FOOLING SOME OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME

Where to begin?

1. JTA recently reported that an Orthodox Rabbi threatened to bolt Naftali Bennett's HaBayit Ha'Yehudi party because the party employs a lesbian as an aide. Where and when do these nefarious acts stop? Bennett who, when in America, has articulated a real grasp of the meaning and impact of pluralism and the civil society could do those causes a great service by simply throwing this Rabbi out of his party -- immediately. Any bets?

2. Let's continue with a now former Federation CEO who, with a private sector background, parachuted into a Federation leadership position and, over what I think was a 15 year run, tried numerous times to parlay what appeared at first glance to be impressive revenue ("campaign") growth into a CEO position with a larger community. But, on a little (very little) further inquiry, it was always evident that this so-called "growth" was really nothing more than counting funds for which the federation was nothing more than a conduit of donors' designated gifts to agencies, synagogues, even secular charities as if those had been raised by federation/for federation. This CEO had the time to attend JFNA meetings, JAFI meetings and to interview for multiple positions.The Forward found him to be "...willing to go further than your traditional federation CEO...he took on the ice bucket challenge. His suit soaking wet, he added the 'hummus not Hamas' challenge, spreading chickpea paste all over his head as a sign of solidarity with Israel’s fight against Hamas." With this "creativity" there was no doubt that his perseverance would ultimately pay off; he is now heading one of the most successful "Friends of..." entities...we wish them all continued success.

3. The counting of funds for which the institution is merely a conduit as "revenue" is also evident at JFNA. Just read the IRS 990 filings and you discover that federation allocations and the proceeds of special campaigns, as examples, for which JFNA is nothing but a pass-through to the intended destinations, are counted as "Revenue." This, of course, makes JFNA's "Expenses" look a whole lot better...a whole lot. This accounting prestidigitation, all the worse as JFNA is an organization which, as we know, itself raises almost no money whatsoever, fools not just GuideStar and others, sadly seems to have convinced some in JFNA leadership that all is just fine. They are comforted by this claptrap. Results, accountability; they don't matter -- look at all the money that flows to us; we're great. Nobody knows; nobody cares.

4. Then there's the woebegone JFNA-Israel. The CEO of JFNA-Israel has reported to the JFNA Israel and Overseas Department that she is working "quietly and intensively" with members of the Knesset on overturning the Prime Minister's support of the Conversion legislation now on "suspension" in the Knesset. Apparently still developing a "plan." It's clear that under the Silverman mal-administration lay leaders are to be kept out at all times; and I think I understand the reason. If lay leaders are directly engaged in anything but, in particular in direct lobbying the Knesset and Prime Minister, they will soon learn that JFNA lacks the professional capacity necessary to achieve the goals that have been set for it...or even those set for themselves, if any. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

It's so often a shell game, so often Three Card Monte. Truth and transparency just aren't there in too may places, and those who should be demanding accountability are often "too busy," too detached, too willing to just accept what they are told if they inquire at all. These are wonderful leaders unwilling to ask the hard questions -- questions they should not even have to ask.

Rwexler

COWARDICE

"Silence becomes cowardice when the occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly."

The continuing silence from JFNA lay leadership in the face of JFNA's lack of any, let alone effective, professional leadership, raises institutional cowardice to levels never before experienced. It is as if the small cabal at the top of the JFNA food chain believe that the institution's Board members are like a Greta Garbo -- the cabal believes that the Board members only desire is "to be left alone." In that these leaders are so wrong -- the Board members want to engage and they want to be led. What they get back is nothing -- or worse than nothing (think of all those table discussions where results are promised; and, then, nothing.)

We all can see in JFNA an institution in such terrible decline that it appears to be in a death spiral from which, under the extant professional leadership, it cannot emerge. And, because we can see, as apparently they cannot, we all know this is the objective truth even as those in leadership are in continuous denial.

These leaders look at the heap of garbage that is JFNA (except in the excellence of its Washington work and its self-adulation) and they see art. I am at a loss, as you are, that a small self-perpetuating group of proven lay and professional leaders at the federation level can continue to deny what's indisputably true -- that JFNA is stuck on some form of hamster wheel of perpetual mediocrity -- but deny is what they do. I know that I don't have to trot out a further dissection of JFNA's desiccated state -- the facts cry out to every reader and, I expect, to every JFNA Board member when they look at themselves in the mirror. And, yet, they do nothing, and they say nothing in fear of leadership's retribution were they to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

And, so, the failures continue as if ineluctable. It is as if the leaders have chosen to compensate the CEO by the misstep. The brilliant journalist, Mark Leibovich, recently described another dysfunctional operation in words that so perfectly describe what is happening within JFNA when he wrote: "...the interests of self-perpetuation drive nearly everything." In this environment there is no striving for the excellent, no assurance that any effort once initiated will be followed up, that any prioritization is ever set -- at all times the next bright shiny object will distract the entire organization from any thing it was pursuing until the latest distraction.

I have begged so many times for a laity that would take a careful look at the organization; a careful look at what we expected JFNA to be when it was formed compared to what it has become today. AND THEN TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. If the current leadership can't or won't they should resign. If their attitude is "let someone else do it;" then they must let someone else do it and get out of the way.

I see an almost ready willingness to abandon the basic principles on which we have built our communal institutions -- and this both amazes me and disappoints me terribly. How can one explain a Board whose members would not permit this dysfunction to perpetuate in their own home communities but tolerate it without even comment at the Continental level. And how can one explain the apparent disinterest on the part of the Large City Executives who, as a collective, in an earlier iteration of JFNA stood tall and helped expedite a change in its professional leadership when they saw that the then sitting CEO was not up to the job. Today -- they are silent.

Friends, if you believe that outside of JFNA-Washington, JFNA has pursued and achieved excellence in any endeavor, write me (name attached or anonymously) citing the success. I would welcome your input. And don't hide behind the claim that you, JFNA leaders, don't read this Blog for those denials are in the same category as President Trump denying that he watches Morning Joe. I welcome your critique and...that list of achievements.

Rwexler

IT IS "THE WORST OF TIMES"

This Post first appeared in ejewishphilanthropy on August 17

I am with those who share the belief that if we didn't have a JFNA we would have to recreate one; but I also believe that recent events have highlighted the reality that today we don't have the strong continental organization that can lead us, collaborate with us and offer us excellence.  Events of the last two months offer all of us the worst of examples of how this iteration of JFNA has failed us, the federations and the the Jewish People.

First there is the lack of any coherent approach to the decisions of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the GOI Cabinet to breach the agreement to create an egalitarian prayer space adjacent to the Western Wall and to support legislation in the Knesset that would vest all power to conduct and approve conversions in the hands of the Ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. As we've written, on the Sunday these actions were taken by the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, JFNA's leaders happened to be in Jerusalem; and piggybacked themselves on to a Jewish Agency meeting with the PM, seemingly approved of JAFI's decision to cancel a Knesset Dinner Gala that Sunday evening, saw UIA JAFI Board members deploy to lobby in the Knesset and were open to interviews. It appears that as Bibi ordered that consideration of the Conversion legislation be "suspended" for 6 months, and that construction of the prayer space would consider (but under the aegis of a governance controlled by the Ultra-Orthodox), JFNA determined that it would sit by (oh, wait, JFNA-Israel pros are intensively visiting the Knesset maybe daily) and await outcomes -- because it has done nothing further; the Diaspora Jewish laity doesn't know what the position of JFNA is let alone strategy and tactics. 

Let's face it: these GOI actions impact upon the Jewish Diaspora; they are at the same level, if not worse, than the challenges to World Jewry embodied in the "Who Is A Jew?" challenges in the 1980s and 1990s. The difference: in response to those challenges, the system was represented by UJA and CJF which mounted a planned, constant pressure on the then Government of Israel and members of the Knesset -- and Diaspora Jewry prevailed. Today -- nothing. Example: on two Missions to Israel less than one month after the Cabinet actions, no apparent thought was given to educate and then send those lay and professional leaders to buttonhole Knesset members and/or meet with the PM and emphasize the necessity of reconsideration of these actions which threaten the vital relationship between Diaspora Jewry and Israel. And there appear to be no plans to send North American Jewish leaders to Israel weekly to do the same; or to do anything else.

Then, there is this. On July 20, JTA reported: Uganda's Jews are down to one meal a day because of East Africa's famine.
www.jta.org/.../ugandas-jews-are-down-to-one-meal-a-day-because-of-east-africas-fa...
As reported by Ben Sales, 2,000 Ugandan Jews are at immediate risk of starvation (two
have already died) as  confirmed by the United Nations. There has been to date a "trickle of dollars" from the organized Jewish community -- from synagogues , a coalition organized by the JDC, American Jewish World Service. And what has been JFNA's response: has it 
even opened a Mailbox, JFNA's "regular" response to emergencies? Has it done a damned thing? No: it has been silent. Not even a mailbox.

And two other things that I found astonishing:

1. JFNA couldn't rouse itself to send a delegation to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Reunification of Jerusalem; and
2. Worse, not even a small delegation of JFNA lay leaders were convened by JFNA in Charlottesville after the terrorists' anti-semitic attacks there to express our collective solidarity with the Charlottesville Jewish community. Read: http://reformjudaism.org/blog/2017/08/14/charlottesville-local-jewish-community-presses?utm_source=Share&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BlogPost&utm_content=Zimmerman

I have no doubt that in the era of UJA and CJF these 2 omissions -- omissions which disgrace JFNA and our federations even further -- would not have occurred for these expressions of Jewish Peoplehood were responses that were baked-into the n'shama of both organizations. Not any more.

JFNA's tagline -- Touching More Jewish Lives Than Any Organization in the World -- blares in huge font on the sad JFNA home page, might be true if JFNA were doing its job with excellence anywhere in the World. It isn't...anywhere. 

It is the worst of times -- leadership's willing indifference to all that is so wrong at 25 Broadway is more than unacceptable. What is amazing, sickening to me is that these events that so transparently prove the ultimate collapse of JFNA into embarrassment is that 
they have taken place in the full view of everyone -- and continues to be. 

Pathetic.

Rwexler

WHEN WILL JFNA'S LEADERS STOP THE STUPID?

Bob Hyfler, whose professional leadership has included his many years of service as Planning Director and COO at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and Senior Vice-President Research and Development at what is now JFNA, offered an insightful Comment to a recent Post on this Blog:

"Throughout the Jewish nonprofit world we have seen the withering of the authority of boards and volunteer leadership - a systemic phenomenon hardly unique to JFNA or Federations. The question of course is whether this is a result of coup or abdication and what needs to be done about it."

In the JFNA context this "withering of authority" of the JFNA Board (a) has been self-imposed and (b) with others, as discussed below, has effectively allowed the organization to "wither away." Today, we'll look at the symptoms, the effect, and what can be done about it even as it appears to be too late..and the leadership disinterested..

Friends, failure at Jewish Federations of North America isn't the fault of the structure emerging from the merger now so long ago. but the "[A]lmost two decades of mostly failure have been about the process, the execution." There should be no need to repeat that which is so patently true -- JFNA has failed, it continues to operate because no one gives a tinker's damn about it or is willing to give voice to the need or the time to turning it around. 

The lay leadership of JFNA -- this oligarchy which resists all efforts to penetrate the high walls they have built -- have demonstrated a constant willingness to abandon the basic principles on which we have built our communal institutions. This reality amazes me as it also disappoints me terribly. At some of our communal organizations clearly lay leaders have deferred to a strong professional leader; at JFNA that patent and undeniable deferral has not been to the strong but to the weak and it has wreaked havoc to both the potential and the reality, the very existence, of JFNA.

All of us should be able to see that JFNA is today an institution in such terrible decline that it appears to be in a death spiral from which it will be unable to emerge without intervention. And because we can see, we know this is an objective and undeniable truth even as so many in leadership are in denial. It is almost impossible to believe that a small group of proven communal leaders who have matriculated to JFNA leadership can continue to deny that which is indisputably true; but deny is what they do. And all one can ask is:"WHY?" 

Maybe the answer to "WHY?" can be found in the story of a pollster who asked a respondent what the reasons are for the apparent ignorance and apathy of the American voter. The response: "I don't know and I don't care." Yet, I know that the Board Chair and Board Members of JFNA care and care deeply, and yet...and yet...

We see a laity that humiliates itself every day of their inaction with an abject inability to take the steps necessary to change the paradigm that it has allowed to perpetuate deluding themselves into believing that all is well. And what is most amazing to me is that the collapse -- and there is no other word for it -- of JFNA has taken place in the full view of everyone. And "everyone" (well, almost everyone) has stood by in silence.

The worst of what all of us surely see is the requisite symbiotic relationship between strong professional leadership and strong lay leadership turned upside down. At JFNA we have the worst of that relationship: a weak laity so willing to hand over its responsibilities to a professional, who, in the person of Jerry Silverman, has proved to be incapable in all substantive ways. So it is that a relationship dependent upon coequal partners that would propel JFNA forward and upward is, in fact, destroying it. The effect? Jerry has been protected by a complacent, somnolent, soporific laity.

There has been no demand by JFNA's Board for accountability -- the annual lip service in Budget after Budget for monitoring and some/any form of that accountability has been just one more throw away line -- and where there is no accountability we have a professional kakistocracy, we have rule by the worst, one that is now in an obvious death spiral as lay leadership just runs out the clock until they are succeeded by the next group.

I don't think that there is really much in the way of intentionality to the shambolic JFNA of now; I continue to believe that the best of Federation lay and professional leaders will find their way to make the necessary changes that might rescue the organization from failure. But...but..what that will take is strong direction from a Board Chair and Vice-Chair and the catalyst that the Federation CEOs could and should provide. I know that the comfortable protect  their own; that too many believe their service in JFNA leadership is some form of honorarium; that having achieved that Board membership they can leave it to others to do the heavy lifting. It's evident that committing to and executing a change of CEO is a perceived Sisyphean burden that JFNA's highest level of leadership and the Large City CEOs (or any group of CEOs) appear unable or unwilling to lift -- or feel that such a change is unnecessary and/or unwise because everything is just "swell."

Look, I really wish I could write that Jerry has lived up to the demands of the job; that upon his contract extension he did some form of "pivot" into the professional leader he wants to be and which JFNA needs and requires. But that's not the case. From Jerry's hiring forward he has never demonstrated the skillset for this very complex job -- he demonstrates that sad reality 24/7 -- but he clearly has a singular ability to survive, one that by now rivals the tardigrade. Jerry has become like the rooster who believes his crowing causes the sun to rise. 

So, here is where change must begin. Pay off Jerry's contract; and move forward. Engage an Interim CEO/President on a two year contract; one who can and will work with the lay leadership to right the ship, to turn it around beginning the process that will lead to institutional excellence. During that two year term the lay leadership will conduct a Continental search for a CEO with the vision and skillset once demonstrated by a Marty Kraar or a Stanley Horowitz, the inspiration of an Irving Bernstein and the creativity of a Rabbi Herb Friedman. And, trust me, that person is out there.

Time has been wasting for over a decade while JFNA has slipped into an institutional coma. There is no more time to waste.

Rwexler

STAND UP

My grandparents and, perhaps, yours left, even fled, their homes in Eastern Europe for the welcoming arms of America so that they might provide my/our parents and the generations to come with all of the opportunities offered by "the land of the free and the home of the brave." America has been a place where we could worship freely and live in a place of tolerance, a place that promised tolerance and a society that rejected the institutional anti-semitism that characterized the places that they had left. My parents and, perhaps, yours suffered an anti-Jewish discrimination both blatant and latent, but they fought it side-by-side with non-Jews so that our generations would experience none of it -- we are the beneficiaries of the fights our parents and grandparent made on our behalf.

Then there was Charlottesville, where neo-Nazis, KKK, white supremacists and others marched in the dark of night, torches aflame, screaming in their rage anti-semitic screed -- "Jews shall not succeed us" -- before one of them killed an innocent counter-protestor and injured score of others. Charlottesville wasn't the act of an individual anti-semite defacing a synagogue in the dark of night, this was anti-semitism, anti-Americanism right in our faces, right in the face of America -- this was hatred and violence. It was no different than a Nazi rally in Berlin in the 1930"s. And, then, there was the President of the United States not alone finding some insane moral equivalency between those who espoused violence, anti-semitic and anti-American attacks and those who were the victims. Because of what the President in so doing endorsed, America will now reap the wild wind.

Where are the voices of those Jews so vocal in support of Donald Trump -- where are Sheldon Adelson, Gary Cohn, Jared Kushner and others? Where are the voices demanding that Trump withdraw his strident moral equivalency or at least understand that if he does not he has forfeited the moral authority that we believe is part and parcel of the Presidency -- where are their voices? To its credit, the Republican Jewish Coalition issued a statement after the tragedy of Charlottesville but before the President's raging insanity on Tuesday: "We mourn the loss of life at Charlottesville this weekend, and will continue to pray for all those impacted. Anti-Semitism and all forms of hate are anti-American, anti-Jewish, and antithetical to any sense of decency. We regret that we continue to be faced with these issues, but the RJC will never shy away from our role of standing up to racists, fascists, and Nazis." Where is the RJC now, after Tuesday? (N.B., the RJC issued a strong challenge toTrump in a subsequent statement on Wednesday.)

Ohio Governor John Kasich made it clear when he said that  there is “no moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and the KKK and “anybody else” and says “the president needs to condemn this.” Clearly outraged as he spoke from Ohio, he added, “There is no place for politics here.” And the CEO of Wal-Mart spoke for me as he resigned from a presidential advisory council:

"As wewatched the events and the response from President Trump...we too felt that he missed a critical opportunity to help bring our country together by unequivocally rejecting the appalling actions of white supremacists..."

I have chosen to try to avoid the political on these pages and when I have "strayed," some of you have pointed it out, often stridently. But what the President said yesterday was not politics for me, for us, this was about our America, about our civil society. No organization that purports to represent me/us can now stand silent in the face of the green light that the President of the United States has given to hatred -- Jew hatred, immigrant hatred...hatred -- in America. Silence in the face of this hatred cannot be tolerated. If we stand silent, we are complicit.

As the brilliant historian Jon Meecham said yesterday:

"I think that you have these moments where the extremes — the hate, the people who are giving Nazi salutes after we have spent so much blood and treasure trying to liberate the world from the form of tyranny — ... it's an extreme manifestation of an underlying reality."

This is the moment in which our generations of American Jews will be tested against the "reality" that Meecham described. History will judge us by what we say and what we do...or by our silence.

Rwexler 

THE 2015 990

Well, JFNA's 2015 IRS 990 for the FY 2015-2016 was filed in May and is now linked on the Jewish Federations of North America website. It isn't a pretty picture my friends; not pretty at all. But it never is.

Here's a snapshot:

1. JFNA is not a functioning organization; JFNA is a functioning ATM: of the 14 highest compensated professionals, 12 were paid in excess of $200,000; Silverman's total compensation was $683,000, Mark Gurvis -- $399,000; Becky Caspi -- $345,000 and so on. Perhaps what is needed at JFNA, inasmuch as never is heard a discouraging word from the Board (and certainly not from the Board Chair or sole Vice Chair) is that a Gordon Gekko rise up, point out the number of Vice-Presidents (I count 9, not including Caspi's exalted position as "Director General") stopping there as JFNA Jerry and associates have already proven that "greed is good." We all know that some these women and men are doing incredible professional work -- William Daroff, Gloria Nilsen, maybe Gurvis. But, Jerry...really? After Gurvis was hired to do at least 50% of Silverman's job why does the organization continue to overpay him as if he were performing with excellence 100% of the functions for which he was hired; especially when it appears that the remainder of Silverman's responsibilities could not possibly be identified by a management consultant were one ever hired.
2. The Consultant Roster continues to rise unchecked. JFNA continued to go down the consultant path, stating that in 2015-2016 there were 22 consultants -- that's twenty-two, my friends -- "...who received more than $100,000 of compensation." Among the consultants were our "old friends," Shepardson Stern Kaminsky -- SS+K -- in for another $1,000,000 in an undisclosed "secret" conduit agreement whereby JFNA accepted the $1million "grant" from a secret donor and passed the funds through to a for-profit "consultant" for an undisclosed purpose. This is a  prohibited "conduit" transaction about which JFNA has claimed -- as it does for all of its consultant contracts -- a false "confidentiality." Shame on them? Yes, and shame on us.

Where is accountability? Diogenes himself couldn't find it? Where is the JFNA Board? Ignorance is truly bliss.

Rwexler

JFNA AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE COLLECTIVE

I can't put my finger on the exact moment in time when the commitment of JFNA and the federations to the core, foundational principle of "collective responsibility" collapsed in the organization that was created in part, at the least, to strengthen it. It might have been at any of these points:

1. In the second year of the merger when a single federation breached the agreement all federations had committed to maintain core allocations at their merger level for two years and not a single protest was sounded; within months these allocations commitments had toppled like dominoes;
2. In the 4th year of the merger when neither unanimity nor even consensus could be reached on binding federations to a minimal level of core allocations support as part of a reform of the JFNA Dues formula;
3. Over more than a decade the Jewish Federations-National Agencies Alliance weakened, collective support for the legacy national agencies slowly (and now rapidly) evaporated;
4. When a JFNA Board Chair was elected from a community that owed JFNA over $1 million in unpaid allocations;
5. In the basic premise of the failed "Signature Initiatives" promoted by JFNA as the "singular achievement" of the disastrous Global Planning Table which subscribed to the concept of "coalitions of the willing" -- small numbers of federations engaging in small numbers of projects, effectively standing the very definition of "collective response" on its head. Even today, 2+ years after the total demise of the GPT, the remaining "Initiative," the I-rep while operational, remains millions of dollars from its funding goals, and engages but a small percentage of the total federation population;
6. When federation and JFNA leaders set a "red line"which would not be crossed without consequences while debating the setting  a minimum Overseas allocation requirement as a condition of JFNA membership over and above Dues and, then, agreed to a "best efforts" minuscule level of commitment without consequences that has never been applied in practice since its adoption -- the "red line" evaporated as if never articulated; 
7. And at other points, large and small, contributing to the basic conclusion that...

...the leadership of JFNA does not even comprehend the meaning of "collective responsibility." Here is the JFNA Young Leadership Cabinet's application of the term:

"We believe in the collective -- the ideas that our Federation movement is stronger when we work together, and everyone is invited to play a role in fashioning and imagining the Jewish future. 

We experience the profound sense of 'the collective' full-on here at the Retreat, where more than 200 young leaders feed off each other's ideas, energy and curiosity."

JFNA has rebranded "collective responsibility" by simply removing the word "responsibility" from the brand.  And, this walkaway has been led by the organization created to protect and enhance that very "responsibility." For the CEO's Session at the Cabinet Retreat, Silverman would speak to: "Federation believes in a collective responsibility to embrace every member of the Jewish community as part of our extended family." Silverman didn't understand "collective responsibility" when he was engaged by JFNA; he doesn't understand it now; so, instead, he has led in the rebranding/redefinition effort reducing "responsibility" to cliche, to pablum, to the nothingness that it and JFNA have become.

How can Federation leaders look to an organization that clearly doesn't understand its own responsibilities to advocate and lead the communities in fulfillment of theirs? Some of you have suggested that the path to be taken would require the mass resignation of JFNA's lay and professional leaders and their succession by women and men who would move the organization forward in a recommitment to the original goals of the merger. And that would be great but for the pre-condition to such actions of a self-awareness that the laity has never before demonstrated. 

The condition of JFNA today, its abandonment of principle and purpose, reminds me of the
cruel joke circulating in 1998:

"...two aging US diplomats are shown sitting on a park bench in Washington, studying a newspaper filled with news of the war in Lebanon. One of the State Department veterans shakes his head sadly and says: 'It wouldn't have happened if Warren Christopher was alive.'"

The "joke" --Warren Christopher at the time was "still alive." It would be great today if Richard Sandler along with the federation professionals who clearly understand how badly drastic surgery is needed showed some life, proved that as to JFNA they are "still alive."

Without their taking responsibility there is no responsibility.

Rwexler 

JFNA -- THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN

In ejewishphilanthropy a headline a while back announced a report on goal-setting evidenced so much that is at the heart of JFNA's failures under the Silverman "administration." The authors concluded: "In the healthiest of organizations, the board, the staff, and other key stakeholders share a unified vision of the organization's mission, objectives, and priorities. When hiring, the board of trustees hopefully looks for an executive whose vision and skill set highly align with the organization's ."aspirations".http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/setting-goals-with-your-new-executive-not-for-your-new-executive/?utm_source=7/11/2017&utm_campaign=Tue+July+11&utm_medium=email

But in the bizarro-World that is JFNA goals just aren't set at all -- not "with" and certainly not "for." And if there ever were any 'goals," they were as opaque, as impenetrable as is all else at JFNA. Here are some of the "goals" established in a succession of Budgets under Jerry Silverman that ended in failure or, at best, abandoned with no consequences:

1. Greater lay registration at GA's: in fact, lay registration has fallen year-after-year-year.
2. Enhance professional growth for the field: in fact, JFNA, except for the excellent I-LEAD, has left the field where so many other organizations and foundations have filled the void left by JFNA's ridiculous walk away from one of its core responsibilities. See for example, the latest:http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/jcc-association-of-north-america-and-jtss-davidson-school-develop-leadership-training-collaboration/?utm_source=July+12%2C+2017&utm_campaign=Wed+July+12&utm_medium=email
3. Community consulting: JFNA determined in 2016-2017 that it would reenter this critical area with a serious consulting effort. Then, in a ridiculous "pivot," because the Financial Resource Development Department in 2016 created a two-person community consulting effort staffed by two part-time consultants (selected by and under the leadership of a part-time "Senior Consultant) which was expanding with two more part-time consultants in 2017-2018, this would now be the consulting arm of JFNA and every JFNA professional would be expected to be part of the effort. (And, never forget that federation professionals have been left to find their own way through the often juvenile FedCentral. To her credit, JFNA's Beverly Woznica, one of the top FRD pros, has now attempted to organize a collective effort using FedCentral.)
4. Internal Fundraising was to create additional financial resources to support the JFNA Budget. This effort, led by Silverman himself (with one of his top pros) has fallen woefully short year-by-year even as these specific FRD  "goals" have been substantially reduced year-by-year.
5. Staff development. Rather than grow the professional cadre at 25 Broadway, Silverman has grown the organization with a consultant corps that had grown to 22 consultants -- yes, that's right, TWENTY-TWO as revealed in the 2015 990 (G-d knows what that number is for 2016-2017 --I'm guessing 26-30) -- all operating with secret contracts cloaked with self-determined claims of "confidentiality." 
6. Enhanced relations with JAFI/JDC/WorldORT. In private leaders of these organizations will tell you that relations have never been worse. Advocacy for the overseas partners through a JFNA-Israel driven "Envoys" program has been met with almost total disinterest if not disdain by the federations -- 5 communities visited in 18 months -- but, more visits are planned.
7. Missions. National missions -- including the most important, the Prime Minister's Mission -- canceled; others, like the recent FRD Leadership Mission, with significantly reduced lay attendance and more-and-more federations going their own way -- a shambles.
8. The National Agencies-Federation Alliance was intended to be the vehicle which would assure that the legacy national agencies created by the federation system would be funded to meet their budgetary needs; it has collapsed. And the collapse is the direct result of (a) JFNA's total lack of leadership and guidance; and (b) JFNA using the Alliance National Agencies Funding Pool as an ATM to fund its own Planning and Education Unit. Federations, led by New York, have fled or are fleeing the Alliance almost en masse. The Alliance is a dead man walking abandoned by JFNA.
9. The Network. When Network leaders began to question the Network's treatment by JFNA leaders, the then Board Chair and Silverman engineered what can best be described as a "coup" replacing indigenous Network communal leadership with those whom JFNA could "trust." (The Network Chairs since that coup have been a succession of leaders -- fine people all -- none from a Network community.) JFNA now pulls an unconscionable 35% of the funds raised within the Network (which fell woefully short of its own goals) for its own Budget -- without a peep from the Network leadership or, certainly, JFNA leadership. I guess JFNA would call this a victory.

I would welcome any of you who read this advising me that I am wrong; that all is as well as Sandler/Silverman seem to think that it is.

This grows more pitiful with every passing day.

Rwexler

GA 2017

As I hope all of you know, the 2017 GA will convene in Los Angeles November 12-14. It promises to be at least as good as the last few -- or, as Richard Sandler would put it: "great!" As you read what follows, remember there are right now three months until the Opening Plenary.

Leadership has chosen as the tagline for 2017 the following: Venture Further!  No, I don't know what it means either; appropriate to JFNA inasmuch as no one knows what JFNA stands for. I am sure that the message will come clear; yeah, sure. The GAs under Jerry Silverman have become JFNA in microcosm -- The Seinfeld Show, about nothing.

Perhaps to inspire attendance JFNA has produced video for the GA which I found on YouTube: GA PROMO CUT 2. (One FOB found the thing at https://vimeo.com/218035339)  I  I will offer my impressions: very well-produced, nice music, nice messaging but having absolutely nothing to do with anything -- just like Venture Further! I'd be interested in your impressions.

Here is how GA '17 was presented to the JFNA Board in June:

"The GA is just around the corner so “register now” was the clarion call of GA Co-Chair Julie Platt (Los Angeles). Organized a bit differently, the three-day experience that will take place in Los Angeles from November 12-14, will begin with four, not-to-be missed, dig-deep sessions (I'm sorry but I could vomit), covering some of the most challenging issues facing our community (what are they?). In addition, the GA will feature conversations between some of our favorite actors and their rabbis, sessions with Jewish writers and producers discussing Jewish Hollywood, Silicon Valley tech mavens’ success stories, and so much more.

There will be unique experiences for Federation PMC and KDS members, including dinner on the lot of a major studio.

So, here they go again -- selling the sizzle, such as it will be. Substance -- oh, we'll find substance....maybe. Probably not. This puffery suggests that whoever is planning and selling this GA doesn't realize that the audience is made up of serious people.

We'll get back to the sizzle later; for now let's just look at substance. Find any? Me either. As of the date of this Post, all anyone apparently knows is that there will be Plenaries -- JFNA cannot articulate just what they will be about. The Program, if there is one as yet, is not in circulation -- someone(s) at 25 Broadway may have a Draft but, if so, it's not being shared with the communities. 

Then there is the venue. For those of you who may recall it, the sessions for the last GA were held in the Los Angeles Convention Center -- a mammoth facility with great rooms for Plenaries, break-outs, etc. This time around, perhaps in recognition of the dismal attendance at a succession of GAs, the Convention Hotel -- the JW Marriott -- just steps away from the Staples Center and the Convention Center, will be the venue where everything takes place. Smaller rooms for everything; perhaps to mask the anticipated low turnout once again.

So here's my suggestion for sizzle to boost attendance: Julie and Marc Platt are the Los Angeles Co-Chairs for the 2017 GA. Julie is the Board Chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles; Marc Platt is a movie and TV producer who has produced, among other successes, the fabulous La La Land. Their youngest child, Ben, is the incredible star, the Tony Award winner, of the remarkable Dear Evan Hansen. So, the Platts could invite (dragoon) their son Ben to perform at the GA they will Co-Chair -- ask him to (forgive me) Venture Further. Or, as an alternative, Marc Platt could invite (dragoon) Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to recreate "City of Stars" from the incredible movie in which they co-starred -- they could sing the song to the tune of Hava Negilla!! Pack 'em in.

Sure, Venture Further, a theme so meaningless it could easily have been Better Together from Hillary Clinton's campaign, equally meaningless and, ultimately, a failure. Have the GAs become so irrelevant that they now have no unifying, no understandable theme? Rhetorical question. 

Last year JFNA's Budget allocated an additional $250,000 to the GA. We asked then: how will these funds, added to the "regular" GA funding, be used? We never got an answer. And, of course, we still don't know how this 1/4 Million Dollar infusion was applied -- to what, for what? The results, however, are clear: the 2016 GA was a failure, even lower lay attendance than the prior year. 

It wasn't that long ago that there was an annual GA Committee made up of lay and professional leaders. We did a pretty good job creating a meaningful GA program coupled with an array of takeaways. Then someone/somewhere decided that the GA was too important to be left to the lay leaders -- give 'em some speeches, some face time and they'll be happy seems to be the prevailing view. And just look at the results -- poor, dwindling, embarrassing attendance, fewer vendors at lower costs, all meaning lower revenues -- a GA in disarray. But the tightening small circle of leadership must think everything is just peachy.

So, once again, let's propose a one year hiatus for the General Assembly, a year which will be devoted to GA hard reset. Establish a blue ribbon committee to evaluate the GA and make comprehensive recommendations for its rebirth as an annual (or, better, bi-annual) event with great appeal not just to the professionals but to communal lay leadership as it once was. Because, my friends, what has become an annual failure will soon become an annual embarrassment (if it hasn't already) if a hard reset does not occur.

As the expanded promo for this General Assembly blares:

"At GA 2017,we'll venture further into the future of Jewish education, philanthropy and our community -- taking the Federation Movement farther than ever before."

Footnote: if it isn't already clear, we just don't know how we are going to do it. The tagline for the JW Marriott LA is "LA Live" -- if it continues down the path it is on, the theme for this GA may well be "LA Dead."

Nothing that Jerry Silverman does anymore should shock me/us, but, in the middle of what should be a push to recruit for Los Angeles, Silverman sent out a promo for the 2018 GA in Tel Aviv. http://community.jewishfederation.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=5402.0&s_AffiliateSecCatId=1022&dlv_id=8583&pw_id=1902  The height of fiduciary irresponsibility at the hands of the CEO. The Silverman Saga continues. It's like Trump tweeting; he just can't help himself.

In the meantime -- Venture Further everybody.

Rwexler

THE FIRST LAW OF HOLES: WHEN IN ONE STOP DIGGING!!

No organization is more occupied with digging holes and then continuing to dig deeper ones than is JFNA. Case in point: JFNA-Israel's "Envoys Program."

We recently wrote of the pathetic letter from JFNA-Israel's Becky Caspi abjectly pleading that some select group of federations reach out to JFNA and request that a lay "Envoy" make a set (for one will not do) of visits to educate in consultation with federation leadership and advocating for an increase in core allocations to the legacy overseas partners. The outreach was banal; the response not surprising. See The Daily Tragic-Comedy Continues, June 14, 2017.

Here's where we are and from where we have come...

A few years ago, under then UIA Chair Rich Bernstein, the UIA Board adopted a Futures Report that set forth an ambitious program for the JFNA Subsidiary he chaired, one that included an advocacy effort, the Chaverim Program, among other initiatives. The entire Futures Report was adopted by the JFNA Board. Led by strong UIA lay leadership -- not only within UIA but, also, JFNA -- the Chaverim effort, sending lay leaders into the communities to educate and advocate for the Jewish Agency, went forward. Remember this fact, discussed at a recent UIA Board meeting: 16 communities were visited by UIA's Chaverim in 9 months.

And, then, the Chaverim Program was discontinued. 

Why it was discontinued and who ordered its termination are questions that would be appropriate, even debated. But, of course, there was no debate and no answers offered. What we have pieced together is this: 

• After a decade of ignoring its moral responsibility to advocate for core budget support for JDC, JAFI and WorldORT, watching in silence as those allocations dropped to the lowest levels in history, some at JFNA wanted advocacy within the federations to be conducted by JFNA and JFNA alone. Among the "some?" I'm guessing, David Brown, the then incoming Chair of JFNA-Israel, Jerry Silverman and Becky Caspi.
• In a meeting to "sort out" the responsibilities of JFNA Israel-Overseas, UIA leaders were told (and agreed) that JFNA would henceforth be the exclusive lead on that advocacy. And, of course, UIA capitulated.
• So JFNA, as it always does, started from scratch over 18 months ago to build what it described as an advocacy program, branded (!!) it as "Envoys" and began a recruitment effort and what it described as "training" which included, among other things, materials irrelevant to the three organizations' work (anti-semitism in Europe?) and an in-person training thing that restricted the legacy partners presentations to, as I recall, 5 (maybe it was 10) minutes each.
• Now, remember, UIA's Chaverim visited 16 communities in the 9 months over which UIA implemented the effort; JFNA's Envoys have visited 5 federations in 18 months. And, as we wrote, now JFNA's Caspi somehow believed that a personal plea from her might interest more federations in allowing the Envoys in. Read the whole pathetic Caspi epistle: http://ujtheeandme.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-daily-tragi-comedy-continues.html

Now, surely there were serious limitations to the UIA advocacy. By its mission, UIA was and is the advocate for JAFI; and JFNA should have been the place where advocacy for all three partners would take place. But rather than employing the methodology used in JFNA's only prior foray into the advocacy effort -- the chair of that effort, Jane Sherman, is still around and in a normal organization might have been consulted -- the "decision" was made to remake the wheel. I assume that that was because as usual there was and is no institutional memory -- not even short-term. Does anybody believe that JFNA could possibly create a viable advocacy program out of whole cloth, even with a troup of dedicated, well-intentioned lay leaders engaged as Envoys, when it has wholly failed its responsibilities to the overseas partners over this administration? Does anybody share Richard Sandler's well-intentioned belief that relations with JAFI and JDC "have never been better?" (Certainly no one in leadership at JAFI/JDC when speaking candidly and in confidence believes that.) So, the Envoys have more visits scheduled; let's see how those work out.

But, here's my suggestion: stop digging. Do an "advocacy reset:" let JAFI/JDC/WorldORT lead the advocacy effort coordinated by JFNA with the federations instead of being bystanders to continuing failure that impacts them, not JFNA. And, if this is truly a serious effort by JFNA, let's have the Envoys start in their home communities before they come to yours.

BUT, I'll just watch the digging. They just can't help themselves.

Rwexler

LIP SERVICE

JFNA held an important Board meeting in New York City in June. "Important" mainly to those in attendance.

Here are some highlights:

• Shhhhh.  The Board Chair kicked off the meeting with a statement designed "...to remind the Board of its fiduciary obligation to raise board issues within the board structure and to model our values including refraining from indulging in Lashon Hara." In other words, although it's pretty clear: "say nothing critical at any time." As I've written often "criticism of any kind is considered to be lashon hara to the leaders of JFNA." (BTW, if you don't catch it, Spell-Check will automatically convert "lashon" into "lasagna" -- which does change the meaning after all.)  It is of interest to this writer that the only mention of "fiduciary obligation" at this meeting was in the demand for "silence." So, out of respect for the Board Chair's admonition, I will only write and comment today about matters in the Minutes of JFNA, a public charity.
• Change. The draftsperson of those Minutes evidenced an excellent sense of humor when the Minutes stated that at this meeting "[C]hange was in the air..." Sure, but only in the turnover of various chairs. Otherwise...business as usual. The Budget about which I have reflected on these pages as structured by its express language to be nothing more than "a suggestion," inspired a unanimous approval. When reading this my thoughts returned to the Board Chair's admonition about "fiduciary obligation" and my own sense, sadly, that that obligation is observed in form (everything's confidential), rather than substance. 
• Jerry Silverman. Oy. Here is what Jerry had to say:

"JFNA President and CEO Jerry Silverman reported on JFNA’s activities to date. “I am more optimistic than ever,” he said, and then listed a series of impressive initiatives and accomplishments; including:

• A series of incredible national missions and events taking place over the next few months (see full list below);
• National Young Leadership Cabinet, Federations’ hallmark leadership development program, has been completely reimagined and reengineered;
• A team of very seasoned consultants have spent the past nine months working with individual Federations in an effort to develop targeted engagement plans to strengthen the health of each one; and
• Since inception, our National Jewish Federation Bond Pool has helped facilitate $1.4 billion in financing for capital projects of Federations and their agencies."

         Join me in looking carefully at the causes of Jerry's "optimism:"

• "Incredible national missions" -- unmentioned are the national Missions canceled in 2017 because of lack of interest/attendance. Perhaps Richard and Jerry (or Jerry and Richard) should have considered just why JFNA didn't think it appropriate or necessary, or both, to convene a leadership Mission to Jerusalem celebrating both the 50th Anniversary of Six Day War and the Reunification of Jerusalem. Inconvenient? Didn't think of it? Indifferent? This omission is what's really "incredible."
• The YLC's "completely reimagined and reengineered" plan is being rolled out -- please get your hands on it; you will find, as I have, that this product, the result of a two+ year long consultant study, is nothing more than old wine in new bottles -- old wine from a bad vintage at that. Once again, as is the rule at JFNA, with no institutional memory and no interest in the successful models from the past, there is no "there there"
• That "team of very seasoned consultants" that have worked the past year? Two part-time consultants plus part-time consultant Vicki Agron -- that was it. The "team." Definitely "seasoned," great professionals. How many? Few. Very few. How many community consultations? 22...that's twenty-two...that's "robust?" Now Agron (not the Sr. V-P FRD, the consultant, Agron) has hired two more part-time consultants, also "seasoned," like the first two, probably great. BTW, those consultants were engaged to assist Federations with FRD; now, with nothing else going, they will be asked to provide more comprehensive consulting services to the communities. This only makes sense from a JFNA Budget standpoint; not at all from a federation service standpoint.
• The National Jewish Federation Bond Fund has been great. So glad that I thought of it years ago. Seriously, a terrific spin-off of my original plan to market a team of bond experts to the federations. The Bond Fund leadership has has done a great job with it. 
• If you find cause for "optimism" from this litany, I have a Bridge to sell you, The fact that this is the list that Jerry provided the Board indicates to me how much he takes the Board's approbation for granted. "Is this all there is, my friends, is that all there is?"

• The Annual Campaign. Outgoing National Campaign Chair Harold Gernsbacher, who did an incredible, indefatigable job in the face of incredible odds and institutional obstacles (like "why are we doing FRD?"), in his final message stated a fact: "While the average gift per donor is up, he said, the number of donors is down." Harold has never struck me before as a master of understatement, he has now. Here's the reality: the merger promised a cutting edge organization dedicated to "more donors and more dollars." It has produced neither; it has helped not a single federation to date to produce either.  Annual campaigns in the aggregate are in stasis and the number of donors has literally collapsed. In a New York Times article from November 28, 1988, U.J.A., at 50, Is Thriving but Also Being Challenged, the author noted that the then national organization "[L]ast year...collected $720 million, from about a million donors, roughly a third of all Jewish households in the United States." Today, the aggregate annual campaign is, adjusted for inflation, far below that $720 million and the number of donors has fallen to somewhere around 200,000...and JFNA appears incapable of doing anything about it.

How does the JFNA laity, each and every one of them a leader in at least their own community, continue to support the institutional fecklessness that the organization exhibits 24/6? Is there some By-Law that dictates fealty to this JFNA imperium?

Rwexler