JAFI DOWN THE DRAIN -- PART 2

And, now, Misha Galperin, whose leadership of the Jewish Agency International Development has exceeded even the expectations of the most cynical among us, has given notice that he will not renew his contract with the Jewish Agency when it expires in a few months. Another great professional leader...Gone.

In spite of Misha's strong relationships with Natan Sharansky, Jim Tisch, Richie Pearlstone and others...Gone. In spite of Misha leading a fund raising effort doubling FRD from outside of traditional partner sources in four years...Gone. And, by the time this Post is published, the JAFI-led deprecation effort will be in full swing, led by the whispers in the hallways and the chat rooms of...well, see Part 1.

Friends, even as Misha Galperin was finalizing his multi-year employment agreement with the Jewish Agency to lead its total FRD efforts, the "usual suspects" within the Agency were doing everything they could to undermine him. And, over the years of his superb, focused fund raising work for the Agency, these same "leaders," whom one would have thought would be working to do everything to assist Galperin as the head of the Jewish Agency International Development, instead worked as hard to get rid of Misha as they ever did to make the Jewish Agency succeed. Now, they have prevailed, Misha Galperin 's contract with the Jewish Agency will not be renewed when it expires this June. It's idiotic, schadenfreude run wild. Galperin deserved better...the Jewish Agency...?

Let's start at the beginning. Misha, after years of professional leadership in New York-UJA and, then, at the D.C. Federation, and the Jewish Agency, facing continuing drastic reductions in support from the North American Federations/JFNA and the ever-sadder Keren Ha'Yesod, needed to immediately begin a fund-raising effort unlike any it had mounted before. Galperin seemed the ideal person. Having negotiated a new contract, yet unexecuted, with D.C., Natan Sharansky and Richie Pearlstone, JAFI's co-Chairs, agreed that the Agency would equal Misha's pay package under that contract with adjustments to cover his relocation to New York City.  The Agreement carried with it severance payments that favored Misha, among other things. No one at the Jewish Agency, not even Natan, not Alan Hoffmann, were compensated as well even as Galperin's compensation package was far less than JFNA and many federations were paying their CEOs for far less in return.

JAFI, under Galperin's leadership, has raised approximately $40,000,000 annually from non-federation and non-Keren Ha'Yesod sources -- almost all of it raised by Misha personally.  The budget for JAID's work, which included almost the totality of JAFI's new funds fund raising and marketing is about $5,000,000. Misha raised those funds while confronting the following "Four Jerusalem No's":

• No fund raising allowed within the Jewish Federations of North America;
• No fund-raising allowed within the countries of Keren Ha'Yesod; 
• No support from the Office of the Jewish Agency Director General Hoffmann; and
• No allocations advocacy by JFNA for JAFI/JDC/World ORT

Add to this list, the little support that Galperin received from many (most?) of his former LCE colleagues and from the JFNA CEO from the moment he took the JAID CEO position and one can only conclude that...what Misha Galperin accomplished for JAFI while being constantly undermined by and from within JAFI, has been indisputably and undeniably a phenomenon. Misha never lost track of the goals; never flagged in his support of JAFI's plans and programs.

Sure, there were shortfalls, as well -- a curious even failed staffing pattern in North America and related management issues, the failures to gain global financial support for MASA, a reluctance to move fund-raising forward with a sense of urgency within American federations which allocate nothing or close to it (even with a wink and a nod of approval from JFNA), and a failure to build support for the JAID effort within the JA bureaucracy and lay leadership, among others. But JAID was still a work in progress and it/Misha was raising money. No one knew that better than Richie Pearlstone, who remained totally supportive and Alan Hoffmann, who did not (and never was).

Over the years of his leadership of JAID, Misha was unwilling to confront the "powers that be" on many issues -- he put approval of the JAID Budget ahead of  restaffing and allocations advocacy; as a team player he was publicly wholly supportive of a Comprehensive Plan that shifted the Jewish Agency from its core historic purposes even as he knew that that shift to a "Jewish Identity" emphasis would cost JAFI significant support; and others. He had been promised pre-hiring and then had a contractual commitment that he would report only to the JAFI Co-Chairs, the only way he believed would assure a smooth operation free of bureaucratic obstacles. But, while the JA Director General was assured a place in that process, Alan Hoffmann, from even before Galperin's contract began, was doing nothing to assure JAID's success even as that success would have been his as well.

You may ask, if all was going well, why the end of Misha's tenure and, quite probably, the end of JAID? A very good question. Why, you might ask, when after only weeks had passed since Galperin, on the cusp of a potential return to a Large City Federation CEO position, was asked by leaders at JAFI  to "please do not go" I was told that the same leaders advised Misha that his contract would not be renewed? For the definitive answer, ask Chuck and Natan and Alan. For my take: Alan's constant whispering in Chuck's ear, finally prevailed; Natan's unequivocal support for Misha waned over time; Pearlstone, though now the head of JAFI's FRD effort, hadn't enough influence any more; the constant pecking away at JAID by past leaders of Keren Ha'Yesod had worn him down; JFNA's Silverman saw JAFI and JAID as constant irritants and complained constantly to Steve Hoffman, Chuck Ratner's and Alan Hoffmann's Robespierre; and the JAFI leaders were unable to get beyond Misha's compensation; among other reasons.

So, what's next? Misha's fund raising successes are already being deprecated and will be publicly minimized but, ultimately, will not be replaced -- placing the Jewish Agency in an even more precarious financial position. Galperin will be paid the extensive negotiated severance under his contract and any attempts to replace Misha, at a lesser compensation for sure, will result in a hire with (1)lesser competence; (2) no independence; and (3) a need to completely rebuild the JAID staff and structure. There will be no "hitting the ground running," and no continuity in FRD. The short-range losses to JAFI may exceed $15,000,000 and the long-range anyone's guess. Meanwhile there are those within JAFI have already started the rumors that suggest that all of JAFI's woes are the work of the one professional out there raising money -- big money -- for the Jewish Agency these past four years against all odds.

Why would any leader want Misha Galperin to leave.

It's just another balagan. Who would have guessed it?

Rwexler

* Because of my error, an earlier draft of this Post was published weeks ago. This is but the 2nd or 3rd time I have done so while publishing over 1500 Posts. Before I could take that draft down, 6 persons read it -- 5 of them contacted me and readily agreed that they would not circulate it. One person of the 6 -- a senior professional at JFNA (where of course no one reads this Blog) -- read it and quickly circulated it. I came to know that, as is always the case in Jewish life, the Post has been in circulation since my error. I apologize for that error.