(JTA) – The nonprofit organization leading an emergency coalition to coordinate the Jewish response to the pandemic-induced financial crisis has itself deeply slashed its staff. Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella group of communal fundraising and programming organizations across the country, announced layoffs and executive salary cuts in a message to board members and federation executives on May 6. The letter stressed that the umbrella organization would continue to support local federations with fundraising as they acknowledged the difficulty of that work. JFNA took on that effort just six weeks ago, when it announced that it would lead an emergency coalition to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. The coalition was formed, in part, to help laid-off employees of Jewish organizations, including federations, as budgets tightened. But the same conditions that imperil local organizations are affecting the umbrella group, according to the letter. Fundraising is challenging, and some long-standing lines of work are not practical during the pandemic. JFNA organizes international trips for donors as well as training and conferences for federation staff across the country. With social distancing in place, those activities are likely canceled for the next several months.

Fingerhut also announced that he would take a temporary 10% salary reduction and that seven senior leaders would cut their salaries by 5%. According to the most recent tax filing available, Fingerhut’s predecessor, Gerrold Silverman, earned $634,849 in 2017.

JFNA’s layoffs come as other Jewish organizations begin to shed staff. Hillel International, the umbrella organization for Jewish student life centers on campus, laid off or furloughed more than 20% of its staff last month. Local Jewish organizations that rely on service fees have also been hit hard.

JFNA serves as an umbrella organization for 146 Jewish federations and 300 smaller “network” communities, which together employ around 10,000 people, and distributes a total of $3 billion annually for social services and educational programs in Israel and North America. In their message, Fingerhut and Wilf said they were confident that the groups would together weather the pandemic by innovating. “When we do, as we are confident, we will, Jewish life will flourish and our response to this crisis will be re-membered alongside the greatest moments in the already illustrious history of the Federation system,” they wrote.