JDC follows trend, gives more to non-Jewish causes

By JTA

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NEW YORK (JTA)—The overseas relief arm of the North American Jewish federation will give more than $8 million this year to non-Jewish causes.
   

The announcement by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee came here at its annual board meeting.
   
JDC officials say most of the money will go toward ongoing relief efforts stemming from the 2004 Indonesian tsunami and on the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village that JDC is building in Rwanda for survivors of the 1994 genocide there.

   
JDC has been involved in nonsectarian work since its inception in 1914, and in 1986 the organization formalized its non-Jewish work by creating a separate board, the International Development Program, to oversee and raise funds for such projects.
   
But the funding for nonsectarian efforts has doubled over the past five years, the JDC’s assistant executive vice president and the head of the IDP, Will Recant, told JTA.
   
Still, non-Jewish work takes up only a small fraction of the JDC’s $360 million annual budget. Most of the organization’s aid goes to helping underprivileged Jews in Israel, the former Soviet Union and other areas outside of the United States.
   
At the same time, the organization wants to seize on the philanthropic trend that shows many Jews wanting to benefit causes not because they are aimed at helping Jews, but because they see helping the broader community as a Jewish ideal.
   
“There has been an increasing interest from many sectors in the nonsectarian work that we do,” Recant said. “We have been able to increase the fundraising and the number and scope of projects that we undertake.
   
“It has been evolutionary, and part of that has been as a result of a younger generation that is interested in Africa and Asia and the global arena. The Jewish world cares about people and they want to help.”
   
Also, leaders of the organization say that they want to ramp up funding for nonsectarian projects because helping non-Jews is both part of the JDC’s mission and necessary to advance its Jewish causes.