LAUGHS?

In its attempts at relevance in Israel and to us, JFNA busied itself during the run-up to the recent Israeli elections and in the aftermath with providing "insights" through some candidate conference calls (valuable) and "analysis" (really, really laughable). Some of the latter reflect more on a lack of knowledge about the history of JFNA than the evident lack of insight into the Israeli elections.

Examples:

• In a post-election JFNA backpat for some reason focusing on the "exclusive" pre-election candidate calls, I got a real laugh out of the following: discussing the participation of Member of Knesset Dr. Nachman Shai, it further identified Nachman as "former Senior Vice President of JFNA's predecessor, UJC." Hello!! Do some people at JFNA believe that UJC was somehow a different organization than UJC? IT WAS A NAME CHANGE!! Jeez.
• Then there was this most bizarre transmission: CEO Jerry sent out under his name a post-election analysis (itself a summary so unbelievably basic that it could have been replaced by (a) one written by my youngest grandchild or (b) with the actual Israeli press stories on which it was based...But I digress...) Apparently smarting from the lack of "credit" the JFNA-Israel Director, for no other purpose sent out the exact same Memo to her mailing list with the following cover: "Our office prepared the following update, which Jerry Silverman has just sent to Federation executive directors..." Yes, grab "credit" where you can -- even for the worthless.
• Then, someone from inside the Bat Cave at 25 Broadway wrote in an Anonymous Comment that there were 600 participants listening in on JFNA's post-election analysis conference call. Sure, brought to you by the same folks who count attendance at the GA and a succession of Fests.
• In this age of social media, it is certain that JFNA needs a Facebook page. But does our national organization have to embarrass itself on its own pages? How about this one, sent on to me by a FOB: "JFNA Poll: How are you celebrating Tu B'Shevat, the birthday of the trees? Are you planting any trees? Going to a seder? Eating a new fruit?" Then, this one: This time of year there are a lot of colds and flu passed around. Time for matzah ball soup! Do you like yours with chicken chunks or without?  ( I'm not making any of this up -- it's JFNA, after all.) Send your answer to #stupidity.
• Have you heard about the community that received a very substantial gift to its campaign endowment, one that might spew out $700,000 (+/-) annually into its campaign, but decided to count the entire endowment gift as if it were a current campaign contribution to "pump up" its moribund annual campaign?  Can you imagine the breakdown in trust this misrepresentation could create not just within that federated community but with this most generous donor? When stuff like this happens, you just scratch your head and wonder what has become of us?

OK...not so funny.

Rwexler