The Central Agency for Jewish Education and Engagement and the Jewish Federation have taken the first steps toward bringing CAJE into the Federation, a move both agencies say is reflective of national trends. 

“If the due diligence points in that direction, it will be a complete integration of the two agencies,” said Sonia Dobinsky, executive director of CAJE.

That due diligence began with a unanimous vote of each board to explore bringing all of CAJE’s operations into the Federation – services, personnel and programming.

“We’re at a perfect time,” Dobinsky said. “We have two strong boards. We’re a well-funded organization. The Federation commitment to us has been and will be maintained at a very strong level of support. We figured that at this time, when we are both working to educate and engage people in the community, it would be an incredible opportunity to meld our resources.”

Andrew Rehfeld, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation, agreed, saying that the process had   advanced enough to make it public.

“What we’ve done so far in getting it to this point is to hone in on the areas where we have to work out the details,” he said. “We couldn’t go forward with working out those details unless we were going to be public because all of us are interested in a very transparent, open and collaborative model.”

Dobinsky said that if a joining does happen, no staff or programming cuts are expected. All CAJE employees would continue with the Federation. No structure has been determined, but Rehfeld said that CAJE could become a department of his organization, possibly acting as a community-development arm of the umbrella agency. 

“The idea of community development is that you provide the resources to individuals, to institutions, to engage people in the life of the Jewish community,” Rehfeld said. “That’s the core of it. There are certain things CAJE is doing, particularly in the last few years, that are more and more in that model.”

Dobinsky said that in recent years, the trend nationally has been for agencies like CAJE to be blended into their local federations. She estimated that roughly half of groups like hers operated independently just five to seven years ago, but now a majority do not.

“Some of the strongest federations have always had their central agencies as departments of the federation,” she said. “Detroit is a really good example.”

Houston and Dallas have also always had similar arrangements, she said, while others have come to the idea more recently.

“If you look at Miami, they used to have a separately run organization, and now their central agency is a wholly owned subsidiary of their federation,” she said. “This has been a really strong and effective model throughout the country.”

Rehfeld said that speaking to other cities to learn best practices will be a part of the due-diligence process. He said he has talked to one individual who had been involved in such transitions in two cities and felt the arrangement works best when the sides are collaborative rather than contentious.

“That gives us hope, because Federation is not looking to do this unless it makes the most sense for the community,” he said. “That means what makes the most sense for CAJE, its volunteers, its leadership, its professional staff.”

Dobinsky and Rehfeld said no final decision has been made.

“We never assume anything is a done deal,” Dobinsky said, “but I can tell you that the professionals and the lay teams from both organizations have worked very, very hard to make sure before we even made the announcement that this makes sense for the community.”

Dobinsky said the boards will examine the issue for six to eight weeks before making a decision on whether to move to the next step. 

Rehfeld said the organizations will probably seek feedback from the community through meetings with stakeholders and educators.

While the idea was not motivated by financial need on the part of either agency, Rehfeld said, it would create administrative efficiencies. In an era of declining membership numbers nationwide, he said, the Federation has long stressed the idea of organizations and synagogues merging, collaborating and sharing resources more readily.

“We’re no different,” he said.