Posts Tagged New York
Students and alums fight to keep Ulpan Etzion in Baka
Only “a miracle” could keep Ulpan Etzion in its current Jerusalem location, the upscale neighborhood of Baka, a senior Jewish Agency official told Anglo File this week. For decades the popular intensive Hebrew-language study program has been the first home in Israel for thousands of Western immigrants.
Earlier this month the Jewish Agency announced that after Monday, when the current session ends, Ulpan Etzion will move to Beit Canada, a larger property in the close but less attractive area of Armon Hanatziv, or East Talpiot, to save expenses.
The next session begins January 15 at Beit Canada. The official stressed that Etzion will maintain its format in the new location, offering on- and off-campus students a five-month absorption program.
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After the announcement, students and alumni began trying to raise funds to keep the program in Baka, an area popular with Western immigrants.
Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Colette Avital (Labor), a member of the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee, told Anglo File Wednesday that while the most important thing about Ulpan Etzion is the program itself, “if new immigrants think they need to be in a place where they can best integrate into Israeli society, every effort should be made to prevent [it] from being moved.” Avital said she would call Jewish Agency Chairman Zeev Bielski to discuss ways to keep the ulpan in Baka.
“If we receive new donations, we will calculate the costs and if we can continue Ulpan Etzion and Beit Canada at the same time I will be more than happy to do it,” the director-general of the agency’s department of immigration and absorption, Eli Cohen, said. Both agency officials and activists, however, thought it was unlikely that the necessary sum of about $1 million could be raised before January 15.
“Some of us spoke with our communities in our countries of origin,” said Ariel Kogan, an Argentinean-born alumnus. “Some contacts were made with people who can donate significant amounts,” he said.
Cohen said he appreciates the activism and is himself searching for funding. Nevertheless, he said the move was unavoidable and would actually benefit immigrants in the long run. About two years ago the campus was forced to contract after the buildings’ owners decided not to renew the agency’s lease for some of the facilities. In a telephone interview from Chicago, Cohen said that cut on-campus housing from about 160 beds to 79, while Beit Canada has dorm space for 250 students.
Established in 1949, Ulpan Etzion is Israel’s oldest ulpan. All of its students are Jewish, single, college graduates between 21 and 35. Their shared experiences have resulted in countless long-term friendships and several marriages.
Ex-Londoner Louise (nee Angel) Szczerb, 28, and her husband Wolf, 25, a Rio de Janeiro native, met at Ulpan Etzion. Wolf almost didn’t get there due to a bureaucratic glitch, and ended up starting the January 2007 semester one month late.
“We met on his first day,” Louise recalled this week. “He lived on campus and I lived off-campus, and we weren’t in the same class, but we met and have been together ever since,” she said. They were married two months ago in Jerusalem and live in Modi’in. “That is just one of the reasons why Ulpan Etzion is so special, because it brings people together from all around the world,” Louise said.
“I was looking forward to seeing all of the new people coming in - now it’s going to be completely abandoned and depressing here,” said Mimi Borowich, 26, who came from New York in July for the current term. She said she heard about the move right after renting an apartment next to the Baka campus.
Borowich wrote letters to the Jewish Agency, joined the fund raising campaign and also contacted Jerusalem’s new Mayor, Nir Barkat, who has promised to make the capital attractive to young people again.
http://192.118.73.5/hasen/pages/ShArtStEngPE.jhtml?itemNo=1046092&contrassID=2&subContrassID=16&title=%27Students%20and%20alums%20fight%20to%20keep%20Ulpan%20Etzion%20in%20Baka%20%27&dyn_server=172.20.5.5
reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO
Collective Action Can Make Every Philanthropic Dollar Effective
Let’s embrace the diversity of our interests and find ways to weave these various strands into a strong and rich tapestry.
In their editorial entitled “Charity begins with priorities” (April 14), the editors of The Jerusalem Post suggest that the current economic climate requires the “rich” in our community to set aside their “philanthropic dalliances” in favor of funding communal needs determined by “collective decision-making.” That certainly is one way to address the problem the Post describes as “too many organizations… and too much competition for resources” in American Jewish life.
Of course, what may appear to be a “dalliance” to one philanthropist may be a strategic focus of another. Rather than bemoan the breadth and depth of Jewish interests, Jewish expression and Jewish spirituality, those of us who care deeply about the future of the Jewish community should embrace the diversity of our interests and find ways to weave these various strands into a strong and rich tapestry. What is required to make that happen is collective action, not collective decision-making.
In Israel, as in the US and Canada, the newest organizations appearing on the scene, often with significant funding from previously untapped sources, represent a renewed spirit, energy and interest in Jewish life, all of which deserve to be nurtured rather than abandoned.
The key to success during the current economic climate is neither to spurn new ideas nor to continue to allow everyone to make Shabbat for themselves. Rather, we must allow those new ideas to take root in existing organizations while simultaneously encouraging those organizations to work together to eliminate unnecessary duplication and redundancies in the Jewish communal world. The time has come for us to take collective action to make sure that every philanthropic dollar is spent as efficiently and effectively as possible. Cooperation and collaboration are no longer sufficient by themselves; to borrow from Lee Iacocca, every responsible Jewish organization must lead, follow or get out of the way, either by closing their doors entirely or by finding ways to integrate their programs into stronger, more viable entities.
Pursuing such an approach will require all of us - foundations and service providers alike - to make painful choices and decisions. And while no one likes to admit or accept that a project or program to which they have committed time and/or money is failing to meet the mark, the current situation demands that we think anew about all of our activities and seize this opportunity to restructure our organizations and initiatives so they have the greatest chance to succeed in the future. As the world learned from Jack Welch, the legendary CEO and chairman of General Electric, selling or closing businesses in which you are less than No. 1 or No. 2 in the marketplace is a proven way to move from weakness to strength.
Fortunately, both private and public conversations about consolidation are beginning to take place in boardrooms throughout our community. For instance, Rabbi David Ellenson, president of the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, recently sent an open letter to faculty, students, alumni and friends of the HUC explaining the need to seriously consider consolidating its three stateside campuses (Cincinnati, Los Angeles and New York) into a new, more streamlined configuration, while still supporting its Jerusalem campus. Exploration of integrating the type of teacher training programs pioneered at CAJE (Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education) into JESNA (Jewish Education Service of North America) is ongoing, as are discussions between two of the leading organizations for Jewish teens: BBYO and PANIM.
Other, more private deliberations are also proceeding. But probably not enough.
For our community to realize the full benefit of greater collaboration and consolidation, bold action and visionary leadership will be required. And not only among our service providers; our philanthropists must also take a hard look at themselves. While the decision of Warren Buffet to leave his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most extreme example of funder collaboration, many other opportunities and vehicles for philanthropic partnerships exist and are deserving of serious consideration. Not only could the growth of funding collaboratives generate greater leverage and increase efficiencies, it would substantially reduce the reliance many organizations place on a single donor and, in turn, help them avoid the fate of groups adversely impacted by the Madoff-related collapse of high-profile and generous foundations such as Chais and Picower.
A shining example of how collective action can help our community is the impressive work of the Foundation for Jewish Camp. Under the able leadership of Jerry Silverman, the FJC is assisting individual camps while advocating for camping as a whole. Camps are improving and their numbers are growing because of the expertise the FJC is bringing to camping as a field. By establishing itself as a “center of excellence,” the FJC has positioned itself to be a critical resource for individual camps.
In partnership with several other foundations, we recently helped to launch a new American organization, Repair the World, in the hope that it will serve similar functions for program providers in the realm of Jewish service. And, in Israel, we hope the Haruv Institute will play a comparable role for organizations engaged in the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
Our community has long talked about greater cooperation and collaboration. Now, the time to act has arrived. Consolidation and collective action represent two approaches with the greatest potential to encourage Jewish life to flourish.
Sandy Cardin is president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and Schusterman Foundation-Israel.
reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO
http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/collective-action-can-make-every-philanthropic-dollar-effective/
Property Woes Slam Cities Across Continent, But Not Vancouver
Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO : there is a basis for careful optimism.
The picturesque city of Vancouver, Canada, has turned into an unexpected oasis in the bleak desert of the commercial real-estate market.
In most cities in the U.S. and Canada, sales activity has frozen to a standstill. Would-be sellers are unwilling to accept the steep drops in value of office buildings, shopping centers and other commercial property. Even if they were, buyers can’t get financing.
But then there’s Vancouver, a city of about 578,000 people with views of the Pacific Ocean and the Coast Mountain range. Its office market has logged seven building transactions this year capped off by Germany-based Deka Immobilien’s recent $263 million purchase of Bentall V, a 33-story tower in the heart of the city’s district. Just as impressive, prices have held up well. By contrast, only five office properties valued at $5 million or more have sold in Manhattan in the first two quarters of this year, and average prices paid are off 32%, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York-based real-estate research firm.
First of all, Vancouver’s office market hasn’t suffered the sharp increase in vacancies seen in most other cities. Vacancies are ticking up and putting pressure on rents. But the diversified economy, driven by a mix of companies that include mining, lumber and port-related businesses, and a lack of significant new construction leave it better positioned to weather the stormy global economy, brokers say. The first-quarter office vacancy in downtown Vancouver was 4.2%, below downtown Toronto’s 5.7% and downtown Calgary’s 6.9%, according to CB Richard Ellis. “It’s quite incredible compared to the rest of the country,” says David Eger, senior director with the Toronto-based Altus Group.
Such a high volume of sales is unusual for Vancouver, a city where small investors and pension funds are known for buying and holding properties. The seven office transactions that took place this year through May in downtown Vancouver, a city with a total of about 21 million square feet of office space, compared with two transactions in the year-earlier period, according to CB Richard Ellis.
But amid the global financial crisis, institutions have looked first at properties that have retained value as a less painful means of unlocking equity in their portfolios. The seller of Bentall V was SITQ Vancouver Inc., a real-estate subsidiary of Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. SITQ says it wasn’t under pressure to sell the building and only did so after getting an unsolicited bid. “We made a profit. That’s why we sold it,” says Amelie Plante, an SITQ spokeswoman. “It was very satisfying.”
Buyers in Vancouver have included Canadian pension funds and private investors, CB Richard Ellis says. Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH is a real-estate asset manager and a subsidiary of the DekaBank Group. The seven deals this year have had a total value of C$502 million (US$449 million).
By contrast, Manhattan, with some 1.6 million residents and about 366 million square feet of office space, saw the number of large office transactions this year through May slip to just five deals valued at a total of $984 million, from 45 sales in the year-earlier period, according to Real Capital Analytics. The average price paid per square foot in Vancouver this year fell just 2% to C$355 from the year-earlier period, compared with a 32% drop in Manhattan to $451.
The Bentall property sale price also has given hope to area sellers worried by deep discounting seen elsewhere. The nearly 100%-occupied building sold for a price that equates to a capitalization rate in the 6% range, just slightly higher than the 5.5% range it might have traded at during the height of the market a year or so ago, according to Jim Szabo, executive vice president with CB Richard Ellis, which represented Deka Immobilien in the transaction. Cap rates are closely watched valuation metrics in the commercial real-estate industry derived by dividing a building’s net operating income by the price paid.
http://futurerealestate.blogspot.com/2009/06/property-woes-slam-cities-across.html