MAIL

I have received anonymous Comments on two Posts over the last several days that merit response, two dealing with And, Now, A New Partner and others with The Math Wizard. Although it has been my policy not to answer anonymous Comments, I will do so because the writers raised serious issues coupled with the most extreme accusations:

As to And, Now, A New Partner, the assaults have been extreme -- I have been accused of "conspiring to kill Jews," that I have "...become part of the Nazi killing machine" with "...blood on (my) hands" and that I "..endanger the lives of the entire Jewish population of Yemin," and I have am responsible when "...real people would...be murdered due to (my) self-inflated egomaniacal psychopathic excesses," among other things. Let me repeat that which I wrote on Monday, March 14 -- when I learned that I had prematurely published And, Now, within three hours of Posting (not "yesterday" as Anonymous wrongly stated, but last Monday), I pulled the Post. I felt and feel terrible that I had done so. During those three hours UJC had printed out the Post and circulated it widely. Those at UJC well know (that's you "Anonymous") that the Israeli press was all over this story well before my Post. While anyone reading the "Anonymous" or "...Quisling" Comments would recognize that they came from within the bowels of UJC itself, at the highest levels, I did and do feel a terrible sense of my own irresponsibility, the reality remains that in this matter, no one (even under the camouflage of anonymity) has responded factually to the Post in question or to the newspaper stories on the subject -- and they won't. I plead guilty to "egomaniacal...excesses" and apologize for them. You?

On a far less important matter, several anonymous (of course) Commentators to The Math Wizard have suggested that I ought to focus on the compensation paid to some of the LCE and federation professionals, including Chicago's, as a counterpoint to my suggestions for salary cuts at the top of UJC. From visiting many communities and knowing that in each one the Federation CEOs have never worked as hard as they are right now to maintain their federations as the communal central address, I find the suggestions to "go after them" inconsistent with the facts on the ground. (I know as well the numbers cited by one of the "Anonymous" who wrote about my community that those numbers cited are totally overstated. Sam Astroff could easily explain to his colleagues at UJC why the 990 requirements yield overstated results.) And one seminal difference is this: only UJC is considering, following, an almost inexorable path toward a federation "bailout." Under such circumstance it strikes me that the focus should be on those making the "bailout" request as opposed to those who are in the trenches literally 24/6 holding their federated communities together.

I continue to encourage those of you who wish to Comment to do so in their own names or, as so many more of you do, e-mail me directly.

Rwexler

ADDENDUM: As the attacks from those who believe themselves to be "Anonymous Commentators" (there is probably a better word for their kind of vitriol and with each one on the current issue their identities become more clear) grow more and more extreme -- even to the suggestion that I wish to "gun down" the folks at UJC -- Google will now monitor all Comments to this Blog that do not include the sender's e-mail address.