Just A Suggestion

We had hoped to take a real break, but we are frustrated. We are so far down the Totem Pole, we don't believe we're even on it; or, to be more politically correct, we are so far down the UJC Table of Organization that we're not treated like we're even on it. Even so, shouldn't we and everyone else at 111 know what's going on? How often can we get the message that we "have to get with the team" but never told what the game is?

The word is that UJC's Board and meetings in California Sunday and Monday were excellent, but we don't have a clue as to what the topics were, how the discussions went. Except for office talk, we don't know what's on tap. Wouldn't it be great for that "teamwork," if our professional leaders -- it doesn't have to be Howard Rieger -- would gather us in the Conference Rooms and go over the Agenda, what was discussed, what our roles are going to be, etc. It strikes us that that's how to create a sense of "teamwork." But that's not the way it's gone here.

Don't everybody get angry. It's just a suggestion. Help make UJC a great place to work.

We're Back...briefly

We have returned only to cite you to another Blog that has been brought to our attention:

http//ujtheeandme.blogspot.com/

It's "different"

Shavua Tov

It's time to take a breath. With insightful Comments from so many of you and with the intervention of the Large City Executives (having nothing to do with this Blog) and with some concerned Federation Chairs set to examine together the current state of UJC (a decision reached before the advent of this Blog) and with the attention of so many, we will maintain the Disunited Jewish Communities Blog-site for your Comments and insights while we observe whether or not UJC leaders can really change. We will continue to be sustained by hope -- the "myth" as our colleague "Jon" described it shall remain our dream.



But, we will be watching and working within UJC with a focus on whether this leadership can itself change. When this Blog is publicly characterized by them as being "replete with errors" (trust that we may be bad Spell Checkers but we are excellent Fact Checkers) and not only the Posts dismissed but your Comments as well, with extensive time spent on tracking us down -- with these "facts" in hand, it's our cynicism about this leadership's ability to look at itself and change that is rewarded, not our hopes for introspection and change. And, if change at the top of UJC doesn't take place, and soon, we will fill this Post with our observations once again. Some of the topics we have teed up:

• Abuse of Power 1 -- The Boca Bond Issue



• Abuse of Power 2 -- Blowing Off a Mega-Donor/ The Internet Campaign that Wasn't



• The Megalomania of the "Big Idea"



• Where Have All the Leaders Gone...and Why



• No Task Ever Finished

You who have taken the time to write us with your insights and support have given us hope that the dream of an organization that can inspire our communities to the highest achievement can be realized; and that we can recapture the passion that brought us into Jewish communal life in the first place. Please help us.

Now we're going to kick back, plug in our headsets and listen to some tracks of The Stooges, and work on our spelling.

Shavua tov and l'hitraot,





The Boys/Girls of UJC

The Good Old Bad Old Days

Let's end a contentious week with a little nostalgia.

Several Comments this week with regard to the halcyon days of yore -- the years of the UJA -- a couple dissing UJA and UJA lay and professional leaders almost in rage and others questioning what was it really like, inspired us to examine what we see and ask ourselves that very question: "what was it like"? In Tateh's Comment earlier today she related a former Federation exec's memories:

"....he said that in the old days UJA provided speakers and outside
solicitors, gave a good brand name for the campaign (UJA), ran good
missions and a young leadership cabinet...and about once a year sent
someone to berate the allocations committee.....(whom) nobody listened
to..."

We understand that to be a pretty good summary if one also adds: created the Lion of Judah Endowment, the Campaign Chairs/Directors Mission; the Voyage of Discovery and every Special Campaign. We know much of this from history because so few of the old UJA leaders walk our halls any more -- Arlene Kaufman, Rani Garfinkle, Rich Wexler, Mark Wilf, Joel Alperson, Jane Sherman and maybe a few others whom we can count on the fingers of our two hands. Many have moved on to lead other organizations and chair their federations. And the professional staff has become denuded of those who once toiled at UJA.

We have heard that UJA was a "self-perpetuating oligarchy" but we have also heard that these were leaders who "cared," gave to their capacity and beyond and, in their demands on others to meet their own giving standards, created jealousies, some of which have so lasted to these days that we have received bizarre Posts from a few who can't get beyond those days that ended 8 years ago. We have been told that UJA Budget meetings lasted two days over which lay and professional leaders battled over priorities in a respectful (and sometimes not so respectful) give and take focused on how best to use donors' money in the best interests of the Jewish People. Today, we know, the UJC Budget meeting lasts maybe four hours including lunch with no "battles" tolerated..

One thing we know first-hand is that these leaders -- these men and women -- were nuts!! They would see each other in the halls at 111 (when more of them walked those halls) and suddenly they would be hugging and kissing, reminiscing in laughter. They actually loved each other -- a love that grew from sharing a common passion and a common cause...and some leaders outside UJA or on its fringes resented the love and passion that those crazy folks shared.

Sounds idyllic? Maybe because it ended eight years ago, and culturally at 111 Eighth Avenue we bear no relationship to those "UJA years," it's more mythic than real to us. Today we're owned by the federations who, but for a few, seem to have little interest in how their resources are being spent and no interest in the joyless space we occupy. If they cared, UJC could and would be so different.

Could that culture of passionate expression that was UJA be revived? We think so -- really restructure UJC; divide responsibilities between Campaign/ Community Building (Annual and Supplemental) and Allocations/Program/Washington/UJC Israel; restore the National Campaign Chair to her/his rightful role (as contemplated in the merger that created UJC) as a co-equal to the Chair of the Board (but responsible only for fund raising), elevate the Campaign Cabinet to Vice-Chairs status and raise the profile of the CEO/Campaign-Capacity Building sufficiently to attract once again the best and brightest to the position -- for starters.

And, find lay Chairs like a Marvin Lender, a Shoshana Cardin, a Charles Goodman, a Carole Solomon, a David Hermelin, z'l, to take us there with a chief professional partner who emulate Stanley Horowitz, Steve Nasatir, Bob Aronson, Steve Hoffman or John Ruskay. Then, see how we do!!!

Shabbat shalom

"Trainwreck"

When UJC was created, to satisfy the interests of federations and the merging organizations, the new entity was subjected, if that is the right word, with a Board of 133 members. As we at 111 have come to learn, when authority is so minutely divided, particularly in an organization so disengaged from its owners over the past three years, a power void is created. Thus, the chief professional and chief volunteer officers easily accreted power to themselves. Every leader, professionally and lay, who has looked carefully at UJC's performance relative to its cost has had to reach the same conclusion -- governance reform is a critical threshold mechanism to create an environment where change can be implement and a nimble, responsive organization created in its stead.

Further, where "the only good ideas are ours," an organization where challenge to any idea of UJC's leaders is discouraged with language such as: "are you on my team or not" -- the language of the bully -- it is a place where only the owners can demand change. Recently we read, in a different context, of a work environment where professionals could respectfully challenge, offer opposing views and push back: "If you had an opinion about (a subject), (the CEO) made it clear it was your job, your duty, to argue, yell, scream, whatever."

We here know that papers describing two potential "special campaigns" that have been transmitted to the UJC Board for its discussion next Monday, have not been fully thought through, fail to contemplate the implications upon the federation Annual Campaigns (particularly in these fragile economic times), and have not been fully discussed with the UJC staff. Yet, the Board is meeting, so out the door these went -- filled with great ideas, fraught with gaps in logic, timing and the potential conflict with the AC. If anyone at UJC pushed back, urged these "plans" be held for more input, greater discussion, the suggestion would be "you're not a team player."

We need governance reform; we need it immediately.

"Your Comments"....continued

We were reading your Comments with great interest and had concluded, sort of, that, perhaps, we could have the kind of give and take, the kind of dialogue, through this Post that we can't have within UJC because its top leaders won't/can't permit discussion or debate to take place. Then, along came a writer misnamed "Wise" to "rationalize" the humiliation, isolation and degradation of fine, dedicated professionals passionately committed to UJC as a "housecleaning" justified as a means to finally "rid" UJC of the invidious influence of United Jewish Appeal. It frightens us that there are those who actually believe, eight years post-merger, that these horrific "means" are justified by a fictitious "end." If you are a "leader" of UJC, "Wise," that, in and of itself, explains a great deal. We feel very sorry for you (and "umich65," you appear to be speaking in tongues).

We still hope that readers like "disappointed21," "oldjewpro," "tateh," "chai," "maya, "jon,""fotp" and others, even those who have attacked us about our perceived lack of "civility," to continue the dialogue that you have begun. (And, for a far more insightful Blog on the subject, visit http://organizedjewishworld-fotp.blogspot.com/)

More later.

Your Comments

Your bloggers appreciate all of your Comments, even from those of you who believe that all we are doing is "....(airing our) dirty linen in public" or accusing us of "personal attack(s)." We note that none of our correspondents have questioned the facts that we have reported.

We want all of our readers to be assured that were there the opportunity for open and honest give and take within UJC, this Blog would not exist. When the most senior of professionals at UJC pushed back, look at the humiliation they suffered to the point of resignation; when lay leaders have pushed back, they have been relegated to the outside looking in. The doors at UJC are closed to any criticism. We have sat in silence for too long to be cowed by those who write that we are "uncivil" and need to "move on to another agency." When any organization, and certainly UJC, is essentially run by one professional and a single lay leader, any criticism will be perceived as "personal." When we find that UJC has once again become a place -- as were CJF and UJA, as we have come to learn -- where debate and discussion are welcomed, this Blog will cease to exist.

We will continue to welcome all of your Comments. If debate isn't permitted within UJC (ask those who were summoned to New York last March, ostensibly to "discuss" the "Organizational Strategy," only to be told they could ask questions but there would be no changes), then, perhaps, as Tateh, Jon and chai suggest by their Comments, debate can take place here.

Toward a New School in Ethiopia

The Government of Israel, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel all opposed a further Jewish communal or governmental presence in Ethiopia as they geared up to complete the aliya of Ethiopians certied as Jewish to Israel by the end of 2008. Yet, ignoring the advice of the GOI, JDC and JAFI on the ground in Gondar, UJC has proceeded, with the anti-establishment NACOEJ (the North American Conference of Ethiopian Jewry) UJC, which had supported the Government's and its organizations earlier decision to end operations in that country of poverty and strife, determined it would raise funds among the federations to build a school -- a decision described by one of Rieger's senior professionals as "...an unassailably (sic) good thing to do." Let's fact check this.

All parties agreed, including UJC, that when the remaining 1,800 Ethiopians of Jewish origin would be brought to Israel, operations in Ethiopa would cease. Rieger, impacted by a beautiful Jewish liberal ethos, decided that a school for some of the 8,500 remaining Falash Mura who claim Jewish heritage but were not certified by the GOI, JAFI or JDC should have a school. That was the "process." Then, with annual federation allocations to JAFI and JDC core needs dropping like a stone, and no UJC advocacy for them in the communities, Rieger reached out to his junta of Large City Federation Executives to support his "school plan." This school was not a priority of the participating federations or in UJC's plan.

The MetroWest federation popped for $200.000 or more, Chicago and Cleveland for $50,000 each, and so on down the line. While more enlightened federations declined the "opportunity," the school moves ahead. So what if UJC is out of step with the Government of Israel, with its own experts on the ground, with the JDC and JAFI, it is funding a school because it could and without regard for the reality that all Ethiopian Jew will have been brought home to Israel by year's end.

Does the left hand know what the right hand is doing? Does it care? Is this any way for our national system to behave?

News Flash...News Flash...News Flash...News Flash

Were this an Internet Message Alert from CNN.com or its ilk, the title would read: Junta Agrees to Prop Up Dictator. We have learned that late last week a group of Chief Executives from among the Large 19 Federations met with Howard Rieger and decided, much like a South American military junta, to continue to support Rieger without regard for the consequences to UJC short-term and long-term. Some do so out of a misplaced sense of friendship, others for fear that joining in efforts to remove the CEO would evidence "weakness" that could ultimately negatively impact on members of the junta in their own communities.

Without regard for the reality that UJC costs these federations into the millions annually in dues, with little, if any, return on their investment for their own federations, their donors or other federations whose dues are less, the junta determined that keeping Howard in place was the best plan "for the moment." These federation representatives further resolved to take a more direct role in UJC and, in particular, in the development and management of the UJC Budget -- an effort to forestall more federations from unilaterally determining to cut their dues.

It would be interesting to know what the reaction of the junta members would be if they knew the way in which the UJC CEO deprecates them with no restraint to his own lieutenants. More on that in an upcoming Post.

Thoughts

Today, the day we celebrate the life of a great American leader, and one of our heroes for the way he lived his life, his personal courage and his willingness to "speak truth to power." UJC is closed. So some time for some random thoughts:

• To our Readers, thanks for writing us with your encouragement...and your criticism. We don't know about you, but we found the following "Comment" to be amusing:

"I am not questioning whether your blog has some merit. However, I cannot completely fathom why you have chosen to continue under this grandiose guise of anonymity...Anonymous blogging is the medium of choice for angst-ridden teenagers, not adults hoping to be taken seriously."

This Comment was sent to us by "Super." What irony!! Given "Super's" Comment that must be her/his real name!!! Thanks flagontheplay for your support!!

• In an article in this week's TIME profiling Bank of America's "President and CEO" offered this observation:

"I don't feel the need to be a dominant force through talking first of talking the most. That's not one of my needs. Listening can be a competitive advantage. Some people just can't do it."

Rob Mann, UJC's Training Chair always teaches us the importance of listening and hearing. To UJC's leaders, silence is just a void to be filled...by them. There is no voice they would rather hear than their own.

• Even in summarizing the system's achievements (press release incorporated in Rieger's January 16, 2008 View), UJC can't resist its apparent need to overstate -- for example, "...some 4,000 Jews from around the world gathered in Nashville for UJC's annual General Assembly. We were there, maybe 2,000 at an event scripted by UJC leaders alone that at its peak merited third page coverage in the Forward. National successes have been so few that our leaders continue to relate back two years to UJC's truly heroic work during the Katrina aftermath. A "...full study set to launch in February, 2008" is announced as an achievement of 2007 and predicted to "...be a turning point for the federation system." Nowhere does UJC disclose that this "study" will cost the system $845,000 -- now, the approval of that expenditure was quite the achievement!!

A Different "View"

This week UJC used its in house View to reflect with pride, as it should, in the accomplishments of the federation system in 2007; $2.4 billion in financial resource development from all sources is fantastic. Quotes from the UJC CEO and Chair of the Board even suggest that UJC had something to do with these successes beyond reporting them (and the success of the Washington Office has been vital) without one quote from within any federation where the income was created, where the hardest work is done and where the results of these efforts make the difference for those most needy of the Jewish People at home, in Israel or overseas. And, the creative, committed work of the Jewish Agency and JDC with our system's reducing dollars? Not worthy of mention -- let's dwell instead in the View on the great work UJC did in setting limits on them.

And, let's get the facts straight. No matter how UJC leaders game the numbers, 2007 marked the first year in over a decade in which the total giving to all federation Annual Campaigns is projected (real numbers are not yet available nor will they be for months) to have fallen below the prior year. This is the critical issue, the seminal fact, the painful reality. But we, at UJC, don't like to surface harsh realities -- after all. we in the bunker have been instructed only to paint pretty pictures and come up with something called the "big idea." Since Howard Rieger and, then, Joe Kanfer took their professional and lay leadership roles, the focus on the "big idea" (often then redefined as "purposeful and very strategic change") has been our charge. And anyone who pushes back against a "big idea" for whatever the reason is condemned as "not being a team player" or "against change" or is personally attacked then shunned.

And what is today's "big idea"? Trust us, it will be another scheme, like Operation Promise or the "Organizational Strategy" trumpeted down from the mountaintop without being fully thought through, immune from any criticism from the UJC professional staff or any lay leadership and and beyond change. As with the "big ideas" past, the roll out is being dictated by a meeting date -- not a GA but the January Board Retreat in Newport Beach. We have to have something "important" to discuss there don't we?

Understand, we're just speculating here, but it appears to us that this year's "big idea" will be a massive "Special Campaign for Children." (We don't know much about it; we just work here.) Originated with UJC Israel, through which not a dime has been raised from a donor, it will, by the end of January 2008, have been "discussed" with JAFI and JDC by professional leaders of UJC Israel and UJC's "Community Capacity Building" professionals; the UJC Development area has been excluded from these meetings. Talking a Supplemental Campaign (over, and ontop of the Annual Camapaign) of $80 to $100 million. The federations, at least until this week, uninformed.

Maybe those in UJC lay and professional leadership have forgotten that the mother's milk of the federation system is the Annual Campaign. Without its strength, the federations will not be the central Jewish communal address; federations will wither and die. Perhaps these same leaders are immune from an American economy that is in free fall with potentially devastating impacts on our communities' campaigns? So at a time that UJC should be totally engaged and totally focused with the federations in critical ways to bolster and support these annual expressions of incredible generosity, its leadership is busy in the laboratory coming up with a Special Supplemental Campaign that will compete, by its very nature, with the Annual Campaign, the glue, that holds our communities together and enables the creative works that ennoble them. (We also hear in the hallways and on the UJC grapevine, that Chairman Kanfer is busy working in his laboratory on another "big idea" Supplemental Campaign --"The Fund for the Jewish Future" focused on Jewish Education and Identity -- but we will leave that for another day if we can escape the bunker and learn more.)

You all have a great Shabbat.

Apologies

Your bloggers need to apologize. We have caught the attention of The Forward which, among other things, noted that our Posts have been "...rife with typographical errors." We have to admit that it's tough finding the "Check Spelling" button when we are forced further and further into the darkness of the bunker. We'll try to do better.

The Reorganization...A Continuing Saga

If you, our readers, are confused as to why morale here at UJC has never, ever been lower, given that we are at work for the Jewish People we love and are, they tell us, well paid, consider the current sorry state of the Rieger-Kanfer "Organizational Strategy." This was the March "Reorganization" that, all of us were told, would focus UJC on 6 critical "strategic goals. Well, not so much. Here's the pattern that has emerged:

• Doron Krakow was left with a title and his compensation but...no job. He resigns
• Eric Levine, a long-time Senior Executive in Development working under the direction of Vicki Agron and Gail Reiss, crunching numbers and drafting development plans, as he had for New York UJA-Federation, was transferred ahead of the Reorganization to run UJC's Renaissance and Renewal work, now is further elevated to professionally direct the Jewish Peoplehood thing
• Development is transferred to a new framework -- "Community Capacity Building" -- and directed to report to Barry Swartz, a master of the UJC Bureaucracy working out of Atlanta (!) -- never a fund raiser. Agron would no longer report directly to Howard Rieger, the CEO, but through Swartz. Sequentially, Agron and Reiss leave UJC.

So, there you have it. All the pieces in place for the new strategy, right?

Uh, no. This Rieger - Kanfer plan so well thought out, written behind closed doors, imposed without the possibility of criticism, has already been redone, two months after the General Assembly where it was the "centerpiece." Follow this bouncing ball (if you can):

• Levine, just months ago the darling of Jewish Peoplehood, is transferred to run Development (without anything but a "heads up" from Rieger-Kanfer to Campaign lay leadership). Not so fast though, Levine will not report through Swartz but directly to Rieger;
• Susan Sherr-Seitz, a bright and articulate professional is then promoted "to manage" the Jewish Peoplehood "Group" but she will apparently report through Levine even though he has been transferred over to run Development. (Hope you are able to digest all this.)
• Swartz, who for almost two months was directing community consulting, Capacity Building and the Washington Office (we think), has apparently been reassigned to be the professional to whom only Consulting and the Washington Office(we think) report;
• William Daroff, who directs the Washington Office with fantastic success needs no supervision from within the bureaucratic cocoon of the Rieger staff Table of Organization (and maybe he reports not to Swartz but to Sam Astrof, the CFO Howard elevated to COO shortly after Rieger came on Board);

If you are lost in all of this, don't worry, surely the geniuses who lead UJC will change it all again ... and soon. But, we have to admit, we're not even certain we have our facts straight. No one meets with us to fill us in -- we are as in the dark as lay leadership.

Does anyone out there care. The state we are in has been permitted only because federation lay and professional leadership -- you all, the owners -- allow it.

There's No dues Like No Dues

These can't be the best of times at Disunited Jewish Communities, but your bloggers agree it's the worst. Now, on top of losing critical Senior Managers one after the other; on top of promoting a dictated "Organizational Strategy" that can't possibly move the organization forward but is presented as the best thing since Saran Wrap, federations of all City-sizes are not just protesting their super sized dues, they have decided not to pay them in whole or in part.

Some examples, you ask:

• South Palm Beach County. This southeast Florida Federation, headquartered in Boca Raton, sought hardship relief from UJC arising out of, among other things, uninsured costs of hurricane damage to multiple facilities. When UJC leadership determined that the community's wealth, successful annual campaigns and unwillingness to borrow to meet its "obligations" in a decision smacking of arrogance and noblesse oblige, UJC denied the community any relief. The community is currently paying its dues but had advised UJC that it will not be bound by any dues decision for 2008-2009.
• Palm Beach County a major partner in UJC has advised the national organization that it will not pay any increased dues to UJC and demands a complete review of the UJC budget which has begun an upward "creep" dictated top-down. The home of top leadership of the JDC and Jewish Agency, it has been visited by Messrs. Rieger and Kanfer who lectured the federation on its responsibilities. South Palm Beach has been constantly threatened with membership termination.
• Detroit. One of the strongest, most tight-knit of federations, Detroit advised UJC over 2 years ago that it would limit its dues payments going forward to $1 million per year unless the dues formula was changed from its current strict emphasis on annual campaign achievement, the organization reformed itself to engage with both the federations' needs and with its obligations to its overseas partners, among other thins. Getting annual promises from UJC that something would be done to meet Detroit's dues concerns, but no action, and after many, many meetings, promises and threats, in 2007 Detroit began transmitting its overseas payments directly to JAFI and JDC fearing that UJC would make up budget shortfalls out of allocations intended for The Jewish Agency and the Joint -- something UJC has promised not to do.

There are more, many more -- what you read here are, from what we are hearing inside the hallowed halls of 111 Eighth Avenue, the tip of a growing iceberg (even in this time of global warming). UJC's leadership's idea of "federation engagement" is to visit with federations when their dues are threatened. So, if you want a visit from Howard, Kathy, Joe or Michael Gelman (and who wouldn't), just let them know your federation will/can no longer pay its dues; they will down shortly thereafter promising "things will change," then proposing increasing the dues for, e.g., a vital $845,000 branding research project.

When they come to see you, say hello for us, the neglected boys/girls of UJC

The Great Place to Work Survey

In a vivid demonstration of the "denial" with which UJC's Chief Professional Officer works or his ill-formed belief that he runs a very happy ship (after all which one of us wouldn't be happy working in an environment in which the boss is the consummate bully), UJC signed on to participate in the Great Place to Work Survey. This research tool is designed, according to its sponsor -- the Great Place to Work Institute -- "...to building a better society by helping companies transform their workplaces...that trust between managers and employees is the primary defining characteristic of the best workplaces." Noble and inspirational. Federations ranging in size and scope from New York to Colorado engaged in the research and published the results.

So, the UJC staff was called upon to complete the Survey in 2007, before Vicki Agron was forced out under humiliating and unprofessional circumstances, before Val Cutina quit, but after the Gail Hyman force-out, the Doron Krakow force-out, etc., etc. And, guess what -- the lay leadership of UJC was (1) unaware the research was being conducted and (2) when they became aware, denied access to the results.

Those of us inside the organization didn't need a Survey to know that morale has never been lower, that more resumes are in circulation "on the street" than ever before, and that UJC's top professional leadership wants no data that would conflict with their perception that everyone at UJC is happy, happy, happy. They're daft.

Anger Management

The UJC CEO posts a weekly pre-Shabbat message -- Howard's View. Typically very personal, maybe a form of therapy, to those of us inside UJC, they are usually the occasion for an exchange of e-mail commentary about the pedestrian self-aggrandizing tone. Our e-mails regularly use words like "pitiful," "insipid" and "ich."

On the occasion of the first Shabbat of 2008 (January 4, 2008), the View focused on Howard's Rabbinic learning about the futility of anger, urging all of his readers to abandon anger in the New Year. Surely those inside and outside UJC who have experienced the "Rieger Treatment" know that those who offer a different opinion from Howard's on any matter are scorned, isolated, ignored, ostracized and treated as poison. So often Howard's decisions about professional and lay leadership advancement are made strictly based on loyalty and unquestioning support. The results of Howard's "anger" are as simplistic as one would expect of a CPO who proudly flunked out of college twice or was it three times -- the creation of a class of sycophants who advance and another class of "everybody else." Those who worked with him in Pittsburgh remember a "boss" who demanded total loyalty, stubbornly pursued policies that were often ill-founded, and based his personnel decisions on those who implemented his policies without ever questioning them. When professionals in Pittsburgh of at UJC pushed back, they were met with anger and with threats that they were "clearly not on the team" -- the threats of a bully boy."

Anger management anyone?

Messages from the Trenches

Friends of the boys/girls who are "the Blog" have written us from "inside" with comments on the sorry state of our "Disunited Jewish Communities." We can't print all of the comments we have received to date, but some strike us as particularly on point and all reflect the sorry state of what should be the "shining light on the hill."

A couple of examples:

• From a long-time professional -- "this leadership, lay and professional, has taken something magnificent and made it pedestrian."
• A long time student of our national institution from both inside and outside wrote: "[T]he unraveling of 'professionalism,' the centralizing of control, the resistance to the new realities in Jewish life regarding new organizations speaking to the young, the elitism of so-called leadership, and many more realities conspire to feeding the flames of growing irrelevance of the system as a whole."
• And, another: "In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."
• Finally: "To Rieger and Kanfer the only valid ideas are there's and there's alone. All others are irrelevant, poison not to be touched."

Nice.