The UJA snaps their fingers

Hello Fellow Community Members:

We're in the middle of summer - the completion of a school year seems like so long ago yet there's a new one just around the corner (got your text books yet??).

In this entry we wish to cover a recent major decision by the UJA, that is, the recent dismantling of the Mercaz by the UJA. Though it deals with the issue of education, the unilateral decision taken by the UJA is very similar to the manner by which the UJA has dealt with other major decisions that affect virtually every member of the Jewish community. Examples include the following:

- the restructuring of the UJA approximately 7 years ago in which various changes to the structure of the Board of Jewish Education were made,

- the split of the UJA into two organizations, one that holds the assets and another that runs the programs. This represents a huge change in the governance structure of our community,

- the sudden dismissal of the former BJE's executive director - about 7 years ago (see below),

- the wholesale re-organization of the Jewish advocacy organizations whereby the Canadian Jewish Congress was stripped of their Israel advocacy role to replace it with a new, even less democratic organization, the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA).

Let's think about the pattern associated with these decisions.

First, they did not involve any consultation with the community at large. No invitations to participate or contribute were issued nor was there any public disclosure of such momentous events until after the decisions were final.

Second, capriciousness: major decisions are made, often with great fanfare, only to be soon reversed or re-directed.

Third, committees (usually of "lay leaders") are just a pretense, they can be overturned will-nilly.

Fourth, we felt the not-so-invisible hand of some of the "big-money" contributors who adopted leading roles in these widespread reorganizations.

In the case now under consideration, the Mercaz (or what can be better described as a reconstituted Board of Jewish Education (BJE) - so that's what we'll call it) was entirely eliminated. An organization that was brought into being with some fanfare and promise of a bright future was abruptly dismantled, with the snap of a finger. Before going any further, we are of the belief that the typical Day School parent will not miss it. The promise of what a BJE can be (we'll discuss this in another blog entry) is substantial: much good can be generated by a proper Board of Jewish Education. But the Mercaz/BJE did not contribute much if anything substantial over the last 10 years or so. Even its Executive Director of, Seymour Epstein, acknowledged to the undersigned that it was not achieving any improvement in the value proposition or the funding of Jewish education. In fact, in 2004, this director said "we're failing." In announcing the elimination of the Mercaz, the UJA openly confirmed the above when it acknowledged that it could deliver the services previously offered by Mercaz but with much less personnel.

We feel for those who lost their jobs. We know some of them and we know that they are good, capable people who could make a huge difference. But alas, they have now been sacrificed at the altar of poor management so evident at the UJA.

The above forms the basis of our concerns. A proper BJE could indeed bring tuition costs down, improve quality and expand accessibility. We think this is doable and have said so for years. Wayne has frequently declared to top-level UJA executives and some school administrators that he thinks he can lower tuitions to about $3,500/child for primary grades and $5,500 for high school grades. Those in governance positions refuse to commit to any level of improvement in tuition or anything else.

UJA President Ted Sokolsky wrote in an email to Wayne on May 25 indicating that the BJE/Mercaz' Executive Director "was briefed about our leadership's decision to streamline and restructure the Mercaz in advance of the decision being publicly announced." So, this decision came from on high – but without consultation with the community. Not even the Executive Director was part of the discussion. What precipitated this monumental move? Why did the UJA all of a sudden realize that Mercaz was a useless entity, just two years into its re-organization?

Parents pay more than double (total tuition is well over $100 million) the UJA's annual campaign proceeds but, as usual, were not consulted.

This is all so familiar and has its precedent in various actions taken by the UJA in the past. The BJE Executive Director that was hired immediately following the retirement of the long-serving Rabbi Witty z"l was also terminated without cause, notice and consultations with genuine representatives of those who pay the bills. That individual was recruited by a committee that spent thousands of dollars advertising and bringing in potential hires from Israel, the United States and South Africa. But any committee's work can be overturned with the snap of someone's finger at the UJA. The Executive Director in question was dismissed two years into his three year contract so the UJA had to pay him for the final year - a figure certainly well above $100k, not that that is relevant to the UJA. These facts were garnered from various conversations with UJA Executive, the dismissed Executive Director and the chair of the BJE Executive Director search committee.

Many Day School parents wonder why year after year they see their tuitions hyper-inflate with only an acknowledgment by the Schools and the UJA that they “understand the financial pressures that these tuitions have on families”. Of course, they do not. If they did they would do the things that need to be done to reduce tuition. But that story, we'll save for another blog entry.

Outside of Jewish education, community members more generally wonder about why things are not improving in terms of community standards. Instead, they see more anti-Semitism in the news and on campuses and more community buildings serving as monuments to once-humble people proclaimed by the UJA to be "pillars of the community" and "leaders."

So, what do we do about it? As always, we invite your comments, forward our and your comments to other community members and don't take our word for it - call the UJA at 416.635.2883 and ask them why there are no public community forums and why you are not even allowed to read the minutes of their meetings.

We, the community, are capable of so much more and so much better.

Again, as always, we ask that you forward these messages to other members of the community and encourage them to join the list (see instructions below).

Wayne J. Levin & Yossi Adler