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It's as if the grandstand is filled to capacity and everyone's eyes are on Stephen Solender, the new starting quarterback for the United Jewish Communities.

His fledgling team, formed less than a year ago, is stuck deep in its own territory and is in serious danger of being knocked from the ranks of the elite.

The seconds are ticking down.

Can he do it?

Solender, who was in San Francisco last month to meet with leaders of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, knows the task ahead of him is huge.

Named top executive of North America's largest Jewish charity only five months ago, the 61-year-old New Yorker is in an intense spotlight at a crucial moment in the organization's existence.

The United Jewish Communities — the super-agency formed by last year's merger of the once-revered United Jewish Appeal and two related charities — is hoping to regain UJA's former luster and emerge as a strong, independent national force.

But if Solender's quarterbacking skills prove to be lacking, the UJC might find itself as nothing more than a trade association of 189 federations across North America.

The fans are on the edges of their seats.

"I'm glad there's a lot of impatience," Solender said during a morning interview in the lobby of the Harbor Court Hotel. "But you're not going to penetrate the United States and Canada in 60 to 90 days, or even in one year."

In the meantime, Solender is working to shape the identity of the new charity and determine its priorities and direction. Solender is answering to 189 different bosses because, he said, the UJC "is owned by the federations." The agency is also in the midst of a historic struggle over giving money to pluralistic causes in Israel.

All the while, Solender is working to restructure the organization at the top and attempting to streamline the budget. He's also trying to develop a "new trust" by showcasing the UJC to Jews who aren't even sure what it is and/or those who have soured on giving their charitable dollars to old-fashioned general funds.

No wonder the Forward, a Jewish weekly in New York, deemed his position "the least-wanted six-figure job in America."

"This is the most complex merger that has ever taken place in the voluntary system," Solender said. "It's comparable to the most complex mergers that have occurred in corporate America, and it's going to take some time."

Alan Rothenberg, past president of the S.F. federation and a current board member, praised Solender for "being a good sport" in "reluctantly" taking the job and listening to dozens of disparate voices — from liberal federations on the West Coast to more traditional ones back East.

"He knows who the players are in New York, but nationally he's having to listen to a lot more voices than he normally would, and voices he has not heard before," Rothenberg said. "He's got to hear it, digest it and sell it to his leadership. It's going to take some time."

Although Rothenberg said the UJC leader is "too new in this job for anyone to fault him," Solender has been roundly criticized in numerous editorials in the Forward, a national publication. Perhaps the most scathing referred to the UJC's hunt for a new president and chief executive officer as "the anyone-but-Solender job search."

When that editorial came out, Solender was the UJC's acting president who had yet to relinquish his job as the top executive at UJA-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.

His understanding of the complexities of the federation system was a big factor behind his hiring. Even though a search committee, composed of UJC executive committee members and federation leaders seemed desperate for an infusion of new leadership, there was simply no time available for hiring an outsider who would need on-the-job training.

"He is from the federation movement," said Harold Zlot, president of the S.F. federation. "He understands the issues and concerns of the federation communities and he is very sympathetic to our concerns."

Solender's visit to San Francisco showcased his style. Despite a late-hours meeting at the federation the night before, he awoke the next morning at 4 to answer e-mail and then went on a pre-dawn jog — which he does no matter what city he is in — along the Embarcadero.

After a 7:30 a.m. interview, he was hustling a few doors up Steuart Street to the federation offices for more meetings. Like the night before, the topics were the direction of the UJC, moving forward on assessing future funding for Israel, and frustrations of years past.

Addressing the Israel issue, Solender said simply rubber-stamping huge checks for the Jewish Agency in Israel is a thing of the past. "We're going to be putting much more emphasis on people-to-people programs."

Solender admiringly pointed to the S.F. federation as being "pioneering in its work in Israel."

The Amuta — an Israel-based committee created by the federation to find projects worth supporting — "has become, in effect, a demonstration project for the country," he said. The federation "had the vision many years before most organizations to enter into those types of direct partnerships with the Israelis."

Never before have individual federations had a direct say in overseas allocation, and Solender acknowledged that much of the discussion in this arena has been hot and heavy, especially over the funding of Reform and Conservative causes.

"The intensity of the dialogue between the federations and the leadership of the UJC is a positive, not a negative," he said. "One of the problems we've faced in the past is that there hasn't been enough of a communication…The fact that there's a lively debate going on now is a reflection of the dynamism of the system."

And Solender is getting an earful.

Right now, he and other UJC executives are on what he called a "road show," visiting "as many federations as possible in the U.S. and Canada…to engage in an intensive discussion of what those communities want UJC to become."

In April, leaders from all 189 federations will convene for an "owners' retreat" in Washington, D.C.

"We're in a very new era," Solender said. "We're no longer in the post-World War II period. We're no longer in a period where there is serious anti-Semitism affecting Jews. We're no longer in a period where we're dealing with a weak Israel. We're in a period where the issues facing world Jewry and Israel are much more complex. We need to work together and talk together to [figure out] how best to deal with these issues."

It's a team effort, to be sure, but everyone's eyes are on the quarterback.