STRANGE...BUT TRUE...AND AN APOLOGY

With the GA now over, a couple of strange factoids, none of which should detract from the warm feelings you may have had from being there:

~ First, an APOLOGY. I had written that in its second year Heroes, now, apparently, another one of those wholly-owned JFNA subsidiaries, had failed to honor not only any women but any federation leaders. Several of you wrote me to correct the record. An exceptional Atlanta leader and significant donor, Dr. Steven
Kutner was honored as one of the Heroes. I was thrown off by the reality that Steven was not identified for his federation work at all in the Heroes promotions. My apologies.

~ On the cusp of the New Orleans event, JFNA, at its hyperbolic best/worst, announced that there would be 3,000 "attendees" would flood the GA and 1,100 women would attend the ILOJE -- a total of 4,100?!! No mention of the overlap of GA/LOJE registrants. I know there were a lot of folks there and I hope that 4,100 registered for the General Assembly (does that include the 700 Hillel students?) and that the event was SRO. For some reason...I doubt it. Would transparency and truth-telling be a bad thing?

~ Then, there was this -- Ari Teman (raise your hands if you know who Ari is -- OK hand down) -- the 2009 JFNA "Hero of the Year" and the "Founder of JCorps," using the proprietary "jewishcommunityheroes.org" website sent a "Hi, Jews" message inviting all Jews to a November 18 "immersive event" (you think they/he meant "impressive?" -- your choice.) in Times Square bringing together all kinds of innovators and philanthropists, authors and others for the "event" and a "bonus day" at Columbia. Among those presenting will be JFNA's Adam Smolyar identified with a "(!)." So as a "Hero of the Year," apparently you get cash and a mailing list. "Hi, Jews!!!"

~ Several of you wrote in response to my pre-GA Post citing The Fundermentalist's (JTA's Jacob Berkman) opening report on the GA that he was excluded from the pre-GA JFNA Golf Outing (somehow I can't picture Jacob as a golfer but, then again...) as it was for "Donors Only" while the JFNA leaders cancelled the Shabbaton. Get this straight and it tells you quite a bit -- Golf Outing on; Shabbaton off.

~ At the onset of the Board meeting at the GA, the Chair announced that 100 federations were representated -- that's of 157 federations. Is anyone concerned or is it good that 2/3rds of the federations were there?

~ Finally, a little more on #ish. You recall that at its onset, JFNA created some "webisodes" -- little You Tube type videos "starring" D-list albeit generous personalities. I thought about this while watching a Judd Apatow production of a tribute to AJWS starring, among others, Ben Stiller, Sara Silverman, Patrick Stewart (exceptional), Tracy Morgan, Kiefer Sutherland, Brian Williams, Susan Sarandon, and so on. See how it might have been done at ajws.org/index.html not that #ish would be anything other than the piece of ish it is.

Rwexler