"LET JERRY BE JERRY" -- OMG!!!

                                 Time is walkin'
                             It ain't no friend of his

I appreciated that a number of you who attended the Federation CEOs meeting post the JFNA Retreat told me your impressions of CEO Silverman's astonishing remarks there. I guess that CEO I-Am-So-Lost delivers an annual State of JFNA speech to the assembled community CEOs. This time Jerry, challenged by articles in local community newspapers and in the submissions to the ejp, all of which challenged him and JFNA to show some leadership, to convene a real conversation about the system -- things he hadn't done in 5+ years -- Jerry said he was "now" ready to let "Jerry Be Jerry." As one of my friends asked: "who the hell has he been these last 5 years?" Indeed.

So, now, Jerry Silverman, the "human paraquat," will emerge, like a butterfly from its cocoon, as what: a new person? A leader? Has he actually been in training at a cost of $650,000 per year for the last half decade? Does anything in the record suggest that Jerry possesses the bandwidth necessary to change himself, let alone the system? Is this how he convinced his Board Chair to extend his contract after no accomplishments over five years? Hard to believe but Silverman asserted that he was now ready to push back against the "status quo" -- whatever that means to him. To me Jerry is the status quo at JFNA, presumably this will be Jerry pushing back against Jerry. Anyone who has been observing JFNA for the past 5+ years knows that it has been like watching an auto accident in slow motion.

It was the columnist Paul Krugman, who described another as he might, if he knew him, describe Jerry: "Always wrong and never in doubt." Jerry has been, from Day 1 of his "era" the "poster child for tone deafness." And, now, this. JFNA has become, under what passes for leadership under CEO Jerry, as said so well in the incredible British play King George III "a weakling shadow of what went before" as is Jerry himself -- he is neither a Marty Kraar nor a Stanley Horowitz; yet his terms will extend beyond there. Amazing and sad. A series of Inspector Clouseau moments do not a leader make.

"Jerry being Jerry" is such an ominous concept. If this is a goal, whose is it? What is it? There is an old saying that "a goal without a plan is a wish, but a plan without details is fantasy." That's a good summary of 5+ years -- the fantasies of FRD "successes," of a "changed and meaningful" General Assembly attended by 1000s, of a JFNA whose programs are carefully monitored and publicly evaluated as promised with every ephemeral Budget and more and more and more. It is as if Silverman and his acolytes live in organizational Fantasyland. Just ask yourselves, friends, over the last decade and, in particular, the last 5+ years, what have been JFNA's contributions to the creative survival of the Jewish People? And, now...now...suddenly, "Jerry is going to be Jerry?" Puhleez.

JFNA, bereft of purpose, vision, engagement or goals at this stage of its corporate existence, is like a business in desperate need of either a total reorganization or an immediate turnaround. As the new CEO of McDonald's (which, after a disastrous year, didn't extend its CEO's contract but replaced him...hmmmm) wrote: "When you're in a turnaround situation, you can't incrementalize your way out of it. We are typically a risk-averse company...very methodical and thoughtful and thorough in the way we move. But time does not allow you to do that when you're in a turnaround; you have to act differently." Raise your hands if you believe Jerry Silverman is capable of turning JFNA around.  

And what of Michael Siegal, JFNA's Chair, you ask, how does he fit into this maze? He is nothing more or less than Jerry's enabler-in-chief. And that will be his sorry epitaph.

If Jerry wants some guidance, a helping hand, he has my number. At least he'll get the unvarnished truth. I, as many of you, would remind Silverman that the Jewish values on which the greatest philanthropic system was built are not shibboleths of a past era, and thereby so easily discarded; because if you throw them away (or, worse, fail to even understand what they are/were), you throw away the sacred trust that has been handed to you. I would tell Jerry that we need someone in his position to fix the organization -- and that requires someone who understands it. If Jerry is going to be the one to lead the system out of its dystopia -- a Dystopian failure for which Silverman has major responsibility -- he must immediately develop that understanding. Right now Jerry is not the "fixer" he would like to be -- in fact he is the antithesis: someone who doesn't get it at all. Can Jerry be that person? Can he be the person we need? First, he will need to recognize that by 2/3rds of the way through his term, the lovely, caring and generous lay person elected as our Board Chair has spent his capital -- and accomplished nothing. It is now up to Jerry to try to understand what federation means, that JFNA remains without purpose, vision or achievement. 

Jerry needs to understand he must start over. And, I may be proved wrong, but I don't think he can. Is there any evidence to the contrary? Anyway...Jerry, just give me a call...let's talk.

Rwexler

THE FUGAZI -- "JESNA 2"

Yes, I have written about the folly that is the National* Federation/Agency Alliance from time-to-time. I have criticized its lay leadership and professional staff for failing the national agencies at every turn, for failing to retain its members and for looking the other way while federations have. one after another, cut their allocations to the Alliance or actually left the building, and for failure to even understand the value of the national agencies to our system. Now we see JFNA and the Alliance at their combined worst -- with the Alliance shilling for JFNA in a plot pursuant to which the Alliance will provide budget support -- a budget subsidy, if you will -- to JFNA outside of the Dues process. Another example of JFNA's version of "fund raising." 

After three or, maybe, four "strategic plans," the latest of which was in 2012 (the results announced as "Newly Redesigned for 2013") all of those Alliance failings continue, but, now, the Alliance, having valued the late, lamented JESNA to such an extent that it was prepared to fully fund the organization even as JESNA was in the midst of a final collapse (while cutting other national agencies allocations) and, in fact, somehow paid out $275,000 to the organization after it closed, has proposed and the JFNA Board has now approved the creation of JESNA TWO. ( While JFNA/the Alliance may not have been aware of JESNA's financial issues, JESNA only rented office space within JFNA. Any surprise?) Did anyone...any one...actually miss JESNA after it was gone? Has there been any hue and cry demanding a new JFNA-run education Unit?

So, JFNA commissioned a $303,000 "planning process" on national Jewish education needs (who asked for this, decided the Alliance should do it and just who was that lucky consultant?) and it came up with  "do JESNA again only JFNA will do it." Yes, this one would be a programmatic agency that would be owned and operated by...JFNA. Is there anyone alive and breathing in our system? Or...just breathing? 

Here...

"The National Federation/Agency Alliance strongly recommends the formation of a new Jewish Education and Engagement Planning Unit at JFNA.** This recommendation is the outcome of the Alliance’s Jewish Education Planning Process***, which surfaced a strong consensus from participating Federations that JFNA is well situated to play a central convening and catalytic role in the arena of Jewish education, identity and engagement. Jewish education is a key area of investment for local Jewish federations, generally comprising either their leading area of local allocations, or one of the top two areas. These local investments include Federation allocations to day schools, synagogue and other supplementary schools, camp programs, Israel experiences, special education, and more." 

Friends, tell me, seriously, what in the continuing history of failure after failure in the annals of the Alliance suggested to the chachams at the Alliance, this font of failures, that there was/is "a strong consensus from participating Federations (would that number be four or five or six of 155?) that JFNA is "well situated... to play a central convening and catalytic role in the arena of Jewish education, identity and engagement"? Was it that now, finally, JFNA will be given something to do beyond the failed mental masturbation that is the Global Planning Table? Something for Mark Gurvis to run? The Alliance to this point has been a zero sum game -- now it will have gone below zero.

Why did the Alliance members believe JFNA would be the appropriate and necessary vehicle for delivering this eunuch Unit? Well, it is because JFNA "...played a significant role in representing Federations' interests and concerns within the Government of Israel/World Jewry Initiative..." It appears to make no difference that that conclusion is not supported by the facts whatsoever...the GOI Initiative is presently going nowhere (ask anyone but the operators of the Jerry Show) and JFNA through its GPT Unit (otherwise known as the straw that stirs the JFNA Kool-Aid) has not raised the required dollars to fund that Initiative. This Education Unit has now been approved by the JFNA Executive Committe and Board. I know, a huge surprise.

Have you heard Federations clamoring for greater JFNA engagement in Jewish Education? Have you heard anyone in the Federation system demanding that JESNA be resurrected after millions of dollars of wasted resources? Some speculate that it is the resurrection of an idea of Joe Kanfer's, whose interest in Jewish education is lifelong. But Joe must know that there is no capacity within JFNA to go operational in any area.  Only the Alliance could conclude: If the federations have little interest in this Unit after JESNA's slide into liquidation, why not put this on the tab of the very  National Agencies the Alliance was created to fund but hasn't; makes as much sense as anything else JFNA or the Alliance has done...or hasn't. Those who believe that success in any endeavor requires "skin in the game," will soon have the experience of deja vu all over again -- when more money is needed for this thing, JFNA will cry poor as it did with the IAN which, after Silverman agreed with John Ruskay that that Unit be funded by JFNA out of its Budget, returned in two years with tears in its advocates eyes asking to be relieved of that obligation. Remember, friends, you read it here first.

So proud are the Alliance "members" who proposed this "Initiative" that they didn't even choose to vet the "concept" with their "partners," the funded National Agency leaders. I spoke with three national agency leaders from three separate National Agencies and two federation Alliance members who attended the last Alliance meeting; there wasn't a mention of Jewish Education Planning Unit let alone the contemplated creation of this Unit or the contemplated funding out of the Alliance funding pool.

Oh, yes, there is both a staffing and a funding component to this initiative. You will remember that the once-treasured JESNA had an excellent Board (independent of JFNA) and for most of its short life, a great CEO and brilliant educator, Jonathan Woocher, and, even with the system's financial support, couldn't make it -- JESNA was unable to raise sufficient funds to sustain its efforts, no matter how valued they were. This Unit would be staffed by two full-time professionals to be hired as an initial staff component -- one senior and the other...a junior planning associate. They would report to the JFNA EVP -- that would be Mark Gurvis at the moment. How would all this be funded? The Alliance would reallocate $200,000 from 2013-14 (that evidently it has been holding rather than allocating those precious dollars to the other member National Agencies -- you would remember them as "partners") and, then $550,000 per year, for each of the next three years out of the Alliance allocation pool. 

So, get this -- JFNA will create this Unit which it will control, assure its funding out of the Alliance funding pool and thereby require no fund raising by JFNA; thus, this Unit will compete with all of the other national agencies which our system created or participated in the creation of and to which it has a fiduciary obligation, all the while shouting "what a great idea of ours." All this from an organization that had no clue that its funded Continental education agency, JESNA, was on an inexorable slide toward liquidation. Now, JFNA itself, with no evident ability to do so, will lead an education effort that may be vital today but for which it is ill-equipped and unprepared.

As one Comment to this Post put it perfectly:

"Mmm, the Alliance underfunds an agency contributing to that agency's demise. Said Alliance initiates a study that concludes the demise of the agency is a serious issue that must be rectified with the creation of a new department at JFNA. The new entity will be funded by the Alliance with the funds that previously supported the now defunct agency. Well played..." 

Let me remind all of us that the Alliance was created as a partnership among the federations and the national agencies our system created. There is nothing...nothing...in the organizing, formative documents of the Alliance, still in place, that contemplates in any way the creation and funding of a JFNA Unit while pretending that this Unit is a national agency.

Gosh almighty, this sounds like such a great idea!! It's like those old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland movies -- "let's put on a show!!!!" only the results will no doubt set back Jewish education rather than move it forward.

Oh, yes, let's put on a show, by all means.

Rwexler

* Maybe they meant "Continental" -- or maybe not
** Does anyone really believe that this was an "idea" that originated with the Alliance?
** * If the Alliance had a Jewish Education Planning Process, it was one unknown to the Agency members of the Alliance. The National Agencies were unrepresented in the "process."

THE NUMBERS TELL A STORY OF HISTORIC FAILURE

Just when you think that things could not get any worse...In anticipation of the recently concluded JFNA Retreat, the organization released the sickening results of its non-efforts in allocations and its most woeful cash collection efforts -- the worst in recorded history -- in 2014.

From the early 1990s through his retirement as the first Chief Financial Officer of JFNA, Lee Twersky, would call me to report with enormous pride on
the outcome of an all-hands year-end cash effort. Only Pamela Zaltsman, the current CFO, will remember those moments -- she cannot be very proud right now...no one in our system, lay or pro, at JFNA or the federations, should be. It's reached the point where JFNA's irrelevance is self-evident.

Some folks at JFNA decided to complicate these numbers as much as possible to make them look better -- but, once again, its like putting lipstick on a pig. In our system we have historically compared undesignated federation allocations year-by-year -- what is typically referred to as "free money" -- the dollars allocated to the core budgets of JAFI/JDC/World ORT. We'll get to those numbers in a moment. 

But, first, it should be noted that leaders at JFNA have attempted to provide cover for their failure with a blizzard of other data...the "lipstick" referenced above -- data having nothing...nothing...to do with the unrestricted allocations. Worse, this data often evidence the abysmal fund raising results that JFNA has been misrepresenting for months. To wit:

• The Ukrainian Relief Funds have totaled $2.7 million to JDC/JAFI in total, a  totally disgraceful amount, leaving the JDC and JAFI holding an empty bag;
• "Completing the Journey" totaled $1.3 million -- far, far below the original $5 million ask and far, far below the $3 million "reduced ask" leaving JAFI holding the empty bag:
• Though JFNA applauded itself, if I remember the figure correctly, for "raising" $21 million in the effort to support JAFI/Joint in response to this past Summer's Terrorists' War, JAFI/JDC received only $12 million with no possible credible explanation; and
• While JFNA counts Community Funded Electives/Supplemental Giving/Israel Education Funds to JFA/Joint/ORT as part of "Total Distributions," these are funds raised directly by the overseas "partners," (and UIA to some extent) in which JFNA played no role other than to send the funds on upon receipt.*

Bottom line, simply stated, cutting to the chase, in 2014 JFNA failed our system's one-time true partners as never before. Never before have Unrestricted Distributions to the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Joint or World ORT fallen to the depths of 2014. 

• To JAFI -- $87.6 million, down from $94.3 million in 2013 (the previous low point) -- and, by JFNA's own statistics, down 16.4% since 2010. (And, since the merger, almost a $100,000,000 reduction or 53%.
• To the JDC -- $29.4 million, down another $400,000 from the low of the prior year;
• To World ORT -- a $100,000 reduction, to its lowest point, down "only" 22% since 2010

Friends, these are but the latest and worst failings of an organization that has lost its way in so very many ways. The merger documents to which 100% of the federations agreed, created JFNA as an organization of and for the federations to, at its core, would raise more money and more donors, inspire our communities to greater achievement, and be the advocate for our historic overseas partners. Instead we have seen failure everywhere we look

Now, as never before, it is time for questions: where have the funds "raised" for relief from the Terrorists' War of 2014 gone? Have we as a Continental Community so totally failed Ukraine Jewry as JFNA's own numbers reveal? Do we even know how to raise money any more? Just what are JFNA's purposes?When Jerry Silverman reveals to the Town Hall at the Retreat that after 5+ years on the job "it's time for Jerry to be Jerry" does that very concept not strike fear in all who heard it?

But, the seminal question is this: does anyone even care?

Rwexler

* JFNA added its own totally baffling footnote to its own data: "Unrestricted for (the Jewish Agency/JDC) included in Electives." No one I have been able to speak to can explain what this gobbledegook means.

NO SHAME

       350,000 -- The number of Jews at risk this Winter in the Ukraine
          $2.7 Million -- The amount in the aggregate raised at JFNA to assist
       Ukrainian Jews through the Ukraine Assistance Fund

Maybe you had some hope that JFNA would emerge from what is now approaching a decade of building on one failure after another, and might actually succeed at something...anything. But it was not to be. After the fiasco of its non-existent failed Continental response to the terror atrocity on the streets of Paris, the totally inadequate action to assist Ukrainian Jewry is like a period at the end of a sentence. As the NCESJ's latest Weekly Update asserts: "We continue to receive alarming news from Jewish communities in Eastern Ukraine" and the WSJ headlined yesterday "In Ukraine Civilians Again in Crossfire." Apparently the majordomos, lay and professional alike, at 25 Broadway don't read.

Across the Continent there appeared to be a recognition that with winter upon them, and the country still under direct threat with the prospect of peace talks having foundered and war reignited, we would step forward with an enhanced and focused effort for our brothers and sisters in the Ukraine. At the 2014 GA there did appear to be the hope of a real commitment to raise the tens of millions necessary to provide the Ukrainian Jewish community, through the JDC, with everything from blankets to food to medical care to our support for JAFI's efforts at increased aliya, at a time when it appeared that the Evangelical Christian community through the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews was on the cusp of meeting our historic and very Jewish responsibilities -- all at a time when the Ukrainian currency has been devalued exceeding 50% and, in Eastern Ukraine, occupied by Russian separatists, pensions wiped out, and the daily terror of renewed war everywhere. The speeches at GA 2014 -- as always with JFNA, words...just words; the effort...none.

Yes, once again, JFNA "efforts" consisted of an impassioned speech or two, maybe a letter or two, and some calls to the City-size groupings of federations. But fund raising, hell no. As I write this, there is a -31 degree wind chill and I am sitting at my computer in my well-heated office in Chicago thinking of my/our visits to the apartments of our Ukrainian mishpacha, bringing food packages, vital medicine and a human touch in the Summer and Spring, the apartments drafty even then, maintained with dignity, no matter the circumstances. I can only imagine the conditions under which our extended family are living in the midst of the bitter winter in Donetsk or Kiev, or wherever they may live -- with electricity blackouts, food and medicine running short and hope running out and war all around. The situation in Eastern Ukraine right now has been described by the NCESJ as experiencing "..a dangerous escalation of fighting and rising death toll."  "The war is exploding anew in Ukraine" the New York Times reported one week ago. And JFNA does nothing, its leaders'  ostrich heads in the sand.

The two Co-Chairs of the JFNA Ukraine allocations process are terrific leaders -- I know they would go anywhere to help raise the dollars to effect real "fund raising;" I know that they could recruit other lay leaders to join them. But, JFNA doesn't know how to raise money any more -- it is not even a shadow of what once was the greatest and most respected fund-raising vehicle in Jewish or non-Jewish life -- it does not even try. 

For JFNA -- just can't be bothered. After all, they had to plan a Retreat, a high end donor Mission to Shanghai, maybe another illusory Signature Initiative, and other, equally important stuff. And there were vacations. Oh, there is a Ukraine Assistance Fund and a nice link on the JFNA website to the "Mailbox" (JFNA must have a helluva time keeping track of all the Mailboxes it has opened over just the last year) it has opened to collect the pledges it doesn't solicit -- even Jerry "Mr. Mailbox" Silverman probably knows after five years that this Mailbox Method isn't fund-raising but with Jerry one never knows what he knows. 

Ahhh me. Where is the effort? Where is the passion? Where is the fund raising? What the hell does "Philanthropic Resources" do? Is there a National Campaign Chair any more? Is there a National/Continental organization any more? Was the Ukraine Emergency on the agenda anywhere at the JFNA Retreat concluded just days ago? Of course not.

The scoreboard tells the whole story. This episode is beneath contempt. It is not just a shameful episode, and it is just the latest one; it is a shame; it is our shame. It is our embarrassment. It is JFNA 2015 playing violins while the Ukraine burns.

My friends, it didn't/doesn't have to be this way. 

Rwexler

THE JFNA BOARD -- ERRORS AND OMISSIONS

1. JFNA has many issues as we have identified on these pages from time-to-time. Engagement is one of the most serious. So, here is a critical Resolution that the JFNA Board just approved:

"WHEREAS, Article VI of the JFNA corporate by-laws identifies and defines the responsibilities of JFNA corporate officers, included therein, at Sections 6.5, 6.6, and 6.9, respectively, are the offices of Chair of the Board, Chair of the Executive Committee, and Vice Chairs, also identified more in the roster of corporate officers in Section 6.1-2, Paragraphs a, b, and c, respectively; and,

WHEREAS, as part of a comprehensive by-laws review and in the interest of clarifying and streamlining leadership roles, the Governance and By-laws Committee has recommended a re-configuration of three officers to specifically provide for:

1. (1)  The Chair of the Board to preside not only at meetings of the Board, but meetings of the Executive Committee of the Board, as well.
2. (2)  Re-designate the Chair of the Executive Committee as (sole) Vice Chair of the Board empowered to act in the absence of the Chair of the Board.
3. (3)  Eliminate the office of all other existing Vice Chairs of the Board" 

Yep, an organization with an engagement problem eliminates all of five of its Vice Chairs, vests all authority in the Board Chair (if only we had one!!) and CEO (if only we had one!) and in the Chair of the Partnership Committee of the GPT (as of now, we do have one), and creates a new single Vice Chair whose only role will apparently be to preside in the event the Board Chair cannot. Friends, placing more power in the hands of fewer people has never been a good idea; and, when one of the people is the current CEO, even a more terrible one.

It has been evident that the current Chair of the Executive, Dede Feinberg, has been so marginalized by the perfect storm of Board Chair, CEO and the Chair of the Global Planning Table Partnership Committee, that made this specious recommendation...so marginalized as to not even exist. Whether Dede is consulted on anything of substance on-going at JFNA other than reading the Executive Committee script is debatable. If this were happening to another leader, I have no doubt that the person would have resigned in protest; but Dede is too gracious to do so, the daily humiliation notwithstanding. (When Sonny Plant was ignored on Budget matters when he served as Treasurer, he resigned, only to be coaxed into withdrawing his resignation with promises of total consultation going forward [a total consultation that never happened].)

As I write this, prior to the Board meeting at which it will be approved, I'm certain that the Board heard that this is being done "consistent with best business practices"..."this will streamline our governance" and similar bulls__t. In an organization that hardly operates like a business in any way, isn't this preposterous? There actually have been instances where the Chair of the Executive performed critical functions -- Joel Tauber, Sonny Plant, z'l, and, of interest, Kathy Manning herself. The Vice Chairs who will be eliminated could be vital players for JFNA -- in FRD, allocations, etc. or they could be the sitting lay Chairs of the City-size groups -- but, to the perfect storm, these lay leaders just got in the way. 

And, when I say "got in the way" I am joking because the response should be "got in the way" of what -- the nothing that JFNA is doing? There is no need for Vice Chairs to assist in advocacy for JFNA's FRD...because there is none. There is no need for Vice Chairs to lead an allocations advocacy effort...because there is none. You name it...there. is. none. Not that there couldn't be, but no one's home.

When JFNA was created by merger, it was explicitly contemplated that the Board Chair would lead JFNA policy and the Chair of the Executive would be responsible for oversight of the day-to-day operations of the entity. Oh, what might have been the case had JFNA lay leadership followed the merger guidelines and had there been lay oversight of anything. But, of course, as in all things, those guidelines were first ignored (as early as in the formative days of the first Co-Chairs) and then heard of no more -- certainly for the last nine years and, probably, many more, there has been no oversight and no accountability. We would not permit this willful ignorance in our own communities, but at JFNA...

2. I don't even understand why this issue of French/European Jewry in 2015 had  but one place on the public agenda of the JFNA Board Meetings. Of course JFNA heard from Hillel's President, a report on attitudes of younger adults toward Israel but, other than a report from Malcolm Hoenlein, and the typical "table discussions" -- nothing. And here is how those table discussions were framed: "The Board will discuss how JFNA and Federations might support the European community." Filler. Just filler. Check it off the list and move on. Worse, the plight of the Jews of the Ukraine didn't merit a moment of this important meeting...not a moment for a major Jewish population more directly threatened -- "War is exploding anew in Ukraine" the NYT reported on Saturday -- than the Jewish community of France...not a moment. Can't be bothered.

3. Meanwhile another Board meeting passes with no questions about the waste embodied in a JFNA Budget which CEO What's-A-Budget? treats as merely a fungible framework for shifting funds with no apparent accountability.* Referencing back to the two years that Sonny Plant chaired the Budget and Finance Committee, or to the UJA/CJF years when Budget Chairs and the Committees took their roles seriously, it's hard to believe the depths we have reached today.

4. Following on its uncertain support for French Jewry -- no Continental FRD aside from creating a "Fund," asking for letters of support and a Mission -- Siegal announced a Solidarity Mission and scheduled it for February 8-10. It follows immediately upon a previously scheduled Jewish Agency/Keren  Ha'Yesod Mission which will convene February 2-4 in Paris. After asking a simple question -- why two Missions, why not just one -- I learned from several sources at JFNA and Jerusalem that the Jewish Agency requested  that JFNA join the JAFI Mission -- a single unified Mission -- and heard back "not interested."  Now, JFNA's subsidiary, UIA, issued invitations for the JAFI Mission. Of greater interest is the fact that both the JAFI and JFNA Missions have excellent Itineraries. 

5. Seeing as JFNA has abandoned FRD, it is no surprise that for the second meeting in a row, the Philanthropic Resources Committee/Council/Whatever discussed the Sapir Award Again; oh and how to raise money at the GA!! By whom? Don't know.

A mess.

Rwexler

See 1, above.

WHO'S RUNNING THIS CIRCUS?? SPECIAL EDITION

I admit to being misinformed when I wrote that the lay and professional leaders of JFNA, Israel and Overseas and the Global Planning Table had met a few weeks ago to establish guidelines for the smooth functioning of JFNA in the overseas arena. I apologize for this misinformation. I know I was misinformed because I, like many of you, received the GPT: Phase Two -- Next Steps one-pager immediately before the JFNA Board meeting and it disclosed that absolutely nothing has changed.

To wit:

• It is the GPT that will "work in collaboration with our partners and other organizations" on all overseas "initiatives"
• It is the GPT that will "assess the impact of collective funds"
• It is the GPT that "will continue to serve as a planning arm for JFNA...facilitating a next round of thinking and strategizing by Federations

Oh, there is lip service to the GPT's work which "...will complement and be synchronized with the work of the Israel and Overseas Coordinating Council and advocate for increased Israel and overseas funding, but, just to underscore its hegemony in this area, the GPT paper makes certain that we know that it is the GPT "Partnership Committee (which) will continue its mandate (??) to develop..." allocation recommendations (which the Partnership Committee [permanent Chair, Kathy Manning, of course] will "advance" to the JFNA Board). 

If you were to read the real, original mandate of the aggrandizing Global Planning Table, you would know that what were originally to be requirements of Phase One of the GPT -- funding its Strategic Initiatives and assessing the impact of global services and funding, among other things -- now have been shifted to a Phase Two that was never contemplated.

And, just to further put JFNA's Israel and Overseas Coordinating Council in its place, the GPT unilaterally announced, in this "paper" that it "...will continue to be a freestanding Committee within JFNA, reporting to JFNA's Board..." and, thereby, not reporting to Israel and Overseas.

And the Israel and Overseas Coordinating Council -- what will it be doing? Best I can tell, its new Chair will be tossed a few bones -- like leading a Solidarity Mission to Paris -- and sent to the corner where he can reflect upon being misled. 

In America we have grown used to reporting our losses as victories (Vietnam, Iraq come to mind), declaring victory and moving on. At JFNA, and especially, within the GPT "process," we just deny our failures, count losses somehow as "victories" (after all this spurious "Paper" reported that "[D]uring its first three years, the GPT successfully facilitated planning and program development processes" -- that's three years and that's success and over there -- that's the Brooklyn Bridge we want to sell you) and just continue to  build loss upon loss, with never ever a report on how much money has been and is being wasted 24/7 on this thing.

David Butler, in a very generous farewell and thank you letter upon his retirement as karaoke singer to Kathy Manning's voice as GPT Chair, announced his successor, a lay leader from MetroWest with a wonderful reputation for independent thought, and a number of changes to Co-Chairs of the various Initiatives. Not surprisingly, with all of the changes, one thing is forever...Ms. Manning will continue to make or influence all matters related to the GPT as Chair of the GPT "Partnership" (what the hell does that mean in the GPT context??) Committee.

But, with all the changes, don't worry, the GPT (not JFNA, not its Israel and Overseas thing), will be "[e]ngaging and educating Federation leadership on an on-going basis, to ensure that Federations of all sizes are fully updated about GPT efforts." Sure, just as these same professionals -- and those are exactly the same folks -- have not done for three years. 

So I will ask Michael Siegal once again: "Why don't you act like a Board Chair and (1) replace the self-perpetuating oligarchy at the top of the GPT pyramid; and (2) merge the GPT into the Israel and Overseas Coordinating Council -- and take these steps now?"

Oh, I forgot, Michael Siegal doesn't do that. 

Yes, as it has been explained to me: JFNA is to the Global Planning Table as Poland was to Germany. 

Rwexler

WHY????

In a recent column in The Wall Street Journal, Jason Gay lamented the pathetic New York Knicks. He wrote: "At the moment, the Knicks have a record of 5 wins against 32 losses (it's now 6 wines, 36 losses)...the Knicks have won just one game in their last 23. It is really hard to go one-for-23 at any human endeavor." Of course, Gay has not heard of our JFNA, 0 FOR THE LAST 9...YEARS.

Recently, one of my dear friends, a major philanthropist with unmatched experience in Jewish communal life at the local, national and global levels, raised the following with me:

"With all due respect, it is the failure of the JFNA lay leadership over the years that has been the largest contributing factor to the decline of the national system.  It is apparent  that they have consistently made poor choices, among themselves as well as in choosing professionals.  You know their history and track record as well as I do.  I just arrived at the conclusion long before you!

There are multiple solutions that would probably work should there really be an appetite for change.  However, their implementation would mean abandoning or terminating the entrenched decision makers and a complete re-engineering of the organization.  This kind of turnaround means someone or some group with authority and resources will emerge out of the current malaise to spearhead the effort. As you know some of us have done so in the past with great success but now it is time for the next generation to seize the reins.  So far, they haven't figured out the logistics."

This friend, sadly, walked away from the system when his advice and counsel were consistently ignored; he walked away at about the same time that Michael Siegal, a terrific person with a big and generous heart, a major Federation presence with alleged major direct contact with P.M. Netanyahu (from his days as the national leader of Israel Bonds), was parachuted into JFNA lay leadership with no prior experience or exposure there. The lay leadership he inherited already had their allegiances to others (and to themselves) and have consistently rejected Michael's efforts to reform the organization and focus it on its core purposes and bring the Global Planning Table into and under the JFNA governance. So, like some of his predecessors, while still in office, Michael appeared to wash his hands of any hope of effecting change, and limited himself to signing Briefings, giving impassioned speeches without follow-up and calling federations to plead that they pay Dues. What a waste of what could have been the leader of transformational change.


When, at the birth of the merger, Charles Bronfman, JFNA's first Board Chair, faced objection from the federations over his determination of to whom an Assistant CEO would report -- Charles or the JFNA CEO, Steve Solender -- Charles simply threatened to resign. This occurred on the cusp of JFNA's inaugural GA (in Atlanta, as I recall). So, a group of Federation lay and professional leaders was organized to meet with Mr. Bronfman and (1) apologize and (2) plead with Charles to modify his position. Whether Bronfman prevailed is less important to this narrative than is the fact that he acted as the Board Chair should. In the case of Michael Siegal, any pushback on any initiative he has begun has resulted in...nothing...absolutely nothing. So we can expect that until Siegal's Terms as Board Chair end, that is exactly what is going to happen...absolutely nothing.

The place has been and still is on fire and there is no fire extinguisher in sight -- one cannot even see hope in the distance. Here we are waiting for someone, anyone, to step forward and assert him/her self with a promise to effect change and with the will, so lacking today, to act. But it almost as if that person will have to hide his/her intentions or else their emergence will never be permitted. 

So, while I can ask "why?" I know that the answer will be "why not?" 

Pathetic.


Rwexler

RIGHTING THE IMBALANCE

These are perilous times in the Jewish non-profit world. In New York City alone the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty has been impacted by the "discovery" that corruption and self-dealing ran rampant among trusted professional leaders; FEGS suddenly "discovered" tens of millions in losses; Yeshiva University is reeling from $100s of millions in deficits -- each has suffered devastating fund-raising and allocations losses. We know, as well, that organizations including Hadassah and the ZOA have experienced lapses in financial controls that cost the former control of its most prized asset and the latter the loss of its 501(c)(3) status (allegedly now restored). Then there are federations which hide fund-raising failures behind transfers from Endowment funds including them within annual campaign figures. 

What the hell is going on? Well, there are probably countless reasons but I lay the bottom-line responsibility on the collapse of the lay-professional partnership across the board. It's not alone a phenomenon in New York City, it's just that it is there that this breakdown has manifested itself in financial catastrophe too often accompanied by organizational corruption. In some instances, Officers and Boards of Directors have chosen to delegate away their fiduciary responsibilities to professional leaders rubber-stamping professional decisions without the requisite inquiry; too often Board members who actually exercise their duty of inquiry and examination go on the blacklist and watch as their services are no longer wanted...ever. And the consequences of "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" have never been more clear. 

Nowhere do we see more evidence of the abandonment of fiduciary responsibility than at the hallowed halls of 25 Broadway where the JFNA Board of Directors blindly rubber stamp incompetence and failure  on a weekly if not daily basis. The motto that should be engraved over its portal is "abandon principle all ye who enter here." Surely, no one has yet has been found to have their hands in the cookie jar, and this Post isn't meant to suggest that; instead, we have seen almost $650,000,000 in Dues, in donors funds, wasted in the aggregate without return on value to the federations who have willingly supplied the funds without either questions or accountability. That may not be stealin' but it ain't good either...and the waste is a lot more, hundreds of millions more, than have actually been found to have been stolen by those convicted of corruption of other organizations. 

Isn't it time to call a halt to the mess we have, by silence and inaction, permitted? Example: last year JFNA elected leaders actually determined to exercise the powers of their offices and take back the arrogation of powers by the Global Planning Table elite; the GPT would become the subcommittee of Global Operations: Israel and Overseas that it should be. But, moving forward, incredibly, the leaders of the GPT and a few federations pushed back and the JFNA leaders dropped it, leaving the I and O Chair to resign and the system in the sorry state we find it today. Where oh where was Jerry I'm-CEO-of-What? Well, I am told he was on both sides when he could be understood at all. There's not much more that needs to be said.

JFNA is a catastrophe...but it's a an even bigger catastrophe waiting to occur. 

Rwexler

ANOTHER JFNA SENIOR PROFESSIONAL -- GONE

I think I first met Becky Sobelman-Stern when she worked in the Western Region for the United Jewish Appeal -- thinking back, she must have been but a child -- even though she was already the bright, creative and eager young professional who grew into a major, still young professional leader while at both UJA and JFNA. I loved working with her, challenging her as she challenged me right back. Because of JFNA's policy of "no fraternization with our perceived enemies," I have watched Becky's professional growth from afar with admiration as she rose in the ranks to National Vice-President of Consulting..

At JFNA, working first under the leadership of Barry Swartz in Consulting Services, Becky grew to lead Consulting Services and JFNA's participation in any number of communal planning efforts and a series of mergers (one federation professional leader called that effort "taking two failing federations and putting them together to form one larger failed federation").

Becky had been at JFNA from its creation. Her departure announced just this morning will leave a gaping hole in JFNA's Consulting Services but, like Philanthropic Resources a/k/a FRD, it's not clear that JFNA wants to be in that "business" any more or, maybe, Mark Gurvis will take it over.

Becky has joined the Senior staff at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. She will go from strength-to-strength.

Rwexler

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Here is the list of accomplishments claimed by JFNA's Planned Giving and Endowment Department since Joe Imberman took the professional reins there under the CJF "brand" as recited in Joe's "farewell missive" to the field:

• the provision of basic and advanced gift planning and compliance services for all
• the creation of a Bi-Annual Investment Institute and the beginning of a move to establish an investment office at JFNA
• myriad training and continuing education opportunities for professionals and lay leaders including Endowment Leadership and Professionals Institutes, Senior Advisory council meetings etc.
• collaboration with our Washington office on matters of legislation and tax policy affecting the field
• the build out of the highly successful Create a Jewish Legacy model which has raised in excess of $500 million in future commitments
• the creation of a highly successful Multi-Generational Family Philanthropy program in collaboration with 21/64 of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies
• the creation of a National Jewish Federation Investment program as well as a national Charitable gift annuity program.
• annual endowment surveys and corresponding health checks to assist communities in comparing peer performance
• web based newsletters and Listservs to allow professionals and lay leaders to communicate and learn what the national system has available in this arena
• development consultation for all on endowment topics
• an innovative Social Venture Fund for Jewish Arab Equality and Shared Society which has distributed over $6 million since inception

• a national endowment recognition program entitled Star of David which encompasses 1700 names
• the management of our own JFNA Endowment fund which makes $2 million of grants per year supporting not only the annual campaign but individual community legacy and other development efforts
• research on topics that impact endowment philanthropy in the system

I remember when Joe Imberman joined us to lead the professional effort -- he was a strong and respected federation professional who feared that UJA professional and lay leaders would interfere with his efforts to build a national and then continental endowment/planned giving effort. He probably won't remember that I assured him that he had nothing to fear...and he didn't. While many of the accomplishments on the list are due to Joe's creativity, many  of these were initiated by the federations and, as is appropriate, grown by Joe and his lay and professional team.

Joe Imberman just announced his retirement after guiding that endowment and planned giving effort from before the merger and then for the last 15 years within JFNA. Joe was a professional of great integrity while being very conservative in his approaches -- particularly so if he received push back from "the field" (even if it was but a small portion of that "field"). Over time Joe and I had some good discussions about the need for more aggressive leadership on issues that I knew were important to him and the system. Yes, I also remember that Joe proceeded with more than just professional caution -- especially when his federation professional advisory groups pushed back -- and resisted the integration of endowment and planned giving into what used to be campaign. Those were valuable learning lessons.

Joe Imberman's accomplishments for JFNA and to the field were many and he will be missed at a place where a superb professional's departure means the organization is further diminished. We wish him well as he joins an esteemed roster of former JFNA top pros who have moved into federation consultancy. 

May he go from strength-to-strength.

Rwexler