THE HAIL MARY PASSES OF 25 BROADWAY

You know, it's near the end of the game, your team is down, the only hope is a miracle play -- it must be a "Hail Mary (pardon me) pass" -- one that fails over 97% of the time. And, that's exactly what Jerry Silverman is throwing (along with other stuff he's throwing) and throwing and throwing...

• You saw one fall to the turf right before and during the GA: the $1 billion "special campaign" for a free Pre-School for every Jewish child. That pass fell to the ground when almost universally condemned for a lack of pre-planning, a lack of any support from Jewish educators, and the preposterous thought that JFNA could actually mount a massive campaign, having never done so in a decade while it planfully deracinated what had been a national FRD capacity that was the envy of every other fund raising organization;
• Another is still fluttering in the air -- the future of the Global Planning Table, the collapse of which by its own weight is claimed, by Silverman himself, to presage the ultimate collapse of JFNA. While the present evidence -- the expenditure of what appears to be over $4 million with no results other than that a number of federations, some even initially enthusiastic, have opted out while JFNA continues inexorably on leading to...
• One "Signature Initiative" now "rolled out" as the ultimate Hail Mary would create a new Company (in which your federation probably won't provide sufficient funds to enable its participation in this entity's governance [kind of like, ummm, the membership on the so-called "Partnership Committee," the decision-making body of the Global Planning Table Committee itself]) to brand, market and implement something called JPIE -- the totally immersive Israel and Overseas venture of JFNA, the Federations, the Jewish Agency and the JDC. This is such a desperate heave that it was thrown without the kind of financial commitment that could assure any possibility of success. (P.S., it is also JFNA's transparent effort to get on the last car of the train before the Government of Israel/Jewish Agency leaves the station without it.)

Sure, these are efforts to pump up JFNA but aren't these all being rolled out now, to be engaged in round table discussions in Santa Monica, to demonstrate how badly we need CEO Jerry to carry on, for continuity's sake if nothing else, to demonstrate that after four years of futility, we can't carry on without keeping Jerry at the helm JFNA's futility over the past four years notwithstanding. Meanwhile, our elected leaders and federation leaders who might influence JFNA's cringe away from effective remedial action, the action that might save JFNA from itself.

As these passes head earthward, let's remember the definition: "A Hail Mary pass is a very long forward pass in American football, made in desperation with only a small chance of success." Yep, "...made in desperation with only a small chance of success."

Rwexler