A search for a successor for Maxyne Finkelstein, former executive vice president of UIA Federations Canada – and one of the architects of the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA) – and now the new CEO of the Jewish Agency in New York, will soon begin.

Over the next few weeks, ads for this position will be placed in media in Canada, the US and Israel, reported Stanley Plotnick, president, UIA Federations Canada.

Although in the US the salary range of all major CEOs of Jewish organizations is in the public domain, Plotnick indicated the salary range for the new UIA executive vice president will not be posted. “An employee’s salary is not for public information,” he said.

The search committee will consist of 10 people from across Canada, some volunteers like himself and some professionals.

The search committee will then make a recommendation to the executive who will then take it to the board of directors for approval. The board is composed of 80 people, primarily volunteers with some professionals, from all over Canada. They will make the final decision for the job, “if so mandated by the executive,” said Plotnick.

In a wide-ranging interview, Plotnick also said that CIJA-PAC (Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy-Public Affairs Committee), which began a couple of years ago – complete with a Bloor Street address, personnel and the latest in electronic equipment – no longer exists.

However, as late as last week, there was still a phone number and answering machine accepting information. There was no statement that the organization no longer existed. This committee was part of the overall program of CIJA, headed by Hershell Ezrin.

Plotnick confirmed that a new organization has been formed called CJPAC (Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee). Headed by Executive Director Josh Cooper – who was also head of CIJA-PAC – is totally independent, said Plotnick, adding that it is “self-controlled, self-financed and self-formed, and is more involved at the political level.” Efforts to obtain disclosure from Cooper as to funding, staffing and policy-making have met with no success.

It is CIJA that is the advocacy arm of UIA and the parent of the now-defunct CIJA-PAC. According to Plotnick, CIJA is a non-partisan umbrella organization co-chaired by Brent Belzberg and Stephen Cummings. It describes itself on its web site as “an agent of UIA Federations Canada…and (CIJA) coordinates the strategic directions of such organizations as Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), Canada-Israel Committee (CIC) and Quebec-Israel Committee, and National Committee for Jewish Campus Life.”

CIJA allegedly determines the policy for CJC, the new CIC (composed of CIJA appointees) and the Quebec-Israel Committee.

Reportedly, part of the original rationale to create CIJA, which was passed by a one-vote majority of UIA, was the substantial savings of dollars for the Jewish community. Ezrin, in his capacity of the head of a public relations firm, proposed the strategy and organizational structure of CIJA and then became its CEO.

Plotnick is chairing a committee composed of people from across Canada to review the work of CIJA. He expects the results to be made public at the end of March.

The report is eagerly awaited by the Jewish community to determine the costs of all these new entities including the new staff, salaries, travel expenses and the impact that the organization has had in such areas as UN voting.

– With files from Doris Strub Epstein