Aside from the assault on UIA in the Draft, the Recommendations underscored jfna's support for continuing the demonstrable waste that is and has been JFNA-Israel. The Global Operations Review Committee attempted to underscore JFNA's commitment to advocacy for Israel (none) in a variety of ways (none). Sadly...pathetically...this transparently false endorsement of the Review Committee was immediately contradicted by reality:
1. The Prime Minister's Council/King David Society Mission will go to...India
2. The Summer FRD Mission will travel to...ArgentinaNeither of these high-end Missions will find its way to...Israel. Should we believe a Committee Report or our own eyes? JFNA, as always, wants you to "look away, nothing happening here."
What surprises me is that these Review Committees (yes, there are two) Draft Recommendations included a number of brilliant federation leaders totally committed to the "overseas agenda." Why the silence, folks? One can only hope (dare we expect) that there will be multiple published dissents to the final Recommendations, if not public resignations.
In response to the Post, Send in the Clowns: A Commentary on JFNA-UIA, one of you wrote:
"So there was a "merger."The fact that two...count 'em, TWO...Review Committees were at "work" (if one may call it that) while another consultant was being paid hundreds of thousands to "study" the entity just underscored the farcical nature of these Recommendations.
UJA was "merged" and federation leaders (were) gone, along with any FRD of national campaign mechanism.
Now they want to complete the "merger" of UIA, first killing its independent lay leadership and its role in advocacy and then "merging" its functions.
Once the "merger" is complete, there will be nothing left of any value to our federations, our overseas partners or to anyone except for the well paid architects of this "MERGE AND DESTROY" mission.
And we just allow them to continue drafting position papers and committee reports that are really nothing more than suicide notes for our collective communal system, signing our names to them and saying "aye" when asked.
If we don't all wake up soon we are going to get what we deserve for sleeping through this systematic destruction of everything that we believe in - "merger" into oblivion."
An unnecessary farce.
Rwexler
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6 comments:
I could not find an email for you, so I am posting here.
Awhile back, you wrote about Joshua Fogelson leaving the Jewish Agency. I am delighted to inform you & your readers that Joshua has been appointed Deputy National Director at Friends of the IDF.
The Joel Paul Group, Executive Search & Recruiting company, assisted with this placement.
Willie Hochman, CEO www.joelpaul.com
Our congratulations to Josh and the FIDF!!
Many of our lay leaders admit today that their support of the merger was a BIG mistake.
We can only pray that the lay leaders that serve on this committee will realize that this report and its recommendations are also a BIG mistake before they allow this process to continue and these recommendations to be adopted for implementation. It is not too late for them to issue a dissenting opinion or to resign in protest.
Even if they do not, we can still pray that enough board members will stand up to protest and defeat this pathetic attempt to blame UIA for the failures of the merger and for the failures of JFNA in almost everything it has done in the Israel and Overseas area (even if India and Agentina are indeed located "overseas").
This move was manipulated by "professionals" who believe that lay leadership should be "led" by them and who therefore prefer that truly lay led organizations not exist or at least be "merged" to more controllable proportions.
Why any lay leader would agree to promote this or even passively go along with it is unfathomable.
We cannot and must not allow them to continue what has now become an obsession to kill UIA as we know it.
We should be cocentrating on fixing what is indeed broken, even though those running the show would rather divert our attention away from themselves.
Richard, with all of your hope in Wilf, all that we have left is "prayer." Does Wilf ever call you to talk, to ask?
The UIA board members should contact the JFNA Executive Committee members and ask them why they are going along with this move to tell them that their services are no longer needed. They should protest this JFNA initiative to neutralize their involvement and service and to replace true UIA lay leadership with a JFNA professional-driven puppet show.
Reconnecting 21st century American Jewry to Israel must be a high priority (Full stop). At the same time we have always been somewhat remiss in not building both bridges and a conversation of equals with other Western Diaspora communities in both Europe and South America. As an example, we have much to learn from UK Jewry in their brave efforts fighting antisemitism on both the left and the right and their inclusive approaches to community building (#Limmud). As for a mission to India the less said of such silliness the better. Their present government mixes a pro-Bibi stance with a love affair with historical fascism and racial purity.
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