CONFLATION AND INFLATION

1. As we have noted, in its wisdom, The Jerusalem Post named JFNA Jerry as on of its "50 Most Influential Jews in 2017." G-d bless them; and congrats to Jerry. However, to underscore the reality that the Post hasn't a clue, the paper gave Silverman credit for his management of "...the Jewish communities he presides over." If, in fact, Jerry did so, he might...just maybe...deserve the honorarium the Post gave him. But, no. In fact,it's pretty clesr that Jerry doesn't even "preside over" JFNA...nobody does.

2. As you faithful readers have been fully informed, the numbers crunchers at JFNA are always very busy inflating numbers to suit their needs -- the best example is the annual inflation of GA audiences to 3,000 no matter that attendance never reaches half that number (and they are about to do it again). And, now, this:

"HOW FEDERATIONS’ NEGEV NOW INITIATIVE IS INVESTING $2.5M+ to holistically promote wellness and arts-driven community development in Israel’s South — building on decades of Federation support — is detailed in this latest report."

This was how the daily fish wrapping FedWorld described the JFNA Negev effort. I went to the link and nowhere could I find $2,500,000 except, perhaps, as an FRD goal of JFNA's Negev Coalition. Either that or JFNA-Israel merely conflated the Negev Now Initiative or included within this number all of the P2Gether projects and programs in the Negev now funded independent of JFNA by the federations and federation consortiums. Or, perhaps, someone at JFNA just borrowed a million or so from JNF projects or those of Ben Gurion University. Please, friends, do not confuse the Negev Now Initiative with the Negev Creative Vitality Initiative or, for sure, the JFNA Negev Coalition or the Revitalizing the Negev Through Placemaking Initiative -- or, maybe/probably you should. 

Adding to conflation inflation is JFNA's purposeful confusion of "Federation" as in the investments of individual federations over the decades and "Federation" as in the way JFNA often describes itself. The reality is that the JFNA/Federation has made at most a de minimus Negev investment of any kind; nor has it been the catalyst for any such investment by the real "federations." 

So I went to the link so graciously provided by FedWorld inasmuch as my previous examination of JFNA's Negev "efforts" had disclosed such paltry investment over the years. Found nothing.

3. The Israeli media recently reported that an Israeli driver won the Euro-NASCAR event, the first Israeli to do so. My question: what took so long? All of us who have driven the roads in Israel have known for decades that almost every Israeli driver is fully capable of winning every NASCAR race and most think they are in one.

4. Like so many of you, immediately before the Chagim we received a direct mail solicitation from HIAS, once the critical agency for Jewish immigration, now...not so much..."standing with today's refugees." Now, I fully understand and appreciate our religious commitment to be there for others but I have to question the effectiveness of a solicitation of Jewish donations to support "refugees in need like Ahmed," seeking to escape "the violence of war-torn Syria." I sense, I know, that HIAS is a Jewish organization that no longer serves Jewish refugees, there are none; now, of course, the question is "does the Jewish community need HIAS?"

Rwexler