UJC, the United Jewish Communities, is changing its name to the Jewish Federations of North America. About 10 years ago, UJA (the United Jewish Appeal) and CJF (Council of Jewish Federations) merged to create one unified national agency that would meet the planning, fundraising, leadership and advocacy support needs required by federations across the continent. Our federation is part of that system. When the 2 organizations merged, which was a feat unto itself,the issue of a proper name refecting the enhanced nature of this new organization was debated. At the time 4 names were suggested and federations across the continent were asked to weigh in on their preference....
Name recognition and branding is a key element in giving identity to any organization. Many at the time wanted to retain the UJA name since it was a well established recognizable name to so many...you know the joke...if you are stranded on a deserted island, don't worry, UJA will find you.
No one was really happy with the UJC name and it never really reflected who we were.
Well, we now have a new name for our national organization...The Jewish Federations of North America- the key element of the change was to ensure that the word "federation" appears in the name.The goal for JFNA now is to ensure that Federations across the country adopt the name the Jewish Federation of________________, if they are not so identified as such now. A great example of that is Boston's Federation which is known as CJP....What are the chances of CJP changing their name to The Jewish Federation of Greater Boston? Time will tell
The goal is to have every federation have the word federation in its name and now that the national organization will have federation in its name..it should make it easier for a very mobile national community to find the federation in its area.

The new name will be officially rolled out at this week's national conference-the GA- being held in Washington DC from Nov 8-10.
The Federation system will be honored to host President Obama on Tuesday morning of the conference This will be the president's first appearance before a national Jewish group since becoming president. He will be preceded on Monday morning by an appearance from Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.