TechWatch: Wikipedia and Israel
from the Jerusalem Post:
Most of us have come to realize, it’s too late for Wikipedia, as far as Israel is concerned. The “Npov” crowd (an acronym for the supposedly Neutral Point of View of Wikipedia editors) have basically installed themselves in the positions of editorial authority that control the site.
Wikipedia editors gave CAMERA a hard time for trying to do something (how dare they!) about the consistent anti-Israel opinions on the Wikipedia site (http://tinyurl.com/55v9l9)…
So, for someone looking for the truth about Israel, Wikpedia is pretty much a dead end - it seems to carry only the “truth” as approved by the international Arab propaganda machine. But other Wiki projects prove that it’s Wikipedia that’s out of step - and that it’s possible to conduct a publicly editable Wiki web site without having to hand it over lock, stock and barrel to people with a very clear agenda about Israel.
Hadassah, Tipping Into Decline?
Hadassah just concluded their 94th national convention in Los Angeles. And at the closing dinner Tuesday night, a prominent Medical Center board member warned the organization was on “the tipping point” into decline.
Two pertinent facts were stated by Stewart Greenebaum during his remarks: in the past year Hadassah’s membership has declined by 6% and dollar donations have decreased by 20%.
So, it appears that like every other organization with USD revenue and NIS expenses, Hadassah is facing the reality of the current exchange rate due to their vast array of needs in Israel. But unlike many U.S. organizations, including some of the largest Federation’s in the U.S. who are showing fundraising revenue increases for 2007, Hadassah appears to be tracking backwards. I wonder how 2008 is progressing.
As an aside, this begs the question of how the apparent shortfall played into the recent WUJS Arad decision and their attempt to begin anew in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Some other articles of interest the past few days; from Haaretz: Read more
Big Money’s Influence
We bring you these three articles, two of which are from the mainstream international media, as they all pose questions that need to be asked in our world of Jewish philanthropy, regardless of who sits in the Prime Minister’s office. This is neither a discussion of politics or the law. Both of which are topics we will stay away from on this blog.
from the New York Jewish Week:
Financial Questions for Olmert’s Charity
New Jerusalem Foundation never spent a significant amount of funds raised in American South for Israeli terror victims in 2002.
from Reuters:
EXCLUSIVE-How Israeli PM wooed, and lost, Christian dollars
An Israeli investigation into fraud and corruption has turned a spotlight on how Ehud Olmert, when mayor of Jerusalem, raised funds from rich American Jews.
Less in view have been fruitful financial ties Olmert enjoyed with evangelical Christians in the United States, a relationship that became strained after the prime minister launched talks with Palestinians that could return parts of Jerusalem to Arab rule.
from the Associated Press:
Olmert’s woes raise questions of ties to US Jews
While Israel has had close ties with the U.S. Jewish community throughout its history, some wealthy American donors have extended their influence to Israel’s halls of power, crossing what many Israelis see as a red line.
Around Our World
Stories making news in our Jewish world
from Haaretz:
Jewish Agency outsourcing aliyah marks end of ‘aliyah of no-choice’
A few minutes after 6 A.M. last Thursday, two groups of about 30 new immigrants each entered the small office of the Immigration Absorption Ministry, at the old terminal of Ben Gurion International Airport. The first was a group of British olim, who were brought to Israel by the independent aliyah organization Nefesh B’Nesfesh, and the second was of Ethiopian Falashmura, brought by the Jewish Agency.
This random encounter embodied the changing of the guard currently underway in the aliyah sector, whereby private organizations challenge the hitherto undisputed monopoly of the Jewish Agency, the semi-official body that has handled aliyah since the foundation of the state…
…But at present, a strategic cooperation agreement is being drafted. It is facilitated by unrelenting pressure applied by American patrons and the financial difficulties of the Jewish Agency that prevent it from effectively operating in the continent. Apparently it is agreed that the Agency will focus on Jewish and Zionist education in these communities, whereas Nefesh B’Nefesh will be in charge of advocating aliyah.
from The Forward:
Too Many Geniuses and Not Enough Grunt Workers
Earlier this year a contest was held for the best idea for a book that would transform the way Jews think about themselves and Judaism…
Forget the question of whether we needed to commission a book to transform how Jews think about themselves…The bigger question is this: Why do we continue to shower even more grace, fame and riches on geniuses in our community?
from Haaretz:
A month reporting on Israeli young people who are making a contribution to society has made it clear that in addition to a great deal of ad hoc initiatives by idealistic young people, many youths who do volunteer work are graduates of the socialist youth movements, members of religious Zionist groups that work in low-income areas, or students at pre-military academies. These three groups, which have formed over the past decade, are systematically motivating young people to take social action.
The wide variety of young people involved in social initiatives indicates that, although many think Israeli youth are interested only in advancing their own personal interests, there are actually many young people who devote their lives to contributing to society, whether as part of a community geared toward that purpose or as individuals. What is clearly different from the past is that while the state used to provide most of the social services, today the burden falls largely on the nonprofit organizations that are springing up like mushrooms after the rain.
from the London Jewish Chronicle:
JNF’s crisis deepens as head asks for new watchdog inquiry
Samuel Hayek, JNF UK’s new chairman, has this week written to the Charity Commission to inform it of his concerns over the running of the charity prior to his appointment earlier this year, the JC has learned.
image source: American Jewish World Services Presentation on the Genocide in Darfur
WUJS Arad, Still Making News
Central New Jersey Jewish federation executive vice president Stanley Stone, who lobbied to prevent WUJS’ departure and the absorption center’s closing, said losing both was a “psychological blow to the morale of Arad and the entire Negev region.”
Stone said he was willing to raise funds to keep WUJS in Arad, but WUJS (Israel) and Hadassah decided to leave nonetheless.
Read the complete story along with more PR spin from Hadassah to “justify” this move. eJP understands that not only was there a specific commitment from Arad’s Partnership 2000 communities, but up until the very last minute, local Federation leaders had promises from the most senior leaders in Hadassah the program would remain in Arad.
For an organization that excels in so much, their belated PR approach (at least coming from their Jerusalem office) is so very lame.
Gaydamak Backtracks on Philanthropy
from today’s Haaretz:
Tycoon Arcadi Gaydamak halts flow of cash to Israeli charities
TheMarker has learned that over the past few months, Russian-Israeli tycoon Arcadi Gaydamak has not made good on promises to transfer large funds to a number of Israeli charities.
Attorney David Brodetzky, the legal adviser for Gaydamak’s Social Justice political party, confirmed Saturday that the billionaire businessman had halted the flow of financial donations.
Gaydamak’s donations in recent years had totaled in the tens of millions of dollars. Half a year ago he froze the activities of the Gaydamak Foundation, an organization that was supposed to concentrate the businessman’s charitable activities. The foundations offices in Givat Shaul in Jerusalem are now closed.
Our World Speaks
Around our Jewish world this Thursday morning:
from the Forward:
Social Networking Online, in Hebrew
Finding Israeli friends on Facebook is about to get easier. The social networking Web site soon will allow users to search for each other in Hebrew — good news when you’re not sure whether to transliterate a friend’s name in the Roman alphabet as Roni or Rony, or as Avichai, Avihai or Avihay.
from Globes:
There are very few real philanthropists in Israel
Eli Elalouf, 62, CEO of the private family fund The Rashi Foundation for the past 13 years, is a sort of small-time education minister. The fund he manages, which is the most active and dominant in education in Israel, invests hundreds of millions of shekels (together with private investors and the government) in projects across the country.
from the Australian Jewish News:
Community looks closely at the cost of Jewish education
WITH the cost of good quality Jewish education rising all the time, some of the Jewish community’s largest donors have started working behind-the-scenes on strategies to provide effective Jewish education.
The Australian Jewish Funders (AJF), an organisation that provides philanthropists with an opportunity to network and discuss effective ways to donate funds, held a recent retreat with Jewish education funding as its objective.
from the New York Times:
I’M not sure what I expected to discover in Israel. Though three generations of women in my family were avid Zionists, the country never held much significance in my life. I didn’t expect to find answers to my personal quandaries about religion, politics or human rights. Nope, I mostly hoped to find a beach.
Time for a Miracle
an editorial from this week’s Forward worth circulating:
Ehud Olmert’s stock with the Israeli public has fallen so low these days that virtually anything Olmert says or does is taken to be a cynical ploy to save his job. That’s a pity, because the Israeli prime minister has had some very good ideas of late…
…One of his best ideas surfaced in a June 22 address to the governing board of the Jewish Agency for Israel. In the address, Olmert called for a “new paradigm” in Israeli relations with the Jewish Diaspora…
…Skeptics say that Olmert no longer has time or sufficient authority to get a project of this magnitude rolling. That may be true, although Olmert has frequently surprised his detractors. It’s also said that Israel won’t be able to find the needed millions in its strapped budget, and that the Jewish Agency is too calcified to transform itself in the manner required. Again, very possibly true, but beside the point. Responsible observers have been predicting for years now that the world’s Jewish community is facing demographic and cultural disintegration in the coming decades, unless something like a miracle occurs. It’s time to start organizing that miracle.
Identify. Seduce. Immortalize.
$75 Million.
Carol Seidman, fundraising guru for the United Jewish Appeal’s (Toronto) Tomorrow campaign, brought in this donation for the Sherman Campus Community Centre.
Carol is the director of the United Jewish Appeal Federation’s $400-million Tomorrow Campaign, an ambitious fundraising drive aimed at building or transforming three community-centre campuses - complete with pools, daycare centres, conference rooms and more - in downtown Toronto, North York and Vaughan. The campaign, which has raked in $270-million so far, is one of the slickest and most successful in Greater Toronto Area history.
Read more in yesterday’s Globe and Mail: How Charities Court the Rich
Media Watch
Some end of the week stories you may have missed…
from the London Jewish Chronicle: Secret airlift for Zimbabwe
An emergency mission to airlift the few remaining Zimbabwean Jews to Israel has been launched by the Jewish Agency. Staff have spoken individually to every member of the 350-strong community and are believed to be making arrangements for their removal at short notice.
Details are a closely guarded secret.
by Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz: They must be doing something right
Over its eight years of existence, birthright, which has brought 160,000 young Jews from around the world on 10-day visits to Israel, has entered the consensus. It has the numbers; the biggest donors are on board; and both Israeli and Diaspora Jewish leaders line up to make speeches at its impressive mega-events.
Yet still, the doubt lingers: What kind of return has the Jewish people been getting on the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars and all this hype?
“Birthright, it’s a nice idea with great PR, bringing lots of teenagers here for sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s not really a serious program,” said a senior Jewish Agency official, who will have to remain unnamed.
“Birthright is a travesty,” chimed in a senior official from a Zionist organization in one of the largest Jewish communities in the West.
Criticism such as this is rife, but you seldom hear it openly.
Birthright’s backers have answers for the critics. They accuse the Jewish Agency and other large and established mega-organizations of jealousy.
“They can’t bear to see a young, small, independent operation transforming itself into a superstar,” said one of birthright’s executives. “Basically, they can’t deal with the fact that they didn’t think of the idea.”
from the Forward: Charter School Effort Opens Rift on Civic Values
The recent announcement that mega-philanthropist Michael Steinhardt is backing an effort to bring a Hebrew-language charter school to New York — together with talk of a possible national network of similar institutions — seems certain to revive debates about whether such schools violate the separation of church and state. But the proposal raises a second, more elemental question: Would the schools serve to sever young Jews from the American mainstream and, in the process, betray the underlying purpose of public education?
also from the Jewish Chronicle: Troubled Friends
Readers who have given to the British Friends of the Hebrew University — a UK charity supporting a remarkable Jerusalem institution that is a beacon to the world — may have been confused to receive a letter last week signed by the charity’s chairman, Brent Isaacs. The letter takes to task the Jewish Chronicle for what its author calls a “historically insignificant and non-positive” report about the Friends published here on May 30, which he claims was “plainly incorrect” and was published in such a way (Mr Isaacs is slightly vague here) that “best suits [the JC’s] business”.
“Urgent” and “private and confidential” written warnings were delivered to our offices by a City law firm instructed by the Friends to the effect that, should we insist on pursuing the story, we risked incurring substantial legal penalties.
