Jewish community leaders meet in L.A.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, speaking in Los Angeles on Sunday, branded Iran an enormous threat to the international community and took a conciliatory stance regarding establishment of a future Palestinian state.

Livni, at 48 a rising star in Israeli politics, said her nation could work with Arab moderates to establish “two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.”

She added that Israel will have to give up land “to assure our security.”

Livni’s comments highlighted the first day of the annual general assembly of United Jewish Communities, the umbrella group for the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the 154 other Jewish community federations around North America.

Part forum for Jewish causes worldwide and part industry convention for charity fundraisers and social services professionals, the four-day conclave at the Los Angeles Convention Center initially was intended to feature an upbeat tone highlighting humanitarian service.

But the focus was redirected toward the heightened concerns among North American Jewish leaders about Israel’s security, as well as global tensions and terrorism, after this summer’s bloodshed in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.

The meeting, attended by 4,000 U.S. and Canadian Jewish community leaders and activists, is described as the largest of its kind in North America.

“Clearly, we’re not on the front lines; the Israelis are on the front lines. But when one element of the Jewish people is under attack, all of us are under attack,” Howard Rieger, president and chief executive of United Jewish Communities, said in an interview.

A highlight of this week’s gathering, being held in Los Angeles for the first time since 1982, will be an address Tuesday afternoon by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is in Washington today to meet with President Bush.

As Sunday’s keynote speaker, Livni criticized Iran for using the Hezbollah militia as a “proxy” in what turned into 34 days of warfare in Lebanon and northern Israel.

She said the Iranian regime denies the Holocaust “while seeking the weapon to perpetrate one,” referring to that nation’s suspected efforts to develop a nuclear weapon, and she called on the international community to stand up to its threat.

Much of Livni’s 20-minute address was discussion of the ties between Israel and Diaspora Jews as well as an expression of gratitude for United Jewish Communities activists who raised $350 million to help Israel recover from its summer warfare with Hezbollah.

She and other Israeli officials said the money went to such causes as moving children away from the Hezbollah rocket attacks in northern Israel to summer camps at safer locations further south.

The range of events that began Sunday at the conference included visits by hundreds of college students from around the United States and Canada, who worked Sunday as volunteers locally at a food bank, homeless shelters and other sites.

Sessions were conducted for social services professionals to exchange ideas on how to better serve the needs of aging baby boomers. And charity fundraisers picked up tips on how to cultivate a new generation of philanthropists.

The United Jewish Communities federations are the main fundraising arm for the North American Jewish community, collecting more than $3 billion this year for such causes as Hurricane Katrina relief along with support for Israel and Jewish communities around the world.

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stuart.silverstein@latimes.com