THE RISE AND FALL AND FALL AND FALL

Well, friends, it's time to get back to Blogging even as I pray that all of you are socially distancing, safe and protected.

All of us are experiencing the horrific impacts of this COVID-19 plague that has afflicted the World. The impacts on our families, ourselves, our People, our businesses are and will be devastating. While some optimists see the "day after" as one of opportunity, the realist in me strongly suggests that many of the Jewish organizations that we have helped to build will not survive -- at least not as they one were. 

And, that's where I would like to focus today and further as we move forward.

I read the brilliant plea from Doron Krakow, the Jewish Community Centers Association President, to the JCCA members, partners and funders seeking $1 billion in loans and grants as the Jewish Community Centers, revenue dependent at a time that the virus has eliminated the Centers' revenues. I hope JCCA is successful but our experience suggests that individual JCC Boards nationwide are built of wonderful leaders who have never been significant fund-raisers. In fact, after JFNA collapsed the Federation-National Agency Alliance two and 1/2 years ago, immediately costing the JCCs 100's of millions in allocations, the Movement was unable to recapture those dollars -- and those were better times. 

JCCs are but an example of agencies in dire need -- they all are.  Look at any National or local agency and understand that the safety net that we have helped to build is threatened with collapse. Is saving them beyond our capacity? Will/can community endowments -- created for those "rainy days" -- be allocated immediately becuase the "rainiest of days" are upon us? This is not 207-2008, this is so much worse.

Then, there is JFNA itself. After a decade of stasis and worse, JFNA, under Board Chair Mark Wilf and CEO Eric Fingerhut, appeared to this critic to be moving the Titanic off the iceberg, plugging the holes in the hull and moving albeit slowly toward some open water. Sure, the organization had completely abandoned its historic fund-raising responsibilities to  such an extent that Fingerhut was professionally leading the organization while also assuming the mantle of its FRD leadership with no depth of staff support. And, sure, the organization for at least a decade had abandoned its historic advocacy for funding overseas needs -- abandoned to the extent that last year the organization threw in the towel, telling the Jewish Agency, the Joint Distribution Committee and ORT "you want advocacy, do it yourselves" and "restructuring" the United Israel Appeal out of its former existence relegating that organization to meeting the bare minima of IRS Revenue Rulings. 

Now, with federations facing unheard of financial challenges to just keep the doors open and the social safety net they have built over the dcades literally threatened with collapse, there should be, there must be a national conclave dedicated to the restructuring of JFNA reflecting the new reality that no longer can the federations afford a $30 million JFNA Dues Budget, let alone a $50 million Budget in the aggregate. There must be an immediate Continental planning meeting to restructure JFNA as the trade organization it has become over its two decades of existence --  with financial support at an appropriate and severely reduced level. Yes, I am talking about a truly Draconian Budget...dictated by the circumstances of today.

Where to begin? The long ignored staffing bloat in JFNA-Israel would be an excellent starting point for significant cuts, with staffing everywhere truly and finally reflecting the organization's priorities -- security, Washington and Federation support services. As it appears that this iteration of JFNA has neither the capacity nor the interest in financial resource development (even as surveys of the federations had always identified FRD as the highest priority need of the system -- probably one of the reasons for no more surveys of community "needs") which, as recently as the last JFNA Budget was where 50%...50%...of your Federation's Dues were being spent, a 50% Dues reduction would not appear to be an unreasonable expectation.

It is now time for a dramatic JFNA "right-sizing." Anything less would be unacceptable in today's horrible economic environment. JFNA's Executive Committee have determined that an emergency exists. Earlier this month that Executive Committee convened and authorized the "Officers Team...to take such actions as they deem appropriate to to operate, manage and oversee all of JFNA's operational activities..."

Get on with it.

Rwexler