Delegation of Jewish Federations of North America

The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), formerly the United Jewish Communities (UJC), is an

American Jewish American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora ...

umbrella organization representing 146

Jewish Federation The Jewish Federation (JFED), is generally a secular Jewish non-profit organization, found within many metropolitan areas across the United States with a significant Jewish community. They provide supportive and human services, philanthropy, finan ...

s and 300 independent Jewish communities across North America, which raise and distribute more than $3 billion annually and through planned giving and endowment programs to support social welfare, social services and educational needs. JFNA also provides fundraising, organization assistance, training, and overall leadership to the Jewish Federations and communities throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The Federation movement protects and enhances the well-being of Jews worldwide through the values of

tikkun olam ''Tikkun olam'' ( he, תִּיקּוּן עוֹלָם, , repair of the world) is a concept in Judaism, which refers to various forms of action intended to repair and improve the world. In classical rabbinic literature, the phrase referred to leg ...

tzedakah ''Tzedakah'' or ''Ṣedaqah'' ( he, צדקה ) is a Hebrew word meaning "righteousness", but commonly used to signify ''charity''. This concept of "charity" differs from the modern Western understanding of "charity". The latter is typically un ...

and

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

. JFNA was formed from the merger of the

United Jewish Appeal The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was a Jewish philanthropic umbrella organization that existed from its creation in 1939 until it was folded into the United Jewish Communities, which was formed from the 1999 merger of United Jewish Appeal (UJA), Cou ...

(UJA), Council of Jewish Federations, and the

United Israel Appeal United Israel Appeal (UIA), a subsidiary of The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), is a link between the American Jewish community and the people of Israel. An independent legal entity with 501(c)(3) charity status, and a Board of ...

. The organization hosts an annual General Assembly event for the broad North American Jewish community.

History

Council of Jewish Federations

The original

umbrella organization An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and ofte ...

for the federations was the National Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds formed in 1932. "National" was dropped from the name in 1935 and "Welfare Funds" was removed in 1979.

Jewish Federations of North America

In 1999, the CJF merged with the

to become the United Jewish Communities. In October 2009, the UJC was renamed the Jewish Federations of North America. After the 2009 launch of the new logo for The Jewish Federations of North America, increasing numbers of local Federations are switching to some variant of that logo. An example is the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. After a couple of years of lower staff layoffs in February 2010, new CEO Jerry Silverman laid off three senior vice presidents that made an estimated $750,000 to $1 million combined. JFNA declined to run the decennial National Jewish Population Survey in 2010 due to re-prioritizing. In 2021, it announced the $54 million LiveSecure campaign, which it described as the largest campaign to secure North America's Jewish communities in history.

National Jewish Population Survey

The National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS) was a decennial survey run by JFNA as a census of the Jewish community in the United States. The NJPS has been controversial at times. The 1990 survey indicated that inter-faith marriage was occurring at a rate of 52 percent which was quickly denounced by demographers. With the NJPS 2000-01, a number of problems plagued the survey as it used a different method than the 1990 thus not comparable, cost $6 million and the data was lost. JFNA would not fund the 2010 survey due to re-prioritizing given decreased revenue given its limited direct benefits with some Jewish federations like the New York federation. JFNA was then open to partnering with other agencies on the national survey.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Jewish-American political organizations Jewish community organizations Jewish Agency for Israel Philanthropic organizations based in the United States 501(c)(3) organizations Non-profit organizations based in New York City