A TERRIBLE FAILURE TO LEAD

Could what happened in London late last August become commonplace in our North American communities as well?

"...at a town hall-style meeting two weeks ago, in which the community leadership was attacked for its failure to lead. The hope that life will continue as usual, including the freedom to retain and celebrate ties to the Jewish state, has been shattered." (as reported in Tablet Magazine: Crisis of Confidence for British Jewry. http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/183240/crisis-of-confidence-for-british-jewry?utm_source=tabletmagazinelist&utm_campaign=e78615b226-Wednesday_August_27_20148_27_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c308bf8edb-e78615b226-206560494 

"[A]ttacked for a failure to lead" -- imagine that? 

And, what have we got right here at home? Well, whatever it is, it was wholly "predictable" from the beginning of what is JFNA through today. In fact, our friends, Gerald Bubis and Steve Windmueller, published their analysis in From Predictability to Chaos way back when. 

"The creation of United Jewish Communities (UJC) in 1999 - involving the merger of the Council of Jewish Federations (CJF), United Jewish Appeal (UJA), and United Israel Appeal (UIA) - resulted in the largest consolidation of Jewish communal resources ever undertaken. For this study of the merger, the authors interviewed those most directly involved in the effort regarding their motives and perceptions, and their satisfaction with the outcome to date. 

The study reveals a tale of unclear expectations, unshared visions, mixed motivations, and multi-layered power games. But it is also a story about men and women who live the Jewish people, want to serve it, and desire to see it flourish. There are no villains. As the picture unfolds, it demonstrates the difficulties born of grafting differing organizational cultures together while seeking to merge the better or best attributes of each of these separate entities."

The authors convened a public meeting at HUC-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City upon the release of the Study in February 2005. I and others who were involved in framing the merger were invited as were federation lay and professional leaders. I remember vividly the Large City Executives present sat with arms folded in seeming objection to the Study itself (thinking back, this should have clued me in to how this Blog would be "greeted" by the same folks).  In candor, I am not sure that any of them (other than Howard Rieger, having just succeeded Steve Hoffman as CEO of the then UJC, made a presentation on the merger that day) had actually read the Study. (I am absolutely certain that Steve Hoffman, who in a newspaper article described the analysis as worthy only for wrapping stale fish, had not read it or any part of it.) In any event the "system," as embodied in these men, and they were all men, rejected the premise of the Study and, certainly, its conclusions.

And, based upon their extensive interviews, Bubis and Windmueller recommended:

• Restoration of the role of Rabbis and intellectuals, then and now excluded, as one of the pillars of communal governance;
• Provide opportunities for discussion of and reaction to Israel's policies encouraging full airing of diverse opinions on the challenges facing Jewish life in North America, now suppressed in the name of unity;
• Expand the "old boys" network of the wealthy in Jewish life by including more women and young people;
• Appoint an ombudsman to examine and report on the stewardship of federation funds supporting the continental organization;
• Underwrite and use think tanks;
• Restoration of UJA "brand" in one form or another; and
• Balance to division of power between lay and professional leadership.

The authors also concluded that while there were few "winners" in the merger -- namely large city federations and their CEOs -- there was one sure "loser" -- Israel.

The authors could not have foreseen how right they were about how much the "loser" might lose and how none...that's zero...of their recommendations would be incorporated into any reset of what is now JFNA or that there would be neither introspection nor reset at all.

As Bubis and Windmueller told JTA at the time of the publication, after interviewing 88 lay and professional leaders: "The end result (of the merger) was a new organization which met few if anyone's expectations. Many described it as a 'work in progress,' yet serious questions remain regarding its status. One of our respondents stated 'Nobody got it right. We simply were not able to do it at this time." The authors continued: "In the end...those who guided the merger were well-intentioned, but...the result is fundamentally flawed. Areas of concern include who has power in UJC and whose voices are being heard, the relationship of federations to (JFNA) and even the name of the organization."

Almost ten years after the publication of Predictability...it's conclusions and recommendations are not only spot on in retrospect but even more telling today when a CEO not up to the tasks of running a most complex organization is partnered with well-meaning lay leaders who have driven JFNA by personal agendas and a lack of commitment to transparency and transformational change.

There is plenty of blame to go around -- and I and those who partnered in the merger have accepted our share and apologized for the imperfect model we turned over to the federations in whom we entrusted it. Yet, when one looks around for those who might take the mess that a succession of failed leaders have created through that model, we seed no one even acknowledging that anything is amiss let alone doing anything about it.

As I have written, more's the pity.

Rwexler

WHILE NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION

This is another cautionary tale. It is what happens when there is no internal accountability, no management, no monitoring...no almost anything. As you read what follows, measure the return on investment and let me know if you calculate any at all. For the following is a list of those on the employment roster of JFNA-Israel from the page-after-page list of JFNA personnel (names have been redacted), just positions and that favorite JFNA activity -- titles. 

Please pay close attention:

• Senior Vice President, Israel/Overseas, Executive Office
• Managing Director
• Executive Vice-Chair, UIA
• Coordinator, Executive Office
• Senior Director, Donor Relations/Emissaries/Speakers/VIP Travel
• Senior Associate,Communications and Government Relations
• UIA Israel Deputy Managing Director
• IT Manager, Fianance and Administration
• Grants Executive, Communal Advancement
• Missions Consultant/Giving/UIA/Missions
• Special Assistant to Director General (?) and Director, Special Projects
• Senior Manager, Missions
• Operations Director, Global Planning Table
• Missions Consultant
• Coordinator, Global Planning Table
• Executive Assistant/Executive Office
• Assistant Director, Program and Planning, Global Planning Table
• Grant Manager, UIA
• Coordinator, Donor Relations
• Office Manager/Finance Manager
• Associate Director/VIP Travel
• UIA, Israel Representative
• CFO/Deputy Director General
• Israel-American Jewish Relations/Executive Office
• Assistant Director, UIA, U.S. Grant
• Senior Associate, Communications and Media Relations
• Managing Director, Communications and Media Relations
• Senior Bookkeeper, Payroll Supervisor
• Grant Coordinator/UIA
• Associate Director/ VIP Travel
• Associate Vice-President, Global Planning Table

I have probably left out a couple, but who could blame me, and what difference would it make? In fact, other than the UIA personnel, what difference have any and all of the JFNA-Israel professionals made, starting at the top? Really.

I have been told, though I find it hard to believe, that JFNA has two professionals at the Knesset every day to monitor Knesset activities. I sense that there is such a fear on Silverman's part of being surprised by some piece of legislation that these staff persons linger and take notes -- a kind of Jewish "early warning system" and kind of ineffective like everything else. What the heck do these people do and what the hell has this exploding bureaucracy provided the federations...and at what cost? (There is a rumor that Silverman was able to "persuade" Philanthropist Jay Ruderman, JFNA's turn-to funder of last resort, to pay for one of the "spies.")

Then, consider the number of personnel, including the two Knesset "spies," dedicated solely and exclusively to the support of the the CEO of Israel/Overseas. I count 6 -- that's almost 20% of the total personnel and if one backs out the UIA personnel, that's well over 30% of a bloated bureaucracy dedicated to the support of the CEO -- an unconscionable percentage. But not at JFNA. (Just for comparison's sake: When I chaired my law firm with 80 lawyers and a para-professional staff of over 100, we had a CEO and her assistant...and that was it.)

Finally, when JFNA first emerged from the cocoon of merger, an Israel Task Force of federation lay and professional leaders did some prodigious work. Led by the great philanthropist, Marvin Lender, and Bob Aronson, the then dynamic Detroit CEO, the Task Force offered a series of recommendations all premised upon moving the system's Israel Office back to New York headquarters. It was a recommendation built upon two premises: that it would significantly reduce systemic costs and would more effectively control policy and the bureaucratic expansion that we have now witnessed. (It should be noted that under the two predecessors to the current Senior Vice-President/Managing Director/Director General, Menachem Revivi and MK Nachman Shai, there was no massive hiring and support system as is evidenced above.) Those recommendations fell on deaf ears. More's the pity.

Perhaps, some controls would be in place were the immediate Past Chair of the Israel/Overseas Committee not so totally ignored that he quit over 6 months ago, with no successor appointed until Chicago's David Brown was named, and, as is usual, no hue and cry from any Committee member about the fact that the Committee had not met since last year's GA, if then. Maybe this is the model for those who wish to abolish all JFNA Committees in the interest of expediency; no doubt Brown will assure a voice for lay leadership out of this continuing mess.

Bottom line, this listing of personnel demonstrates nothing more than the total absence of professional management and accountability at JFNA. A lot of questions come to mind...how about: who the hell is minding the store? Give that person a contract extension.

Sure.

Rwexler

A HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR

Friends,

I want to take this moment, on the cusp of our High Holidays, our yomim noraim, to wish each of you, my dear readers, and your families, a shana tovah u'metukah. May the New Year be a far, far better one, every day, than the year just past.

Richard

THE 990

Online and off-line, anonymous commentators have convinced me that the 2014 IRS Form 990 is not yet due and that the 2013 990, accessible on the JFNA website is all that is required as of this time. A 1,000 apologies for stating otherwise. 

So, while I strongly urge you to go to the "About Us" link on the JFNA website and read the 2013 990 in its entirety, as it is one of the most hysterical documents yet produced at 25 Broadway, I will offer you the following summary of the Lowlights in this Post -- 990 For and By Dummies:

• Did you know that JFNA had income in "Contributions and Grants" of $33.6 million?
• Did you know that JFNA had total Revenue of $49 million?
• Did you know that of that gross (and I do mean "gross") amount, JFNA managed a deficit of $172,500?
• Did you know that JFNA expended $20.8 million on "Fundraising Expertise, consulting and support for Jewish Federations and smaller Network communities" -- meaning that JFNA has developed its own definition of "fundraising" not yet shared with anyone?
• Did you know that JFNA spent $5 million on the "Power of the Collective"? (Yes, I agree with you if you think that JFNA engaged in some powerful fiction in the 990 document.)
• Did you know that JFNA spent $2.7 million on something called "Talent" with the Mandel Center for Leadership Excellence"?
• Did you know that JFNA spent $9.3 million on "Other"?
• Did you know that CEO Jerry Lucky-Me made $677,000 in FY 2013-2014? Of course you did.
• Did you know that "Director General" Becky Caspi made $293,000 in FY 2013-2014, or more than the compensation paid either Natan Sharansky or Alan Hoffmann? (As Babe Ruth responded when asked whether he should make more than the President of the United States: "Of course. I had a better year.") The services she "led": "meet critical needs in Israel and around the world. Along with Missions to Israel which are organized throughout the year.")
• Did you know that Paul Kane "earned" $406,000 in that same Fiscal Year as Senior Advisor -- and what valued advice it must have been.
• Did you know that CEO Jerry's first name is apparently spelled "Gerrald" -- well you should.
• Did you know that the mystery person, Deborah Smith, of Naples, Florida, was paid $347,085 -- as something titled "Management and Training Consultant"? Of course you did. 

Look, this 990 deserves a full reading -- like any work of fiction.

Rwexler

THE SORRY STATE OF THE SORRY GLOBAL PLANNING TABLE

It's time to revisit the farce that is and has been the Global Planning Table.

This was all so predictable -- from the beginning. And we predicted it on these very pages.The reality that the Global Planning Table was shoved down the throats of a super-majority of federations by the minority of the weak in the sway of Kathy Manning can no longer be denied. Those who played this sad game have the waste associated with this thing on their tab, and we have only ourselves to blame.

An abbreviated history is in order. The bare outline of what was to become the co-option of JFNA by the GPT was discussed in the final moments of a JFNA Retreat four+ years ago. From there, Manning and her acolytes claimed a "mandate" to move forward with what was to become a parallel governance to that for JFNA, controlled by the largest federations, and taking over, among other things: the "split" among JAFI, the Joint and World ORT; advocacy for core allocations; and defining a set of "Signature Initiatives." The fund raising and funding for the GPT and its "Initiatives" were left to the ineptitude of JFNA. There has been almost total failure in every aspect of this...thing.

Over the past four years: the creation of a "governance" structure so complex as to make Rube Goldberg proud; Manning had herself named Chair of the decision-making body of the GPT; unaccounted-for millions out of your Dues have been thrown at staff, consultants, studies, papers, you name it (in addition to overhead dedicated by JAFI/JDC/ORT to responding to never-ending demands by GPT for more, more, more); a significant professional hired by JFNA to run the GPT left after about 6 months for reasons never explained, the professional operation then turned over to the JFNA flacks and to Israel-Overseas in Jerusalem. The stench of failure can be smelled from here.

In its wisdom, the tiny cabal of GPT leaders with the curious acquiescence of JFNA's leaders and the total support of CEO Jerry ("if the Global Planning Table fails, then JFNA will be destroyed") determined that its two Initiatives could and would not proceed without a federation pre-commitment of $15,000,000 ($1,500,000 in the aggregate from each of 10 federations spread over three years) per Initiative. Some digging and my intuition tell me that JFNA is so far from those fund-raising goals for each and both Initiative that they cannot even be seen from here. 

The implications of this failure can be seen everywhere.

1.  The "Signature Initiative" branded J-Quest (a brand announced with such fanfare by the GPT cheerleader-in-chief, David Butler, one might have thought the brand itself was the goal) was actually cobbled together by a small group of LCE, JAFI and the Joint; its creation wasn't dependent upon the existence of the GPT whatsoever. J-Quest was seized upon as the easy and ready answer to what role JFNA and the federations would play in the Government of Israel/World Jewry Initiative (G-d -- all these "Initiatives") -- itself in chaos. The Federations and other Diaspora organs committed to the Prime Minister that they would raise twice the amount dedicated by the GOI to this effort. Clearly, as detailed above, JFNA/GPT can't even raise $15,000,000 in "seed money" for J-Quest let alone the multiple tens of millions more that the World Jewry Initiative would require. 
2. As a super-majority of federations have been excluded from the GPT decision-making "processes," they have no vested interest in the outcomes of these "Initiatives" considered so vital to JFNA's very existence. Thus, the engagement of all federations in their Continental organization is further distanced -- and JFNA "leadership" can't even understand this.
3. JFNA isn't threatened by the failure of the Global Planning Table, as has been the case from the onset of this invidious cancer, JFNA is threatened by the existence of the Global Planning Table.

When Michael Siegal and Dede Feinberg took on their Chairs at JFNA, at many meetings they were heard to ask the absolutely right questions about the continued existence of the Global Planning Table. Though they received no answers, eventually they capitulated to the interests of those so vested in that thing and stopped even asking questions.

And, here we are, left with the detritus of predictable failure. 

Addendum: while this expensive grievous failure continues to repeat itself, and compound with the hiring of a recently retired Federation CEO to "fund raise" for the Signature Initiatives" (while Jerry Silverman does...what exactly, send letters?), on the ground in the Ukraine where a focused JFNA might find itself, but cannot, here's what was reported by the NCESJ on 9/23:

"Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine persists, with concerns growing as winter season approaches. According to Ukrainian state statistics, the number of refugees from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions has now reached 248,000. Also, more Ukrainian Jews are immigrating to Israel. According to the Jewish Agency for Israel, 4,200 Ukrainian Jews have made aliyah this year. Emigration to Israel has increased dramatically compared to 2013: from Odessa, by 371%; from Kharkiv, by 341%; from Dnipropetrovsk, by 263%; and from Simferopol, by 178%."

"Humanitarian crisis"? Not our business..not when there is an Israel Children's Zone to create, no way.

Rwexler

WHY TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE?

In a September 18 Leadership Briefing, JFNA CEO Silverman issued a call for help:

"Though there is no shortage of pain and suffering throughout the world, there is one tragic situation we can do something about. Right now, thousands are losing their lives and livelihoods in a region that once boasted a thriving Jewish population. Ongoing fighting between Ukrainians and pro-Russian rebels has imperiled tens of thousands of Jews in Ukraine – particularly the elderly and infirm – who need urgent aid now more than ever. The Jewish Federations of North America is in a position to help"

Yes, after ignoring the tragic situation confronting Ukrainian Jewry for weeks, the  poor folks at JFNA recite "[W]e are engaged in a campaign to raise $2 million to support our partners providing services to people in need." We are? Really? A "campaign." Really? And just what is that "campaign?" And where did the "goal" of $2 million come from? Is that on top of the earlier, abandoned "goal"? 

I call this pip-squeak fund raising -- it bears no resemblance to any campaign. It is the real embodiment of all that is wrong at JFNA. The core problem -- these guys don't even know what's wrong with themselves. 

We have written it before -- this circus needs a competent ringmaster; it is out of control. It is tragic comedy. It is shameful.

Rwexler

INTO THE VOID

Let's start here...with an article from the L.A. Jewish Journal:

"Where is Federation’s Gaza war relief money going?

Jared Sichel  http://www.jewishjournal.com/nation/article/where_is_federations_gaza_war_relief_money_going

In each of Israel’s wars in recent years, as the country’s soldiers have been on the front lines and its civilians in the south have resided in bomb shelters, the Jewish social service establishment has consistently called upon Jews in the Diaspora to donate money to help. 

And the donations reliably flow in, usually totaling in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. During this summer’s seven-week war between Hamas and Israel, for example, the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) raised $49 million — nearly $1 million for each day of the war — for its “Stop the Sirens” relief fund.

Here in Southern California, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles raised about $3.6 million during the summer’s war, of which $1.7 million was sent to JFNA’s fund. The balance, approximately $1.9 million, is yet to be distributed, said President and CEO Jay Sanderson. The funds remaining from JFNA’s $49 million come to about $30.7 million, according to a spokesperson.

Where exactly did all the money go? And what about funds that were raised but not yet spent? 

To the extent that these questions can be answered clearly, they are largely determined less than a mile west of the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City, inside the fortress-like walls of the Jewish Agency headquarters on King George Street, home to the offices of some of the world’s most influential and wide-reaching Jewish social service agencies.

In the midst of the recent conflict between Hamas and Israel, staff in that building were tasked with allocating the donations from Diaspora Jews to assist the injured people and damaged communities near Gaza.

And their work continues, even though the fighting has subsided. 

JFNA raised $42 million in the United States between July 8 and Aug. 26 for an emergency relief fund for residents of southern Israel. Another $7 million was raised in Canada.

Sanderson said that the $3.6 million raised in Los Angeles was “significantly more money than we expected” for this war’s relief fund. He said two donors donated about half the money, with $1 million coming from real-estate developer and former Federation president Bram Goldsmith, and $800,000 given by an anonymous donor.

Speaking with the Journal from New York on Aug. 26, the day a monthlong cease-fire was announced, JFNA CEO Jerry Silverman said its $49 million fund already had distributed about $18 million to the organization’s partner agencies in Israel, which “have the platform and infrastructure to move on a dime” to provide relief to the  hundreds of thousands of Israelis who live near Gaza.

Because JFNA does not make any direct contributions to recipients, its 16-member allocation committee, of which Sanderson is a member, based its spending decisions on what a select number of social service organizations in Israel said was most needed during any given day or week. That committee was assembled once the war began in July.

A report compiled by JFNA indicates that during the seven-week conflict, the group spent $5.4 million on respite activities for children (such as day trips); $5 million on therapy and trauma support; $3.4 million for “resilience” support; $3 million to deliver food, medicine and other necessities to elderly people who cannot safely leave their homes; $767,000 in loans and direct consumer spending for small businesses near Gaza; and $617,000 in therapy and “resiliency workshops” for hospital workers and Lone Soldiers. 

Working primarily in conjunction with the Jewish Agency, the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC), and the Conservative and Reform religious movements in Israel, the more than $18 million spent by JFNA financed numerous programs that seem to have touched tens of thousands of Israelis, if not more.

JFNA was unable to specify how much money it sent to each of the handful of social service agencies that coordinated on-the-ground relief efforts in Israel. As of press time, the Journal was able to receive detailed figures from four of the five organizations that coordinated the vast majority of JFNA’s relief efforts.

Michael Geller, a spokesman for the JDC, wrote to the Journal that the group received $4 million from JFNA during the summer war, using the money for 11 different types of activities and support, including respite activities ($1.9 million), trauma support ($608,000), equipment and games for shelters ($241,000) and therapeutic plush dolls for traumatized children ($149,000).

The ITC, which counsels and trains individuals and cities in trauma support and recovery, reported that it spent about 5,000 hours during the war assisting in therapy and anxiety support. In addition to consulting with regional councils near Gaza on emergency management, ITC’s “emotional first-aid emergency hotlines” received 30,000 calls during the two-month war. The group did not specify as of press time how much money ITC received from JFNA.

The Masorti (Conservative) movement in Israel reported to the Journal that it received $517,600 from JFNA’s relief fund. Masorti spent $200,000 on relocating its Ramah-NOAM summer camp, which was within range of Hamas rockets, to a location near the Sea of Galilee in the north, another $104,500 on respite activities, $113,100 on counseling for remote communities and relatives of soldiers, and it plans to spend $100,000 on High Holy Days programming for underserved Jewish communities near Gaza.

David Bernstein, director of development for the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, reported that his group received about $477,000 from JFNA as part of Stop the Sirens. Bernstein wrote in an email that beneficiaries of the funds included children from kibbutzim in the south and Bedouins from Rahat and other villages, who participated in respite activities. The Reform movement, according to Bernstein, also provided pastoral assistance for soldiers and traumatized civilians, and provided food and games for people in bomb shelters.

As of press time Sept. 9, the Journal had not received information from the Jewish Agency on how much it received from JFNA during the war.

Over the coming weeks and months, both JFNA and the local Federation will need to decide how to spend millions of unspent dollars from this summer’s campaign. At JFNA, about $24 million (plus the additional $7 million from Canada) remain in the emergency fund. Silverman said that because “the donor’s intent is to support Israel’s needs today,” JFNA intends to distribute these remaining funds as soon as possible. 

“The $24 million will be allocated appropriately and thoughtfully over the next month or six weeks, assuming something is worked out” with regard to a long-term cease-fire, Silverman said.

Aaron Goldberg, director of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation’s office in Israel, said during an Aug. 13 interview in Jerusalem that preparations for such emergency efforts began long before “the gun is being fired.” During times of calm, JFNA utilizes its seat on Israel’s National Emergency Authority (similar to FEMA in the United States) to help plan how it would allocate money raised for emergency war relief. 

“When a conflict begins, you don’t know how long it’s going to last,” Goldberg said. “People seemed to believe in the beginning it would probably be a week, which is what previous conflicts looked like.”

One of Goldberg’s roles as the L.A. Federation’s Israel liaison is to advise Sanderson on where Sanderson, as a voice on JFNA’s allocation committee, should recommend sending relief money. In his Jerusalem office, Goldberg repeatedly stressed one such need — Israelis’ psychological relief from the constant siren warnings in southern communities. 

“Day in and day out, for a period of three weeks, every 15 minutes, every 10 minutes with sirens — it screws people up,” Goldberg said. “This is a time when kids are supposed to be in the parks playing; they are supposed to be in day camps.”

In Los Angeles, Federation still has $1.9 million available to spend in Israel from the campaign. Sanderson said this surplus will not be filtered through JFNA’s fund, but  instead will be distributed according to needs identified by Federation staff in Los Angeles and Israel.

“[That’s] why we have an Israel office in the first place,” Sanderson said."

_________________________________________________________________

What Jay Sanderson neglects is "that (the allocation of emergency funds raised in an expression of our collective responsibilities) is why we have a continental organization." Only, of course, we do not have one that can be entrusted with the distribution of those funds, do we? And, no one is asking the seminal question: "WHY IS THAT?" Yet, this is not a criticism of those federations which have determined that they can individually better determine how the funds they have raised be spent 7,000 or 10,000 miles away; this is an attempt to explain this new reality and how and why we are here. 

Certainly our funds would have a far more dramatic impact were they collected and distributed collectively rather than be individually doled out by Los Angeles, Chicago or any other federation, whether or not that community has the resources to have an Israel representative on the communal payroll.

First, as we all know, it is a pathetic joke to state, as the Journal article author did, that "JFNA raised $49,000,000" for its Israel Emergency Fund; the reality is quite another thing. JFNA raised...NOTHING. JFNA is in the collection and distribution business and the results as they say speak for themselves -- a lower percentage of campaign dollars sent through our Continental enterprise than ever in our history. And, what factors have led us to this sorry state? Well, consider:

• A distrust in JFNA borne of waste, redundancy, overstatement (there is no "$49 million fund" even as CEO Jerry recites the number as if it were real) and the reality that JFNA has not engaged in any fund raising (although it did distribute a kind of "case for giving" and some excellent "Q and A");
• The real numbers of the JFNA "effort" are sobering, and found in Chair Siegal's plaintive plea for cash on Monday: only $4 million of unrestricted cash remained available for allocation on top of the woeful $18.9 million already received -- we all appreciate Siegal's candor and my suggestion to CEO I-Can't-Count remains: "stick a sock in it":
• The growth of the "federation representative" movement since San Francisco created its Israel amutah in the early 90's;
• The constant drumbeat of anti-Jewish Agency "advocacy" by a growing group of federation CEOs based on the assumption that the JAFI bureaucracy of twenty years ago (not today) and fed, if "feeding" were necessary, by many of those "federation representatives" for reasons self-evident. Couple those destructive efforts with the anti-JAFI rhetoric and actions of Michael Siegal's predecessor, which Siegal has attempted to overcome, and you have  a recipe for the very negative response to JAFI's efforts even during a time of war in Israel and its aftermath;
• In the creation of the Israel Emergency Fund "targets" of, first, $10,000,000 and, then, $30,000,000, JFNA completely undersold the depth of American Jewish concern for the impact of the Terrorists' War on Israel on our Israeli mishpacha, leaving federations fro Los Angeles to Birmingham and so many others in the unique circumstance of raising far, far in excess of the "fair share" asked of the federations. These "outcomes" left those federations with a "surplus" to distribute, by their conclusions, reached separately, to distribute as they determined, but not to or through the collective;
• The significant delay in the timeline between funds sent to JFNA and their distribution, The fact that JFNA had received, at the date of the Journal article, only $18,900,000 of $49,000,000 raised by the federations (with another $4 million "left to allocate") is telling commentary on the reality of our collective responsibilities in 2014 as expressed through JFNA.
• An historic breakdown in the understanding of the exercise of our collective responsibilities and the impacts that collective response can have.

The historic high percentage of federation self-directed allocations is the culmination of the breakdown of self-imposed (because no continental institution could impose it) communal discipline accelerated by the breakdown of trust in JFNA as an entity deserving of trust. After all, who knows better how to distribute our donors' funds in an emergency than the federations themselves, in the opinion of those who raised the money?

We have seen our so-called "system" go from "donor choice" reflected in the designated gifts of more and more donors whose trust in the decisions of the central communal body has broken down, to "federation choice" reflected in the individual communal-designated allocations as the trust in the continental body -- JFNA -- has self-destructed. It is so dire that I would wager that no one at JFNA, including CEO We-Raised-$49-Million, knows how much federations raised -- the only  number we know for certain is the amount JFNA raised...$0.

During the last Israel Emergency Campaign, one Large City decided to distribute $150,000 away from the collective effort in $5,000 "allocations" to 30 different Israeli NGOs rather than send those dollars to the then UJC. When I asked the then Israeli representative of that Large City "why, what could the impact possibly be on any of those organizations?" he just shrugged his shoulders.

It appears that we now have a continental enterprise only to preserve the Lions of Judah and Young Leadership Cabinets and some nice professional education efforts -- for $30.5 million per year. JFNA is so diminished, it has made itself unnecessary...and it has done it to itself while we just watch and ignore what we are witnessing.

Rwexler

EVERY DAY IN EVERY WAY

Troubling:

• One used to be able to access JFNA's current IRS Form 990 by link from its web page (well, it wasn't quite that easy, but there was a link, that would take you to another website, where you had to register...but, eventually, you would get there). If you go to the JFNA website right now, I challenge you to find the 990 link -- it, like Sam Astrof, has disappeared.
• Then, there is this: if you go searching for the current 990 -- that is the 2013 990 which has been filed, if JFNA is following the legal requirements -- and go to Guidestar.org, you will find the most recent filing that for 2012. I'd ask JFNA what it is trying to hide, but...why bother. (BTW, the 2012 990 went of record on July 17, 2013 -- check today's date.)
• Then there is the 2014 GA. Renee Rothstein, JFNA's well-regarded flack-in-chief, has taken the reins, apparently dismissed the lay Co-Chairs, and has been sending out periodic updates that, if you read them, won't encourage you to attend the November GA in some place called National Harbor, Maryland ("you can see Washington, D.C. from there"). The Speakers List, so promising when first announced has added one speaker...that's ONE speaker...in two months ("renowned TED speaker") -- for a fun exercise, go to the GA website and link to "Speakers;" then go to "See Full List" and watch the same speakers appear with those disappearing Co-Chairs, but listed in alphabetical order.
• And, worse, these from the GA Website: Plenary Two: "Modern day Aristotle's share their observations of living Jewishly and explore how we organize as a society." So, forgetting the ridiculous use of the possessive in the reference to Aristotle, that's it, nothing more.  That evening there is something called the "Israeli Jewish Congress" but the subtext discloses that this should have been the European Jewish Congress. Oh my. Maybe the "planners" don't believe anyone reads this stuff...maybe they are correct.
• As if these are the worst of what the GA scriveners have to offer, there is this beauty, planned for Sunday night: "ON Sunday evening Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is ours to explore! Visit Dorothy's ruby slippers..." Only this iteration of our continental organization could further reduce itself to a joke.
• Then there are the JFNA Solidarity Missions -- I think the fifteenth or 20th just went or returned. I have never been on a national Mission (and I have been on, last count, 23 of them) that had no fund raising component; yet, the leaders of JFNA have now run whatever the number of Solidarity Missions is without any fund raising. How does that happen? How is that allowed to happen? I understand these Missions were short but, communal Missions of the same length, have raised significant dollars in light of the emergency. It should be noted that JFNA CEO Silverman has been on most if not all of these Missions -- guess he either didn't notice, was distracted while writing his summary of the success of the Missions or didn't understand that missions=fund raising...or did, once upon a time.

We at least had hoped that the national organization could rise to a crisis. A "target" for an Israel Emergency Fund was first $10 million, then $30 million. Last month the federations had raised $41 million but transmitted to JFNA only about 50% of that figure. What did JFNA contribute to the raising of this funds?? (That's just another rhetorical question, of course.) Folks are beginning to ask the inevitable -- "do we need a JFNA that costs us $30.5 million a year when we are getting about $5 million in value, if that?"

Well, do we?

Rwexler

SERIOUSLY, WHAT'S WRONG WITH US?

Look, I can rant (as I have) about the pathetic wanderings of JFNA's CEO and the passivity of top JFNA lay leadership that just lets it happen but seriously, friends, bottom line the real failure is ours. We ask for no return on investment, we don't demand transparency or engagement -- in fact, we demand nothing. And, we get exactly that and less. And, there's the rub. We have an organization that supposedly represents our interests, our concerns and those of the Jewish People that is as inept as our U.S. Congress.

This was all brought to mind by the Agenda of this week's JFNA Executive Committee -- which neither you nor, especially, I are supposed to even know about if at all, only in redacted fashion. The items included:

1. Dues matters -- which federations have not paid and what's happening to them. (BTW, if a federation does not pay JFNA Dues, absent a hardship variation, membership automatically is terminated without further action.) So, the question: which federations have not paid their dues in full and how many are there? Answer: "none of your or anyone else's business."
2. Something called "Israel, Ukraine and France" where among other things, the JFNA Executive apparently discussed "fund raising." (I suppose that means Federations FRD inasmuch as JFNA is doing none of its own.) But, really, until this moment, since the Terrorists' War on Israel began, the growing plight of Ukrainian Jewry has been forgotten and "France" -- mah zeh? Wish we were doing something -- probably a "Solidarity Mission" in the offing.
3. Those Global Planning Table "Signature Initiatives" -- yes, how are those going? With the on-going confusion of the GOI role vs. JAFI's, JFNA would be the last party to try to figure out how the primary Initiative -- "Immersive Experiences" through something branded JQuest -- will fare. It was reported to JAFI that the $15 million being sought in federation commitments required by the GPT's own "rules" is "on hold."  (That means that we have not raised the money. Have you read anything from Chair Butler lately? Just asking.) The Director General of the Ministry of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs is spewing his own form of chaos and confusion, a JFNA specialty as it were, by attempting to end run JAFI, designated by Prime Minister Netanyahu to lead what was to be a GOI/World Jewry effort, reaching out directly to leaders in the Diaspora to "join him." Would it not be timely and appropriate for JFNA to assert that it and the federations which own it will work through the Jewish Agency on this Initiative -- as it has been doing up to this point in time? Sure -- but I wouldn't count on it. This is JFNA after all, already awash in the red ink of every fund raising "effort" (if only there were some); perhaps seeing a direct GOI/JFNA role as (1) easing the pain of failure and (b) enhancing its own institutional status in Israel.
4. And in the midst of one failed lower case "initiative" after another, there is to be "discussion" about JFNA creating a "Jewish Education/Engagement Unit." Forgive me, but do you think that anyone...ANY ONE...within JFNA or on that Executive Committee uttered the words: "Are you kidding me, we are starting a new unit before we do one thing on our plate well?" Or words to that effect?
5. AND, HERE'S THE TOPPER. YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS. JFNA has what passes for a By-Laws Committee. It is made up of two Foundation CEOs, the ubiquitous Steve Hoffman (the fact that Steve's name appeared on the Memo so filled with this nonsense suggests that it might have been a forgery [but it wasn't]) and...Kathy Manning. It proposed to the JFNA Executive Committee that all JFNA "Business Committees" and more be considered for abolition.The rationale: it will allow JFNA professionals more time for...well, what exactly and, don't worry, they'll find a more streamlined and better means of lay participation (currently none)? They clearly would no longer be bothered with lay Chairs or, for that matter, laypersons in general. The intent is just so cleverly couched in bureaucratized jargon: "rationally streamlined," "support the organizational execution of...mission" and the like. I guess that these chachams believe that lay people just get in the way...and, of course, they do. In the clown car there is no need for the kind of engagement that Committee service means; there is no recognition or use for the checks and balances inherent in the work of Committees; and there is no understanding that Committee work is the nuts and bolts of a successful non-profit. Now, in any rational organization, like your federation, if this idea arose (and in a rational organization it would never, ever arise let alone be considered worthy of discussion), your CEO would simply say "are you f'in nuts?" and so would your Board Chair and an idea this bizarre and brazen would never see the light of day...but not at JFNA where the CEO apparently can't tell a bad idea from a good one and, quite obviously, the Board Chair has been supplanted by his predecessor.**

Do either the Board or Executive Chair have an opinion on any of this? We'll never know, will we?

For the love of G-d, can someone rescue this organization from itself?

Rwexler

* Other than, presumably, the Nominating, Budget and Finance and Audit Committees and certainly the Global Planning Table ..but, who knows?


** To be fair there are some decent ideas in this Committee's recommendation, including the potential discard of the Chair of the Executive and the Executive Committee.

BALAGAN

                        

balagan - definition of balagan by The Free Dictionary

www.thefreedictionary.com/balagan

Noun, 1. balagan - a word for chaos or fiasco borrowed from modern Hebrew 

When the Government of Israel Ministry of the Interior announced earlier this year that the Jewish Agency's historic role in aliyah was being severely reduced just as aliyah -- from France, from the Ukraine, from Germany -- was exponentially increasing, JAFI leaders were quick to issue denials. It was easy to convince JFNA CEO See-No-Evil-Hear-No-Evil that all was well -- and so he trumpeted to the press, brainwashed as he was. Now, the so-called Director General of the Ministry of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs (who rarely even talks to anyone relevant in the Diaspora), Dvir Kahana, has proposed to preempt and co-opt the JAFI/GOI Jewish People Initiative, thereby throwing that Initiative into the total chaos we have come to expect. And, no surprise, even though the Government will/may provide substantial funding, the Jewish Agency and JFNA pretend that nothing at all is amiss. Those blinders sure come in handy.

Once again, the Chair of the Jewish Agency Executive decided to strike back in the media, essentially challenging Kahana's public attempts to override the Prime Minister's alleged "decision" to vest the operation of the Initiative in JAFI just as he had determined that JAFI should frame the Initiative from braishit, http://www.timesofisrael.com/will-urgent-campus-pro-israel-project-fail-through-infighting/, which it did.

Here's the sad result of this mess: Diaspora Jewry (viz, in North America, the Federations) are expected to raise twice the Government's funding commitment, or over $100 million to fund this Initiative (forget for the moment whether that is even feasible and remember if you will it, it is no dream) -- 1/3rd GOI, 1/3 funders and 1/3 program providers [e.g., Birthright]) -- but our fund raising cannot take place in a chaotic environment...and this is now a most chaotic environment. We have JAFI posturing, the Director General of an obscure Government Ministry, interfering and you have JFNA and the federations...wondering. To even imagine the GOI "operating" a critical program such as this, is to say: OMG. Natan Sharansky's characterization of Dvir Kahana's very personal and directed interference in JAFI's role as "petty games" isn't sufficient to define this kind of "pettiness."

But all of this became a battle taking place on the pages of e-jewishphilanthropy and the Jerusalem Post, among other publications of note. The ultimate article (so far) was an explanation of the consequences of a public battle on philanthropic choice grounded in an interview with Jay Ruderman, JFNA's favorite philanthropist in the Post http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Jewish-Agency-Diaspora-Ministry-spat-may-turn-off-philanthropists-372171  in which he explained the reality that this kind of public "pissing match" between the Minister of Diaspora Affairs and his Director and the Jewish Agency will mean that philanthropists will just walk away. And, though one might ask why would Ruderman use the media to deliver his message about using the media (and whether he would clear the interview with JFNA before doing so), he did it. And the balagan continues.

Bottom line, the Government budget for this Initiative has been "set" (whatever that means in Israel) at $50 million (that's dollars) through 2017 to be matched by an additional $100 million from the Diaspora over the same timeframe. I don't wish to appear cynical, just realistic, when I write that based on all of the accumulated evidence amassed over JFNA's sad history there is not a chance in hell that JFNA can raise its share of that number (hence the demand by some Large City Executives that the Jewish Agency and Joint have "skin in this game" [meaning pay most of the tab] while so many these LCE have overseen the draconian reduction in core allocations the past 14 years -- JFNA's idea of fund raising). 

Friends, while the Government of Israel may have legitimate concerns with whether the Jewish Agency has the capacity to implement the Initiative with the GOI and JFNA, there is no question that the Government itself is incapable of doing so. Nor should it. The manner in which Dvir Kahana is operating out of the glare of the media suggests the possibility that he has some deal in place with JAFI  on exactly the terms announced by Kahana and denied by Sharansky. Is that even possible...even in Israel?

It is time for the Prime Minister to step in and direct Mr. Kahana (and whomever is pulling his strings) to step out. To get to this place, might it be nice if the JFNA Board Chair, who has speaking privileges from a long-term relationship with the Prime Minister, were to call Bibi and seek his intervention. And, maybe, other lay leaders, here and in Israel, need to step up and in as well, in a planful, coordinated manner. Otherwise this thing is dead before it begins.

Rwexler

WE STAND FOR NOTHING

This week the NCESJ, our national organization, which has issued 47 Briefings on the evermore catastrophic circumstances in the Ukraine, published its Ukraine Update 47. In pertinent part, it read:

"Jewish refugees continue to arrive in Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkassy, Zhytomyr and elsewhere, fleeing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community reported that while they are doing all they can to accommodate the refugees, hundreds more arrive every day, all in need of food, housing, and medical help. Refugees come from every social class and profession: engineers, lawyers, economists, factory workers, pregnant women, families with children, etc.

All community buildings, including a home for the Jewish elderly and boarding schools, have been turned into refugee centers, where refugees receive meals, accommodation, and psychological help. Forty children who fled the areas of unrest are now attending the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish school.

Due to the prolonged crisis, the resources of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community and the city in general are stretching thin. We have received reports that city's hospitals are overcrowded and unable to manage the influx of the sick and wounded.

The situation for those who stay in the areas of unrest is even more disturbing. Luhansk Jewish community said that the city is cut off from electricity and water supply. Pharmacies and banks are closed; purchasing food is becoming increasing difficult. Those who could leave the city have already done so, but the elderly and sick remain.

The situation in Donetsk is similarly alarming. The city is heavily damaged by shelling. Jewish community representatives reported that the local synagogue is still open, however the remaining Jewish community is shrinking every day, as more people are leaving to find a safer place.

NCSEJ also spoke with the Jewish community of Kharkiv, which is also dealing with an influx of refugees. Kharkiv residents are collecting clothes, food, and medical aid for the refugees, and the local government has organized refugee support programs. Close to 2,500 children from refugee families started their school year in Kharkiv's schools. The Jewish community is concentrating its activities on helping the displaced persons, which requires a significant amount of community funding."

Friends, these are entire communities living under threat. Our...that's OUR...JDC and Jewish Agency are doing their holy work but they are overwhelmed. And, after urging...not committing, urging...our communities to a minor fund raising effort. the Terrorists War on Israel rained down and, apparently, as far as JFNA was/is concerned, its responsibilities, if any, to the Ukrainian Jews were over. This week, as if stirred to action after its own inexplicable inactivity, JFNA has engaged in what passes for its version of FRD -- it meekly called some Large and Large-Intermediate Federation CEOs and begged for a hand-out for the Ukraine. Meanwhile, Yechiel Eckstein's International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has been fully engaged on the ground and in bringing Ukrainian Jews to Israel during this crisis -- doing our work.

It appears to this observer that JFNA's lay and professional leaders just don't comprehend that JDC and JAFI are working 24/7 on our behalf. They are performing our sacred responsibilities. And, when JFNA turns its back on the Jewish communities of the Ukraine, it is all of us turning our backs on them. 

This, my friends, is JFNA at its worst, at its nadir of neglect. Not even I can see it getting any lower. You know, JFNA has not even distributed the NCESJ Updates. Ukrainian Jewry...not our problem. Jews will die and the world will not care, but, until now, we always have; but, sadly, not any more.

Rwexler

WHAT IF?

It is easy to speculate the outcomes that on-going cataclysmic events might have on the Jewish People. Amb. Yoram Ettinger has recently done so in a dramatic fashion:

"The window of opportunity for the arrival of 500,000 Olim, during the next five years, is wide open – temporarily - in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, France, England, Belgium, Holland, Hungary, Argentina and other countries. It is wide open due to the intensification of anti-Semitism; non-democratic trends and instability in Russia and Ukraine; the expansion of aggressive (and soon terrorist) Islam in Europe; Israel's relative economic edge; and the impressive Jewish/Zionist education infrastructure in the aforementioned countries, which have cultivated pro-Aliyah sentiments. Additional tailwind to Aliyah from Russia and Ukraine would be provided by a formal conversion of the 300,000 Olim from the USSR, whose children serve in Israel's Defense Forces, who are targeted by Palestinian terrorism, contribute immensely to Israel's well-being, consider themselves Jews and are recognized as Jews by Israel's Law of Return, but not by Israel's Rabbinate.  The temporary nature of this window of opportunity requires immediate action, lest it would be forfeited.

In order to raise the substantial required funds– which grow scarce due to the cost of the war in Gaza – Israel's Prime Minister should convene an emergency session of leading Jewish businessmen from the USA, Canada and Australia (which are also a source of substantial Aliyah), Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Panama, Brazil and Argentina, reclaiming Aliyah as a permanent, top moral and strategic priority of the Jewish people and the Jewish State, irrespective of circumstances.  The Prime Minister should present a pro-active Aliyah policy, which responds to the growing predicament of Jewish communities, while inducing a game-changing enhancement of Israel's infrastructures of economy, transportation, telecommunications, education, medicine, science, technology and national security, catapulting Israel's posture of deterrence to unprecedented heights. Moreover, Israel Development Corporation is able to significantly expand the sale of the highly competitive Israel Bonds to local and state governments, unions, financial institutions and individuals, raising billions of dollars for an historical, job-creating, research and development-enhancing, export-increasing and national security-upgrading initiative." (emphasis added) 

www.TheEttingerReport.com<http://send.hadavars.com/lt.php?c=30152&m=28477&nl=2096&s=cb68f5f39d5a442787ec522f56f53b2c&lid=269756&l=-http--www.theettingerreport.com>

Ambassador Ettinger knows the global leadership of the Jewish People -- perhaps that is why he suggests that the Prime Minister be the convener of potential funders in the name of the State of Israel...perhaps. But, aside from the possibility of success of an effort led by the Prime Minister, think of the implications of such a direct outreach on our Continental institution and the federations themselves.

If such a concept were implemented, aside from causing a bunch of federation leaders to cry in pain, the very irrelevance of our Continental system would be more totally exposed than do the raw data which evidence, in the draconian decline of core allocations to our now "partners-in-name only," and would be the ultimate chickens coming home to roost. I can imagine the teeth-gnashing and, no doubt, "strong letters" to the Prime Minister asserting that the PM is somehow to blame for the destruction of our system -- for surely this couldn't possibly be our fault...never.

And, if you read Ettinger's piece you will also note that he omits the Jewish Agency altogether -- by his silence he is almost dismissive...totally. Is this the outcome of the decision, now months old, that makes JAFI just another vendor when it comes to aliyah, or is it by JAFI's own doing? Or is it something else?

Our own JFNA FRD abilities have been tested once again by the recent Terrorists' War and, the relative success of our effort, measured by a de minimis "goal" and an even more limited achievement, an inability to articulate the continuing trauma suffered by the Israeli People, an abandonment of the Jews of the Ukraine and a nonchalance approaching negligence about raising any funds themselves -- we have failed once again.

But we're used to that.

Rwexler