The Cleveland Jewish News Story: UAHC expects $2 million budget shortfall

By Margi Herwald

The following article is reprinted with permission of the Cleveland Jewish News.

Jan. 10, 2003

Anticipating a $2 million budget shortfall in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2003, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), the central organization of Reform congregations, has made national and regional spending cuts and changes.

Thirty staff positions will be affected throughout the country. Most notably, each UAHC regional office will lose its part-time outreach coordinator, who works with local congregations to create and implement programs for interfaith families.

In UAHC's Cleveland-based regional office, which serves most of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, Michigan and portions of New York, outreach coordinator Marcia Elbrand was informed on Dec. 17 that she will lose her job at the end of March. Elbrand, who has held the position for nine years, has counseled interfaith couples and their families and helped guide synagogues, rabbis and religious-school teachers.

"Our role (outreach coordinators) was to introduce ideas, find volunteers and get them national training, and training outreach chairs of temple boards," Elbrand explains.

Some of Elbrand's local outreach initiatives include "Times and Seasons," a class and discussion group for seriously dating, engaged or married unaffiliated interfaith couples; and a new program on being a Jewish parent created with Temple Emanu El. Both of these programs and many others will continue, although many specifics have not yet been settled by UAHC or congregations.

"I regret that the strong working partnerships I have built with congregations and volunteers will not be able to continue in the same way," says Elbrand. "I hope rabbis and congregational leaders will see that (interfaith outreach) is so important and find alternative ways to fund the work."

The outreach programs and activities themselves will not be cut, explains Emily Grotta, UAHC national director of marketing and communications. Many of these programs are run by individual Reform congregations with the outreach coordinator serving as a consultant and guide. "Now the consulting will happen from another place," Grotta says.

UAHC has three full-time outreach staff in its national office in New York City who will oversee each region's outreach efforts. Also, Grotta points out, UAHC regional offices are staffed with "generalists" who are equipped to help local congregations with a variety of needs, including interfaith outreach.

In an e-mail to her volunteers, Elbrand offered to assist them unofficially in the continuation of programs. She predicts, even with national UAHC oversight, many programs will "rely more on active volunteers."

Elbrand is the only employee in this region to lose her job, although a few others will have their hours adjusted.

"The good news is I'll probably go back to teaching more in local religious schools, which I've done for years and love," says Elbrand. On the other hand, she adds (given her drop in income), "I'll probably have to curtail my own (financial) support to the Jewish Community Federation and other causes I feel passionately about."

Other staff cuts and changes across the nation and Canada will affect UAHC's college department and the national staff of NFTY (Reform synagogue youth groups), according to an e-mail memo sent to the UAHC board.

UAHC has opted to "deploy its forces, so to speak, in terms of need," Grotta says. The greatest need expressed by congregations is "beefing up" Jewish education programs. Therefore, UAHC protected each region's education director, a position created only two years ago.

However, the Union's Adult Jewish Growth department will merge with its Jewish education department.

The shortfall, which amounts to approximately 10% of UAHC's total budget, is "due to a number of factors, including the current state of the economy. There's been a drop in philanthropic giving. Our endowment has been drastically reduced," says Grotta.

UAHC's endowment income is at $875,000 for the current fiscal year. The income is projected to only be $425,000 in fiscal year '03-04.

Also, the UAHC earns a substantial portion of its funds from Reform congregations throughout the country, and the troubled economy has resulted in declines in synagogue membership and dues-paying as well. "As congregations tighten their belts, so does the Union," Grotta explains. "The fate and success of congregations and the Union are one and the same."

"Every piece of the Union's operations were put into review," in search of ways to increase income and cut spending, she continues. In addition to the staff cuts and program merges, national and regional employees will face a change in their benefits package with employee contributions increasing. On the national level, UAHC will begin leasing out 25% of the office space within its New York City headquarters.

UAHC also experienced a smaller shortfall in this current fiscal year, but Grotta reports, the Union was able to handle the deficit by minor operational cuts. However, the anticipated $2 million loss for next year "was clearly too big a chunk to handle by cutting down on travel and the number of paper clips we ordered."

The budget changes will be implemented as of March 31, so that the costs will be incurred this fiscal year, but the results will benefit next year's budget, Grotta says. UAHC anticipates these changes will solve its budgetary woes, and no more cuts will need to be made next year.

"We're confident these cuts will keep us on a strong, fiscally sound footing," Grotta says.

Margi Herwald is a writer for the Cleveland Jewish News.
The language of Judaism. Used in prayer in most synagogues and the official language of the state of Israel. Also refers to Jews, especially before they entered Israel and were given the Torah, as in "the ancient Hebrews." Place of Jewish worship. Same as synagogue.
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