"The JFNA Annual board meeting will be taking place this coming Sunday-Monday in New York.Even for JFNA, this is a new low.
Even though the meeting has not yet taken place, the minutes have been posted on Fed Central and clearly refute your claim that there is no fiduciary responsibility being exercised by our lay leaders.
Below are the minutes in full:
'AYE! - no against - no abstentions - no questions asked!'"
Rwexler
Last night we were blessed to have the opportunity to thank Jerry Silverman for ten years of service to the Jewish People, to our communities, and to our national Jewish Federations of North America.
ReplyDeleteUnder Jerry’s leadership and guidance, our Federations raise over $3.5 billion (with a “b”) each year -
To care for those in need
To build Jewish communities and Israel
And to save the world. One person at a time.
But it’s not about the money.
It’s about leadership, service, communities, inspiration.
It’s about partnership, vision and service.
And it’s about taking on responsibility and standing up for what’s right and important.
Jerry’s legacy of compassion, menschlekeit values, dedication to the Jewish People, and service, have been a model for communal professionals. And we are truly grateful for his leadership.
—————
The above words were posted by a professional exec of a large city Federation on his Facebook page.
This disease has no cure.
When a professional claims that
Under Jerry’s leadership and guidance, our Federations raise over $3.5 billion (with a “b”) each year -
You can only assume that the “B” stands for Bullshit
Crediting Jerry’s leadership for Federation fundraising exceeds all dignity. If I lived in Metrowest this professional would be looking for his next job in a factory.
At least JFNA can now sell Jerry’s treadmill desk.
Dear Richard,
ReplyDeleteAs the Federation professional responsible for this Facebook post, I feel compelled to write and say to your anonymous commentator - enough. Have the decency and derech-eretz to attack me or anyone else publicly and using your name.
This is a teachable moment on social media usage and responsibility. Being a mensch, creating leadership, and standing up for what's right in our community is a sacred task. Trolling anonymously creates an evil, demeaning and self-fulfilling prophecy of mean-spirited defeatism and cowardice.
We deserve better.
Warmly,
Dov Ben-Shimon
CEO
Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest
Dov may have a point but that doesn't make the content of the anonymous comment wrong. It is right on.
ReplyDeleteJFNA, certainly Jerry, deserve no credit at all for what our federations are raising. They contribute nothing to that and actually are responsible for wasting some $30M of those campaign funds on much ado about nothing.
Dear Dov,
ReplyDeleteYou are correct in that it shows courage to sign a blog post. 99% of the posts are anonymous on this blog. I will pass your suggestion on to my cousin Ahad Haam. You ignore that there is a great and long Jewish tradition of writing under pseudonym and accounts for hundreds of famous Jewish writers.
Oh, but I digress.
Self fulfilling prophesy. You are on the money with that one. When you praise mediocrity in public, you set the bar under the floor. Derech eretz does not require you to grovel and simper like you did in your Facebook post. Derech eretz required you to stand silent in the face of Jerry’s legendary professional failures after the fact.
If you had any courage you would have spoken out about Jerry’s failures long before this meeting. It is you who has contributed to the evil and self defeatism that is JFNA.
“Standing up for what's right in our community is a sacred task.” Really?
When did you stand up about JFNAs failures? You didn’t. I appreciate your need to defend your honor and dignity now.
A brief reply to the leadership issue you mentioned. If you continue to stand up and extoll non existing virtues, if you claim victories where none exist, you are not developing leadership, you are cultivating a garden of failure. As a senior leader you should expect to be trolled for those crimes. Get used to it or go back to being a sheep.
How could you credit Jerry for your community’s campaign? If I were your campaign chair I would slap you upside the head with my pledge card.
We deserve better
Ploni Almoni
P.S. There, I signed my post
Cowards and charlatans hide behind computer screens and pretend to aspire to the heights of literary figures.
ReplyDeleteYou are no Ahad Ha'am. You're just a bully without transparency or accountability.
You have no idea what I praise, what I speak about and to whom, and in what forum.
You cower behind a fake image of a false identity, terrified of the consequences of your timidity.
I credit all those who stand up, who take on the mantle of leadership, who stand for what's right. Do I agree with everything they say and do? Of course not. That's what honest, open, decent dialogue is for. That's what communal leadership should aspire to mean.
Call me. Or email me. Or have some basic decency and self-respect and behave like a Jewish communal leader.
Dov
Friends,
ReplyDeleteDov gets the last word here. The points have been made.
To the Anonymous who wrote at 4:24 p.m. Perhaps you were. directing your Comment to/at me; it makes no difference. Your Comment will not be published on this Blog so long as you wish to criticize the Chicago Federation as you would like. I do, however, get your point.
ReplyDelete