- The Global Planning Table -- two so-called "Signature Initiatives" the commencement of which is dependent upon JFNA gaining commitments from 10 federations for an aggregate $30,000,000 -- $15,000,000 for each "Initiative" over three years -- a condition precedent as it were. The funds are not going to be there, are they? And, if they are, where will they come from -- the core allocations??
- The Ukraine Emergency Fund -- to assist our partners on the ground in the Ukraine, JFNA sent out a letter, created an Allocations Committee and just waited for the finds to roll on in. The funds are not rolling on in. This Allocations Committee has done its job; it's just that JFNA hasn't done anything beyond declaring a crisis, an "emergency." If you look at the JFNA website, there is not a mention of the Ukraine; as the crisis deepens, JFNA has turned its attention elsewhere. So it is that Rabbi Yaacov Dov Bleich, the Chief Rabbi of Kiyuv and the Ukraine, is personally and heroically relocating refugees from East Ukraine and Crimea to temporary camps and the aliyah numbers are increasing exponentially day-by-day while we look on in apparent wonder. http://www.timesofisrael.com/frightened-ukrainian-jews-seek-haven-in-makeshift-refugee-camp/ And speaking of "wonder," is it any that JDC and the other overseas partners are doing the necessary, sacred work and FRD while JFNA is doing neither?
- The Israel Emergency Fund -- then there is this, this thing. With Israel in the midst of a Terrorists' War without apparent end, you will recall that JFNA first set a short-term "target" (never a "goal") of $10,000,000 then increased that to $30,000,000, and just how much has been actually raised to date? The best information I have gleaned is that the total is far short of $30,000,000 -- far, far short. Five continental Solidarity Missions operated by JFNA (with no fund raising component), numerous individual federation-led Missions (one from my community will depart today with over 15 leaders on which there will be strong fund raising as always), and no Emergency Campaign -- because some federations don't need them and others don't want them. (One Large City has raised less than $50,000 while Birmingham has raised $500,000.) And what has JFNA done in this environment -- set a "target," set up an Allocations Committee that is doing fine work -- and, then...nothing. Federations have begun to allocate directly...and no one senses a problem?
As we have noted before, there appears to be no National Campaign Chair any more -- just as there is no National Campaign. There is nothing but failure all around us. These failures should be intolerable -- but CEO Raising-Money-Ain't-My-Job, appears on CNN and gets a contract extension.
So, friends, if you look up the definition of "failure" in the dictionary, you will find a picture of the JFNA logo.
What a great brand. Yep, like that Seinfeld show...about nothing.
Rwexler
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8 comments:
It appears that Dede Feinberg and Linda Hurwitz have been silenced at a time that we need their voices to be heard. JFNA is in total disarray and no one's voice is heard but yours -- and your voice is obviously ignored.
Thanks for shining a light into the dark corners of this failed organization. Where UJA would have been out raising the flag and money in a crisis, JFNA is out promoting Solidarity Missions. It's obviously past time for asking what the hell is JFNA's value added because the answer is so obvious. Even in a crisis, an emergency, the answer is a big fat zero.
The saddest fact is that organizations have the opportunity to seize a crisis and make of it a challenge to which they raise themselves up. Here, Richard, you have cited two crises that might have distinguished the JFNA but, instead, because its professional leadership is so weak and its lay leadership so unprepared, JFNA not only failed to rise to the occasion but fell ever more deeply into the abyss of its own making. Then, there is the Global Planning Table, the end of which is near, which drives federations further and further from the collective and which is failing of its own confusion and weight.
You have called JFNA a "mess." It is far, far worse than that.
You are being unfair. JFNA has done a lot of things. Like....like....like....my mistake, it's really been a zero for the federations and their donors....a $650,000,000 zero.
As you probably know, while JFNA has forgotten the Ukraine, Yechiel Eckstein and his International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is bringing a planeload of olin to Israel. It's too damn bad that the federations are no longer doing their job and that jfna HAS ABANDONED ITS RESPONSIBILITIES.
MAKE THAT 3 PLANELOADS
JFNA abandoned its responsibilities? I'd say this is a catastrophic failure of the Jewish Agency!
Sure there have been successes. You remember.....um...well, then maybe you remember....or was it....? OK, but we know w were this close when....or maybe it was....Ok, so we haven't had any success....we're close though...real close.
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