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Jewish World Review Nov. 15, 1999 /6 Kislev, 5760
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Jewish World Review Nov. 15, 1999 /6 Kislev, 5760
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http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THE UNITED JEWISH COMMUNITIES (UJC) has confirmed that it has hired
a New York detective agency to investigate how the planned Isaiah Award
ceremony for Yasir Arafat was made public by The Boston Jewish Advocate.
As first reported in last month’s Advocate, the UJC, the umbrella
organization for America’s Jewish federations, which raises $790 million a
year, planned to honor PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat last month with its
prestigious Isaiah Award for peace. The ceremony was scheduled to be held on
October 13 in Ramallah before Palestinian Authority leaders and more than 120
members of UJC’s Prime Minister’s Mission. When contacted by the Advocate on
Oct. 5, two days before the Prime Minister’s Mission left, UJC officials
first confirmed, and then denied that Arafat would be the recipient. The
Advocate later received documentation that the Isaiah Award had already been
purchased and confirmation that Arafat’s office knew of the planned ceremony.
The Advocate also printed a draft of the award speech presentation prepared
for Joel Tauber, a Detroit businessman and chairman of the UJC’s executive
committee.
Last week, The Forward, a New York-based newspaper, reported that Kroll
Associates, a publicly traded detective agency known for tracking Saddam
Hussein’s hidden assets, had been hired pro bono by the UJC to look into the
Arafat affair. 
UJC President Stephen D. Solender confirmed The Forward’s
report that Kroll Associates had begun to look into “where our system broke
down.” The UJC also confirmed that Lynn Corda Kroll, wife of Kroll Associates
founder Jules Kroll, is on the board of UJA-Federation New York.
But in an interview earlier this week, UJC’s Vice President of Marketing and
Public Affairs Gail Hyman contradicted Solender’s assertion that the
investigation was pro bono. In an interview with an Israeli online news
service, Independent Media Review & Analysis, Hyman said that the detective
agency had been hired “for minimal money” and that “the investigation is
funded from a special fund — not contributor’s dollars.”
Despite numerous phone calls to her office this week from the Advocate, Hyman
could not be reached. Also, Stuart Ross, a spokesman for Kroll Associates,
did not return calls to the Advocate.
UJC spokesman Norman Eisenberg did confirm that Kroll Associates had been
hired but refused to comment “until the investigation is finished.” At this
point, according to Eisenberg, no UJC employee had been discharged over the
Arafat affair.
Locally, federation leaders expressed mixed feelings about the detective
hiring.
When reached for comment, Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP) President
Barry Shrage was critical of the investigation. “I can’t imagine why the UJC
would hire a private detective,” the CJP leader said. “I would say that it’s
not a good idea to do that kind of thing, and, if in fact it’s true, it’s
frankly time to learn from past mistakes and move on and just try to make
things better in the future. I think everybody understands that mistakes were
made; all of us make mistakes and all of us have to try and do our work
better and that’s what they need to do. I don’t think it makes much sense to
spend any time looking for leaks. I don’t think that necessarily helps things
much.”
In Salem, Neil Cooper, executive director of the North Shore Jewish
Federation, voiced confidence in Solender’s investigation. Said Cooper, “if
they feel that it’s something they need to do, then I’m supportive of it.”
In Detroit, Joel Tauber, chairman of the UJC executive committee, said the
goal of the investigation was to “take corrective action to make it a more
efficient organization.” When asked if he supported the decision to retain
Kroll Associates, he said, “It’s not horrible and it’s not great … I’m just
holding Steve (Solender) responsible for running an effective organization.”
Meanwhile, in a separate matter relating to the UJC, two long-time federation
leaders spoke out against a planned Humanistic Judaism event sponsored by the
UJC at the General Assembly (GA) next week in Atlanta. The event, scheduled
for November 17, is a two hour class entitled, “Humanistic Judaism: A
Powerful Alternative for Cultural Jews.”
The GA, which is expected to draw up to 5,000 delegates, has scheduled
several religious programs for the week, including services for Conservative
and Orthodox Jews, and a “learning session” with Orthodox, Conservative and
Reform leaders.
Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of Humanistic Judaism, a non-theistic form of
Judaism, is scheduled to lead the class at the GA. Wine plans to give an
overview of Humanistic Judaism, which has close to 30,000 adherents, mostly
in the U.S. and Israel. Describing the Torah as another “part of Jewish
literature,” Wine explained the philosophy of his movement: “One of the basic
principles of Humanistic Judaism is the belief that the power for solving
human problems does not come from the outside of us but from within us. So
for us what is most important is to train people to use their limited human
power to benefit themselves and other people. We think that is the message of
Jewish history. In the century of the Holocaust it is hard to believe that we
live in a world that some wonderful power is taking care of us; what we learn
from Jewish history is that in the end we have to take care of ourselves and
others.”
Swampcott’s Robert Lappin, who has given $5 million to the federation over
the last ten years, called the decision to allow Wine’s group into the GA
inappropriate, and described the group as a form of “Godless Judaism.” He
added, “they just as well might have a session on Jews for Jesus or Messianic
Jews. The organization (UJC) is out of control and there is nobody apparently
looking with a careful eye at the activities that are going on.
“I think there is a large constituency that already is very distressed over
Arafat and who will be distressed over Humanistic Judaism, and the result is
going to be an erosion of credibility of the UJC.”
Irwin Hochberg, past president of UJA New York, and current National Campaign
Chairman of Israel Bonds, also expressed his outrage. “I’m shocked,” he said.
“If it’s true that they are planning a session for two hours to present an
atheistic religion as an alternative to Judaism, then they have to have their
heads examined.”
Wine said he is not receiving a speaker’s fee from the UJC for the class.
UJC spokesman Norman Eisenberg said the Humanistic Judaism class will not be
canceled. Said Eisenberg, “Obviously the goal of the GA is to provide an
innovative, stimulating program that can engage all members of the Jewish
community.”
JWR contributor Steven Rosenberg is editor of Boston's
Jewish Advocate. Comment on this article by clicking here.
