1. The Disappearing Lay Leaders. On June 11, the Government of Israel convened a Zoom teleconference with leaders of US organizations. The participants, from entities as diverse as the Conference of Presidents and JFNA to the San Francisco Community Relations Council and the Hasidic Community of Monsey, New Jersey, were each and all characterized by one common denominator -- they were all professionals. Not a single lay leader; not one. The "system" that you helped to construct was premised upon the best "lay-professional partnership" that could be built; and we succeeded in doing so. Now, that foundation, built brick-by-brick has been deconstructed brick-by-brick. The foundation of our communal system is being buried with the lay leaders leading the kaddish in silence. Maybe beyond resurrection. More on this another day...soon.
2. Priorities? Never mind. In recent Posts I've pointed to the dangers when our institutions lack focus/priorities. Wherever I look without a clear articulation of priorities, everything becomes the priority and, thereby, nothing is a priority. During this time of literal financial catastrophe for all of our organizations (yes, even for those which believe that they have some form of entitlement to commmunal dollars; those are in for the rudest of awakenings.) For too many, their's is life in the Land of Shiny Objects where everything looks great and so attractive that they turn to them adding them to an expansive list of priorities that will never be met -- not because they are not noble, because they can never be fully funded . These are illusions.
3. Making Hard Decisions...Harder. Before the birth of what would become JFNA and he its first CEO, Steven Solender served as President and CEO of the New York UJA-Federation of New York. In the late 1980's, America had suffered its worst recession before the one we are in today; and New York UJA was struggling with fewer financial resources as Steve, with his lay leadership, kept the ship afloat as the recession deepened. In one of many quiet conversations during that time, Steve told me how difficult it had become to attract and keep lay leadership "when every decision is so hard...where to cut, how deep the downsize needed to be," and the like. And, today...worse. Over the last 4 decades we have watched as in too many organizations that is all that we have done. I am sure that there are organizations -- like some federations and, certainly, the Jewish National Fund U.S.A. -- where lay leaders are fully engaged, knowledgeable and commited; but, in so many others, the lay leadership are wholly satisfied in viewing their Board and Committee service as an honorarium of some kind -- show up from time-to-time, some camaraderie, read the script and...leave it to the pros ("isn't that why we pay them?")...and never ask the hard questions. That dog won't hunt. Not today; not any more.
4. Binary Choice? In one of the more preposterous opinion pieces in today's inflamed political environment where slavish support for Donald Trump has become, to some, the seminal litmus test of support for Israel, JNS's Jonathan Tobin has framed one of his latest on the subject as What's More Important in a President: Policy or Character? Posed as a strictly binary choice, Tobin apparently rejects even the possibility that American Jews might answer: we want, we demand, BOTH. (BTW, the column is appended to a full color shot of Bolton, Pompeo, Trump and Pence.)
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4 comments:
Today's lay "leaders" are mere window dressing, puppets of the "professionals" that they have hired.
What has been forgotten is that the professionals are hired to advise and then implement policy set by those that hired them. Instead, they have become manipulators that set their own policies, while the lay "leaders" are honored and move up the ladder as long as they perform and serve.
The problem is that they are supposed to be serving their constituencies and our People - not themselves and the agenda set by the vested interests of staff.
When are we going to take back control?
I would add... the Disappearing Jewish Communal Service.... being buried by today's lay and 'professional' leaders!
The devastation to agencies, local, national and overseas, inflicted by COVID-19 is no greater than that suffered by those of the Jewish People most in need at the hands of an oblivious generation of lay leaders and chief professional officers. As ypou have written, easily distracted by "shiny objects" and a sense of absolute entitlement, it is amazing that the best-positioned orrganization to do so, JFNA, hasn't called a Continentasl meeting to confront the disaster our system faces.
This would be shameful if anyone in leadership was capable of experiencing shame.
Richard, you left an important moment of tragic-comedy inflicted on participants in a Jewish Agency COVID Zoom "fund raiser" less than two weeks ago. In case you and your readers missed it, this Zoom "event" appears to have been "sponsored" by an Israeli jeweler who was offering a cut to the Jewish Agency for any jewelry sold. In fact, more time was spent on the broadcast interviewing the jeweler than on the Agency's efforts to assist individual communities in need around the world. Is this what financial resource development now means at the Jewish Agency?
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