Before it was buzz, now it’s official: The JDC is letting about 60 people go and looking to eliminate some programs.
Here’s the first few graffs:
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is cutting programming and is laying off 60 staffers in its overseas and New York offices, its executive vice president told JTA.
The JDC said it already has had to cut aid to 25,000 people in the former Soviet Union and would need to eliminate some programs, but declined to say which ones.
Executive Vice President Steven Schwager in a telephone interview Monday said the organization will cut eight staffers in New York and 52 in Israel and other countries.
Schwager said the cuts, which have been discussed internally for three months, became necessary because the falling dollar has left the organization with an estimated $60 million budget shortfall.
“Between the weak dollar and inflation, we have lost about 20 percent of the purchasing power of our money around the world and we have started to make serious programmatic cuts to get back to our program budget,” he said.
“We also looked at our world staff and senior staff and are in the process yesterday, today and tomorrow of notifying around 60 people around the world in New York, Jerusalem, the FSU, Europe and Latin America that we are making a staff reduction.”
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