BEATING DEAD HORSES

Over the past decade-plus few decisions (or lack thereof) have been more disappointing than JFNA leadership's refusal to recognize that the federations' investment in JFNA-Israel has produced no return, maybe even a negative one. 

Yes, I have written on the subject frequently, most recently in reflection on the reality that even with the continuing staff bloat after some small "right-sizing," JFNA-Israel was caught by total surprise with the decisions and "compromises" at the World Zionist Congress meetings and the recent "discovery" that JAFI was "partnering" with a Messianic Evangelical "charity" dedicated to the ultimate conversion of all to Christianity. And, these are just two of many.

The system's Israel Office CEO's were once professionals with strong resumes, great personal access to the highest offices in the Israel Government -- Menachem Revivi and MK Nachman Shai. They were totally dedicated to the mission, and not to personal self-aggrandizement. That was then and this is now.

Friends, you know that I've watched the Israel Office of our national system from the beginning. When I chaired my Federation in 1986-1987, we created our community's Israel presence and I received a call from the CEO of national UJA, a wonderful friend and mentor, Stanley Horowitz, z'l, who pleaded with me to rely on UJA's nascent Israel Office rather than staff up. We staffed up; it worked very well. And, what Horowitz and UJA created morphed from a small focused operation to the unfocused, unsuccessful bloat that is JFNA-Israel today and for the past decade.

And, that might be ok were JFNA's operation a success at any level. Focus on Israel's Civil Society? Sure. There is still (I think) Irep, the sole surviving remnant of the Global Planning Table, z'l, funded by a few foundations to advocate and educate for, e.g., pluralism initiatives. Almost nothing. Or the Negev. Here's what JFNA-Israel claims:

"Federation enhances the quality of life for its current and future residents. We're developing leaders so they can create a cohesive, resourceful community. Together with the Israeli government, we're helping maintain universities and hospitals..."

There's more but it's all an exercise in creative writing. Almost nothing...but bulls#*t like this stuff. (JNF-USA is actually raising large sums for Negev projects from mega to small. That's where the action is for those who know and love the Negev.)

Or take Israel advocacy. It appears that that advocacy is the last thing this JFNA-Israel office wanted to touch. (It had in the past when the brilliant professional, Doron Krakow, now the CEO of JCCA, with Jane Sherman as a strong lay presence, and many JAFI and JDC leaders tried advocacy for....what??... a year?) So JFNA did almost no advocacy and then used its pathetic "study" of UIA as an excuse to hand advocacy back to JAFI and JDC -- an "it's their problem" non-answer to the problem of the bottoming-out of overseas allocations.

In fact, JFNA's leaders don't need a forensic audit to understand that JFNA-Israel isn't producing, isn't working out and hasn't and needs to be reconstructed from top to bottom starting yesterday. The fact that JFNA leaders would hand the UIA Unit --which had been producing quality results for the federations for decades and which had a body of federation leaders as its dedicated leaders -- to this ineffective structure is still one of the sorriest decisions the JFNA Board has made since the merger. 

Worse, in the midst of the pandemic, at a time during which JFNA has reduced its workforce appropriate to anticipated resource reductions, JFNA has now engaged a Search Firm to pursue a new hire for a new position -- an "Associate Vice President, Israel and Oversea," to office in New York headquarters and to report to the self-same Senior V-P, JFNA-Israel who has been at the helm for over a decade. Instead of further populating this version of JFNA-Israel, it strikes this writer that it is exactly the right time to undertake a careful examination of how to make this silo within JFNA effective at last. (Further, that study must not be led by those who have had leadership responsibilities for that operation over the past decade.)

And, reverting to the days immediately post-merger, a Task Force on Israel, staffed by Bob Aronson and chaired by Marvin Lender, strongly recommended that the merged entity's Israel operation office in the New York HQ with a small focused staff in Jerusalem. Someone might want to pull that tome off the shelf and study it. Envision what an effective JFNA-Israel operation might look like and what it might accomplish. 

And, then do it!!

Rwexler