By Richard Fruchter, President, Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Ron Leibsohn, Board Chair, Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, Seattle
Over the last two years, the economy has taken its toll on our Jewish community and many of its vital organizations that provide important services. We are not alone in seeing a more competitive environment for fundraising. Our donors, who so generously and with such commitment support our Jewish community, have not been able recently to maintain their contributions at previous levels.
After a great deal of thought, and much consideration, we have made the very difficult decision to reduce and restructure our current staffing, eliminating several positions. We sincerely regret having to make these decisions. Every one of the individuals whose position is being affected has contributed to our Jewish community. We value their service and wish them the best in their future endeavors.
Key in the deliberation on these staffing cuts was our commitment to the Jewish community. We held off on making these cuts as long as possible, but determined that maintaining our commitment to distributing as much funding as possible to the community was our overriding priority. We feel these cuts are in the best interest of those we serve.
We continually seek more and better ways to serve our Jewish community. As the economy starts to rebound, we hope that this streamlined staffing along with increased contributions will result in additional funding for our partner agencies, in the next year and beyond.
We invite all members of the Jewish community to join us as we work to build and sustain a vibrant Jewish community that will grow and nourish generations to come.