"NONE OF OUR BUSINESS"

My friends, one of the fatal flaws of JFNA under spineless leadership is the one that apparently mandates that "you shall be silent on all matters;" unless you are at the top of the JFNA food chain, you are only entitled to such information as "we" deem necessary. It's pretty damn hard to be proud of JFNA in any event, impossible when the organization views almost all matters as "none of our business." We wrote about this shameful quietude just a few weeks ago in our  Post Speechless; I didn't expect JFNA's leaders to break into song, and I also should have realized that nothing would change. 

A few examples since that March 24 Post:

• 20 major Jewish organizations joined together to protest gun violence in the United States, They issued a strong statement and JCPA must be congratulated for its role. JFNA: "none of our business."

• On April 17, JTA reported: "In a slap at Israel, the City Council in Durham, North Carolina, voted unanimously to bar its police department from taking part in 'military-style training' progarms abroad" -- a "ban" clearly directed at Israel training even though there was no planned participation by Durham's Police Department in any such activity. The advocacy for this "ban" was the work of the growing group of pro-BDS agitators led by the wretched Jewish Voices for Peace. They and their fellow travelers  may consider this an "achievement" -- it will be all the more significant if the organized Jewish community -- through JFNA or JCPA or another -- says and does nothing. JFNA:"not our business," apparently.

• A pet peeve -- According to the Jewish Insider, JFNA "leaders" were among those who met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman on the Prince's "charm tour" of the United States. There have been many meetings of this nature that we discover through Facebook photos of, e.g., CEO Jerry at the U.N. and other places. Sure, back in the UJA days, when these opportunities arose we made them available to significant donors -- we knew the impact these photo ops could have -- but JFNA leaders don't have a clue; they appear to think they are invited because they themselves are so important.  But, that's only one of my complaints; at no time do these leaders advise their Board of:

• The purpose of the meetings; or
• What was discussed at these meetings
• Wouldn't it be interesting, for example, to know if these Jewish leaders raised with MBS (this Crown Prince is known by his initials) the denial to El Al and Israel the right to overfly Saudi airspace on flights from, e.g., India...or anything else for that matter.

In other words: there seems to be no understanding that Silverman, Sandler, et al.,were invited to these things as our representatives; no understanding that they have 

no standing on their own. But, of course, it's: "None of our business."

All who read these Posts regularly know that this so-called "leadership" has built a wall separating the facts from the ownership. And, so long as that ownership doesn't care, the wall just gets thicker and higher (and, I know what you're thinking, no, Mexico has not paid for this wall). 

The lack of transparency violates every principle of non -profit governance but...and this is the major thing...totally controlling the information flow offers this lay and professional leadership comfort -- they can sit and state that those who raise questions about actions just don't have "the facts" ignoring the reality that those who questions don't have/can't have the facts because the facts are denied to them by the very leaders who denied amcha the facts.

Thus, the argument would go: "if we provide no facts, we're safe." But, my G-d, even Facebook announced "we must do more to keep people informed;" that was Facebook, not JFNA. 

And, so, "None of our business" -- ever. And, with each brick in the opaque wall its leaders have been allowed to build, JFNA grows more distant from its owners.

Rwexler