PERFIDIOUS

Wednesday will be a day filled with joy. I hope to write on Yom Ha'Atzmaut of my, and, no doubt, your special feelings about the Israel we love.

Today is merely to observe that just when I think that UJC's leaders' pettiness can get no lower, they exceed even themselves. Last week a federation leader from another community sent me a Notice from UJC that included an advisory that an Executive Committee Conference Call scheduled for this afternoon had been postponed for two weeks. (A professional at UJC sent me the notice as well "in confidence.") As I had not received it from UJC directly, I inquired. Yesterday I received a curt e-mail from Howard Rieger advising me that in my capacity as UIA Chair I had been serving on the Executive Committee "as an invited guest" and, in his bloviating way, Howard withdrew my "guest status." Unfortunately for the CEO, as I reminded him, he had written me only a few months earlier confirming my continuing ex officio status on the Executive Committee in my role as UIA Chair. And I pointed out that the Executive Committee Roster listed me, as it had my predecessor, as an ex officio member as did the Minutes of the Executive Committee meetings themselves. Guess Howard just forgot. And, in addition to forgetting, Howard failed to comprehend that I serve as the representative of United Israel Appeal; I don't serve in an individual capacity but in a representative one. (In telling one of my federation friends this episode, that person responded: "Who made these people, and especially this guy, kings?")

Then, Howard continued, as apparently he and the Chair of the Board always feel it necessary, to repeat one of their oft-told lies about my actions under the apparent theory that if one tells a lie often enough, it becomes, in a perverted way, truth. The truth, as it were, is that this leadership chose not to even tell me of their unilateral decision apparently hoping I wouldn't notice. They act out in this vicious way that is so unworthy and so contemptuous of the positions of honor they hold.

Rwexler