False Notes in Report on Merger’s Effects

To the Editor:

As a vice chair of United Jewish Communities and a leader of one of the merging organizations reported on in Debra Nussbaum Cohen’s “Merger of Jewish Groups Fails to Meet Expectations, Report Finds” (February 17), I fear that both the title and text of the article on the study by Gerald Bubis and Steven Windmueller of the merger that created UJC leaves a false impression.

The research that informs this study was completed at the end of December 2003. United Jewish Communities, as any organization representing 155 sovereign federations would be, has evolved significantly and positively since that date and is, in the view of most, if not all, of its federation officials, on track to making a meaningful contribution to Jewish life in North America and to our partners in Israel and overseas.

As a critic myself of the early years of the UJC and merger, and as a participant in United Jewish Communities today, I can report that UJC today is not the organization it was in 2003 or earlier. It has begun to realize on the hopes of its founders — one of which was that it be our dynamic organization evolving to meet the needs of its officials, our donors, our beneficiaries, and our partners.

Richard L. Wexler
Vice Chair
United Jewish Communities
New York

Mr. Wexler is a lawyer in Chicago.