American Jewish leaders that there was a mistaken perception that the United States is pressuring Israel more than the Palestinians or Arab countries. nstead, he spoke of the need for Palestinian and Arab leaders to take steps toward Israel, suggesting that effort would become more pronounced in the coming weeks and emphasizing his bedrock commitment to Israel's security, according to participants. Several representatives from the 14 Jewish groups that participated described Obama as blaming the media for the "misperception" that Israel needs to do more than the Arabs at this stage, equating it with a "man bites dog" story
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A German court said that 89year-old former death camp guard John Demjanjuk will be tried for "complicity to murder" 27,900 people, in what could be one of the last cases of its kind.
when the US criticizes Israel as opposed to the Arab states. The settlement issue, and the related tensions over the subject between the US and Israel, which have concerned some in the Jewish community, were a major focus of the nearly hour-long encounter which participants nonetheless described as "warm" and "friendly." In fact, several in attendance said Obama referred to the dispute over the settlement issue - in which the US has publicly pressed Israel to halt all settlement construction, including those needed to accommodate natural growth, despite Israel's insistence that it can't comply - as a "family" debate. "People seemed to be quite satisf ied that he used that term," said one Jewish leader. Another, Ira Forman of the National
rosecutors believe the Ukrainianborn Demjanjuk helped herd tens of thousands of Jews and others into the gas chambers while a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943. Demjanjuk, the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre's number one suspect among those known to be alive, was deported from the United States in May after losing a lengthy legal battle. No date was set for the trial to begin, and the defendant's poor health means that he will be subjected to no more than two court sessions of 90 minutes each day. The octogenarian, who moved to the United States and worked as an
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