THE ULTIMATE POTEMKIN VILLAGE

JFNA has managed to become nothing more than the Potemkin Village of Jewish organizational life. It is a facade behind which is hidden a vast nothingness -- a void into which the federations pour $30.3 million in an unquestioning and obsequious manner. There can no longer be any question about what the federations receive in return for their payment year after years, some in the seven figures...in the millions...to an organization without any sense of responsibility to the federations which own them.

The return on investment remains what one would expect from a Potemkin Village or worse. One Commentator reflected on CEO Jerry and the GPT:

"If toys just seem to incite too many quarrels and tugs-of-war, you may want to steer clear of them altogether and engage your Jerry and his playmates in a project such as the GPT, making pretend cookies with modeling clay or drawing pictures. That way, they can be involved in the same fun activities without having to share possessions."

Another then wrote that it's far worse -- more "like giving children dynamite." Because they either know not what they are doing or just don't care or are thinking "boy this is gonna be my legacy" these interlopers are willing to go "all in" putting the entirety of JFNA if not the federations at risk for literally nothing...for the Potemkin Village that is the Global Planning Table.

Even the most dense among those pushing the GPT understand that the results of all those JFNA papers (in the main futile exercises in the suspension of disbelief) will be the distribution of small amounts (but still in the millions) to a distribution list on many in JFNA's attempt to curry favor with favored NGOs in Israel. I am reminded of one Large City which had about $150,000 "left over" from a special campaign in the early 90s. Rather than distribute those funds to JAFI or JDC where they might have an impact, that Large City chose to divide the $150,000 among 30 NGOs -- caring only about clout among the 30, not about the impact its funds might have. Because, and trust me on this one, the GPT is nothing more than a camouflaged effort for JFNA through the Global Planning Table to become the "player" in Israel that it wants to be but isn't...and never will be. (This JFNA belief that it can be a "player" by doling out miniscule amounts can be equated with its attempts to "sell" TribeFest because that failed exercise in wasting communal assets attracted tens of "partners" (a term that for JFNA is without any meaning whatsoever) which, themselves, offer little to the federations which have provided the millions already wasted on this effort in....what, exactly...and will now be called upon to waste even more.)

Then there is the reality that decisions on allocations should best be left to the market -- the exact direction these decisions were headed until a couple of people at JFNA decided they knew better than the partners, better than the federations, better than the donors and imposed their will on a system to weak or too disinterested to push back. Yes, the market, as evidenced by the many federations that no longer felt bound by decisions made by the overseas partners any longer, had already made the "split" -- that red herring bane of the system's existence -- an irrelevancy. Federations are already controlling the overseas allocation as never before. And, now, through the convoluted GPT JFNA would snatch the overseas allocation away -- to a much worse place; to the Potemkin Village that JFNA is.
 
At the end of the day, federations are being asked to delegate their overseas allocation function, so treasured by the communities and so vital to their donors, to a failed organization. Federations which resist, and there will be many...many...will again be told: "If you reject the GPT, you will destroy our system." This is no more than JFNA doublespeak -- for the reality is "if you divert funds to this GPT, that will be the end of trust."

Rwexler