Obama to address UJC General Assembly

US President Barack Obama will address the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities (UJC) when it convenes in mid-November, organizers announced Friday.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will also travel to the US to attend the event. Israeli news media speculated Friday that the two leaders were likely to hold a meeting during the visit. It's traditional for the prime minister to meet with the president on a visit to Washington, and it would be highly unusual for both leaders to appear at the same event and not have a meeting.

The GA generally features discussions and presentations on aspects of Jewish Diaspora life and Israeli issues. The UJC is the umbrella body of American and Canadian Jewish federations, bringing together more than 500 communities large and small to form the second-largest charity in North America.

The community federation system not only raises some $2.4 billion annually, but is the framework that sets communal priorities by allocating that money, distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in social services to hundreds of thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish poor.

Internationally, the UJC is the primary source of funds - some hundreds of millions each year - for the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), both organizations that assist struggling Jewish communities of the Former Soviet Union and some of the weakest sectors in Israeli society.

For all its influence, the federations' power is decentralized. The center of power, as with many things American, lies in the local communities that raise the funds and set the agendas.

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