WHERE DOES ONE PLACE THEIR TRUST?

When Eric Fingerhut began his service as JFNA's new CEO and President, he was joining an organization of strangers to him. Certainly, for better or worse, he received guidance from the lay leaders who played the most significant role in his hiring. And, no doubt, he brought some mid-level professionals with him from Hillel as JFNA's budget reflected a small FTE increase in the Office of the President. And, naturally, Fingerhut spent his first months getting the JFNA "lay of the land" from its most senior professionals. 

And, Eric not being a rookie in Jewish organizational life, a strong and respectedf professional of reputed good judgment, of whom one would have expected that after the "break in period," we would have seen significant changes at the very top of the JFNA organization chart.

But...no. In the face of the pandemic, JFNA announced that it had down-sized by 37 persons, most of them mid-level professionals -- you know, as in almost every non-profit, those who are doing the work in the trenches. And the long-serving SVP Marketing and Communications left as well (and, relatively promptly, replaced). Pre-pandemic, Fingerhut announced that, in addition to his role as CEO/President he would serve as the head of FRD, after that position was vacated -- and, inasmuch as JFNA no longer appears to engage in FRD, once its primary fundtion and the one most demanded by the communities, this should not unduly burden him.

And, what is JFNA left with -- at the least, its two most senior professionals: its Executive Vice-President and its SVP Global Operations and Director General JFNA Israel. Now, to be honest I don't know much about what either of these prfessional leaders do but I'm pretty sure that whatever they may do includes: protecting and supporting each other; identifying other JFNA professionals who have been or will be sacrificed to the economic fall-out of the pandemic but not them; and, of course, kissing up to the CEO (a pattern they established early on with Eric's predecessor for whom the delivery of a constant supply of Diet Cokes was a high point of service) and to every lay leader whom they associate with JFNA power. 

And, whatever their roles really are these two drink very, very well from the Jewish money spigot. Yes $409,000 to the EVP; $347,000 to the SVP Global Ops. If the CEO was trying to identify additional  savings, he need have looked no further. But he did not. WHY NOT? I have no doubt that over the years, these two senior professionals have looked to a small groiup of lay leaders to succor their support. And, if not otherwise successful, this twosome proved the benefits of that support. And those lay leaders, recirculated through the JFNA leadership ranks as if they had demonstrated success in their prior roles, became reliant on these pros for information, and for mutual support -- effectively rewarding the pros' loyalty to them confusing that personal loyalty with loyalty to the organization.

More's the pity, friends.

G'mar tov.

Rwexler