The Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton held its yearly allocation meeting on November 17 to discuss the allocations for its member agencies. “This is always a very thoughtful meeting with many viewpoints shared through open discussion and this year, even on Zoom, was no different,” said Suzanne Holwitt, president of the Federation. “There was much discussion about the different allocations.” 

The agencies that received the amounts requested include The Reporter, Jewish Community Center, Hillel at Binghamton, Hillel Academy, Beth David mikvah and the Jewish Federations of North America. The Federation’s budget had been approved in October and includes funding for Jewish Family Service.

“After much discussion, it was decided that, in the future, we will reduce the funding for Hillel Academy,” Holwitt added. “This is not because of the quality of their education, which we know is excellent, but due to the reduction in the number of students who attend; the demographics of our area show that we are an aging community. We are ever hopeful that more families will move into the area and will choose to send their children to Hillel. If this happens, we will, of course, revisit this decision. We hope that you, the members of our community, will understand our decisions and know that we do not make any of these decisions lightly.” 

The Federation is also looking into other avenues to invest Federation dollars in ways that will strengthen the local community.