John Ruskay

Soon after John Ruskay took over the helm of UJA-Federation of New York in 1999 he gave a major address based on the notion, then prevalent, that Israel had reached a point in its history when peace seemed imminent.

Soon after John Ruskay took over the helm of UJA-Federation of New York in 1999, he gave a major address based on the notion, then prevalent, that Israel had reached a point in its history when peace seemed imminent. With the Oslo peace process at its high point, Ruskay said it was time to turn the Jewish communal agenda inward, to needs closer to home.

The Jewish population in the Washington Heights/Inwood communities on the northern tip of Manhattan has soared by 144 percent since 2002, while Suffolk County, with a 4 percent decrease in Jews during that time, is the only suburban county to experience a Jewish population loss.

The Jewish population in the Washington Heights/Inwood communities on the northern tip of Manhattan has soared by 144 percent since 2002, while Suffolk County, with a 4 percent decrease in Jews during that time, is the only suburban county to experience a Jewish population loss.

 When John Ruskay, the executive vice president and CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, receives an honorary doctorate at the Jewish Theological Seminary this week it will be a homecoming of sorts for him. Ruskay, 64, was a rabbinical student at JTS for a year after graduating from college in 1968, and served for eight years as vice chancellor (the first non-rabbi to do so) from l985-l993.

In a rare moment of quiet for the busy executive, he reflected on his seminary days, his personal Jewish journey and career in communal life.

Drastic cuts to reduce the state's $10 billion budget deficit proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo may cause agencies under the UJA-Federation umbrella to lose as much this year as they have in the past three years combined.

In what the federation calls a "gigantic challenge," agencies providing immigrant services, employment, child care programs will lose about $30 million in revenue and an additional $30 million in foregone funds, such as cost of living increases -- roughly the amount of funding that has been decreased since 2008.