INSIGHTS

As is usually the case, those of you who Comment on these Posts offer superb insights. Here is what one of you wrote immediately after the General Assembly:

"JFNA and Jerry are pinballing from idea to idea so fast that they do not pause to consider how idiotic they look. Lucky for us, in our own communities, most donors do not know who or what JFNA is. If they did, JFNA would be bringing down the value of our local Jewish Federation brand.

When Jerry and Michael's so-called thought leadership piece appeared in the Forward, they espoused focusing on four areas: free Jewish preschools, Jewish camping, birthright alumni and Jewish development zones. Then, when he spoke at the GA, all of a sudden, he put a big focus on lowering the cost of 'being Jewish in America'. Did he, perhaps, read Gil Troy's op-ed piece that appeared the day before his speech in the Jerusalem Post that was delivered to his hotel room during the GA? Sure seems like it."

For CEO Jerry the Pew Report has become nothing more than another shiny object to distract the organization from its goals and purpose -- if it has either any more. You may recall that last year, JFNA prepared another so-called Strategic Plan for itself -- making it one for each of its many CEOs -- this one called "Strategic Initiatives." While nothing more than a collection of stuff so old that in many instances dated back to UJA and CJF, nonetheless JFNA committed to implement the Initiatives and to measure their successful implementation. Then, as of the GA (and a few interviews and press releases preceding the GA), off JFNA went on a frolic far removed from the very Initiatives to which it had committed itself. It's all so stupid, so wasteful, so unfocused. Or, as I might add, "so JFNA."

In its weekly Sign of the Apocalypse, Sports Illustrated wrote:

"A group of Bosnian fans intending to see their country's World Cup qualifier  against Lithuania went to Latvia by mistake. Said one fan: 'I will surely remember this stupidity (for) the rest of my life."

At JFNA it's the equivalent of the same thing only their "stupidity" is quickly forgotten (and, more than likely, repeated). Time and again under current leadership, JFNA plans to go to Lithuania and ends up in Latvia -- the aimless wanderings of a lost organization. Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows.

Rwexler