Friends, a number of you wrote to me in response to last month's Post Confused? I Am with appropriate and incisive Comments. I appreciate them all. The one which follows here struck me as most important for our continuing discussion.
"The leader that you refer to and quote is indeed speaking for the Jewish Agency's Israel-Diaspora role. Those that know her know that she is certainly not speaking against JAFI or funding it.
We can also be sure that she means well.
The problem is that she, like many others, have been wrongly convinced by the JAFI leadership that the answer to dwindling funds is for JAFI to reinvent itself and become something else. They are leading the Agency to become totally donor-driven rather than the mission-driven organization that it always was.
While fighting Antisemitism and strengthening communal security are important, they are not the role of the Jewish Agency.
JAFI has a very strong partnerships program for strengthening Israel-Diaspora relations, a platform which could easily grow and expand to rise to today's needs without throwing out the rest.
The problem with the Jewish Agency is not what it does but that what it does is evidently not appealing enough anymore to the federations, that we have stopped meeting our commitments to Israel and through Israel to ourselves and the Jewish People.
The solution is that WE need to understand what is really important and that the Jewish Agency must now unfortunately invest heavily in marketing its true mission and fundraising for it.
Shame on us for allowing this to happen on our watch!"
We are living in times when our communities have shown a willingness to walk back even walk away from our historic values and commitments reflected in our collective responsibilities. For example, the relationship between JAFI and UIA, that of agent and principal respectively, has been stood on its head; or Community A where it has been decided that care for the Jewish aged in our midst, once a sacred communal responsibility is "too expensive," and they are to be abandoned; or another federation )or more) which has decided it will no longer be the central planning body, it will be something called a "convener," and so it goes.
Who questioned a Jewish Agency "plan" to become another "player" in the arena of Global anti-semitism? Who questioned JA's determination to fund local community security? Did UIA demand that JAFI, UIA's agent, prove its provenance in this newest area of its claimed priorities before approving its latest and most diminished allocations as is UIA's obligation?
How would you answer these basic questions?
Rwexler
Posts
2 comments:
The Jewish Agency had the support of the American Jewish community when it was focused on its lifesaving and nation building functions, aliyah, klitah and community development....and notably the rescue of Jews under ofen clandestine and harrowing circumstances. Once the Sochnut let such functions migrate to others, e.g. Nefesh B'Nefesh and ironically the Christian-financed organization under the late Rabbi Eckstein, it seemed to become an organization looking for a mission....never a heathy situatin.
You ended your post by asking: "Did UIA demand that JAFI, UIA's agent, prove its provenance in this newest area of its claimed priorities before approving its latest and most diminished allocations as is UIA's obligation?"
It seems that you have forgotten that UIA no longer exists. It was recently destroyed by ("merged" into) JFNA.
They got rid of lay leadership and left only a puppet skeleton legal structure which is totally JFNA controlled.
That was basically the end of the relationship with you he Jewish Agency and now they couldn't care less about what it does or how it is funded.
Post a Comment