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