SHAM

There is an in-person Executive Committee meeting on April 22. There's been "...an unavoidable change in time" (unexplained, of course) that will require (apparently) that the meeting convene at noon and "adjourn as scheduled at 4 p.m." (And, as always, lunch will be included.) Here is the Agenda:

• 2009-2010 UJC Budget


• Dues Approach Proposal


• Development Report


• Update on the Yemenite Relocation Effort


• Washington GA 2009 Update


• JAFI/JDC Agreement

Now, this is a substantive, important meeting but, apparently, UJC's leaders just don't have the time to engage in real, open discussion of any...any...of these Agenda items. If past is prologue, each Item will be presented as a fait accompli. After all, that's how the Budget was presented to the Budget Committee and the Executive Committee has yet to review or consider the Dues "Approach" (is that what it is?) that still has never been discussed with JDC/JAFI leadership. An "Update on the Yemenite Relocation (so that's what this now is/was?) Effort" represents the first (only) time that one of UJC's governance bodies will hear the special reasoning (maybe) that led UJC's leaders to commit the system to a "partnership" with the ultra-Orthodox Satmar sect to ostensibly "rescue" 110 Yemeni Jews who appear to neither want nor need "rescue." And, there's more.

Sorry, we have no time for questions, just an "aye" is all that is required of you. You flew to New York expecting to engage in discussion, debate? Sorry, that's not what "transparency" means to us. The Jerusalem Post, in an editorial -- Charity begins with priorities -- in yesterday's edition (April 13, 2009), lamented that in our community "...coherence doesn't come easy" and concluded that that the challenges facing us "...requires, foremost, a vibrant leadership capable of raising funds and establishing coherent program and budgetary priorities." Calling a meeting without the time or desire to debate priorities merely further demonstrates how out of touch with priority-setting UJC has become. Three so-called strategic plans in four years each rapidly followed by a "budget process" that claims to be implementing the latest confirm that as UJC's leaders bounce from one "Big Idea" to the next, nothing is a priority -- other than, of course, getting Dues paid in full.

Sad.

Rwexler