UJC hires private detective to plug ‘Isaiahgate’ leaks; Philanthropist: ‘The organization is out of control’


By Steven Rosenberg

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.

©1999, Boston Jewish Advocate