The political economy of gender in Jewish Federations

Abstract

The 187 area based Jewish Federations are the major focus of contemporary Jewish communal philanthropy in the United States and Canada. In 1986 there were 816,747 individual contributions to the annual campaign and 1,500,000 people received services from the more than 1,300 social agencies these gifts support. The aggregate cost of services in the Jewish voluntary sector including Federation allocations, government and third party payments, client fees, etc. was about $4 billion in 1986. The Federation is both a fund-raising and allocating institution. Around half its annual campaign dollars are sent to Jews in need around the world through their partnership with the United Jewish Appeal. However, it is the local level rather than the associated national and international activities of Federations which is the focus of this paper. At the local level the Federation is both a charitable and an operative decision-making body touching upon local services usually including a hospital, a family and children's service, institutional and other programs for the aged, community centers, Jewish educational and vocational agencies. The impetus for this philanthropic endeavor and the moral basis of Federations lies deep in Jewish values and history. It is epitomized by the biblical concept of Tzedakah which can be *This paper was presented to the Conference on ~Women and Philanthropy: Past, Present and Future ~ Center for the Study of Philanthropy, Graduate Center, CUNY, June 17-18, 1987