What Does IBM know that Federations Don’t?

In the Jewish world, emphasis is placed on Tikkun Olam –repairing injustices. Our texts speak of being equal in the eyes of God. And yet, female CEOs earn only 62 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.

The latest salary survey published by The Jewish Daily Forward shows that the Jewish communal world continues to “lag dramatically” behind the overall not-for-profit community, with only 9 out of 76 national organizations being led by women professionals.

This is not new news. In 2009, 11 of these national organizations had women leaders. Instead of making progress, we are regressing. What continues to shock me, however, is the continued acceptance of the Jewish community of this appalling trend.

Our organizations—the very ones focused on human rights, social injustice, and equal access—are not applying the same principles to their hiring and promoting practices. While of course women as a whole are suffering, it is the organizations themselves that are truly at risk. In a time when there is a dearth of skilled management, 50% of the potential talent pool is shut out of the top jobs.

And it is an external, strategic issue as well. According to Forbes, women now control more than half of the private wealth in America. Within a generation, women will inherit 70% of the $41 trillion in intergenerational wealth. On average, women give nearly twice the percentage of their income to charity than men do. Excluding women from top positions gives the message the Jewish communal world does not value women or their opinions; that that don’t have an equal seat at the table. This is not a message that not for profit organizations want to convey to those who are making the majority of the funding decisions.

To be sure, many people will tell you that there are not enough qualified women in the applicant pool. And yet, Jewish women have greater representation as Presidents of Ivy League universities than they do as leaders of Jewish national organizations. People will also say that for life style reasons, women don’t want the head job; however, nearly 70% of the employees of these organizations are female. Surely a good percentage of them are putting in as many hours in middle management as their leadership logs in the CEO suite.

Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community, an organization created to address this very issue, has made some progress by intensifying the focus on the inequities women face in Jewish communal workplace. It has engaged both women and men in the dialogue, published reports, and created specific programs designed to improve quality of work life for all, close the salary gap and increase the visibility of women as thought leaders. However, the numbers show we have a long way to go.

All is not hopeless. There are many qualified women who can effectively lead our organizations. But this is not a women’s issue, it is a Jewish communal issue. Those who have the ability to shape framework of our organizations must understand, embrace and prioritize this challenge. Until we as a community understand that securing our organizations for the future is just as important as the mission driven work we perform, nothing will change.

This article was published on December 12 as an Op-Ed piece on the eJewishPhilanthropy website.

In my free time, I am president of my synagogue--a large Reform congregation with about 1800 families. As president, I give a lot of speeches. Here is a copy of my Kol Nidre address. Thanks for reading it. It's about tradition, community and synagogue life.

A mother is making brisket for the holidays as her son watches. She seasons the meat, slices off each end and places in the pan. “Mommy,” the boy asks, “why do you cut off each end before you put the brisket in the pan?”

“It's how my mother always did it,” she answers. “You will have to ask her why this makes it taste so good." The boy dials the phone. “Grandma, why do you cut off each end of the brisket before you cook it? How does that make it taste better?” The grandmother pauses before answering, “That is how my mother did it—it was the secret to her recipe.”

So the family goes to visit the great-grandmother. “Bubbe,” the young boy asks. “When you make brisket, why does cutting off each end of the meat make it taste better?” “What taste better?” the bubbe replies “it was the only way it would fit in my pan.”

Each of our families has traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation. Some are steeped with history and meaning; others we do simply because we have always done them. Some we can’t wait to share, some we do grudgingly, and some we are forced to stop when those who keep them alive die. But all weave together to create the fabric of who we are. Tradition can be everlasting and, at the same time, all too fragile. It takes just one person to stop telling a story, to stop cooking a meal, visiting a relative or yes, to stop observing a holiday, and an entire chain can be broken.

I have been thinking of this frailty since July when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal titled “More City Bar Mitzvahs Hold the Religion.” The author described a trend in which Jewish families chose to have what he called a Secular Bar Mitzvah when their child turns 13. I was NOT bothered by the non-traditional venues where the ceremonies took place, or that most of the children prepared for these occasions outside of a formal educational process. After all, there certainly is no “one size fits all” method of Judaism.

However, I was troubled to read that many of these ceremonies contained no mention of God, no prayers, and no Torah. While the events were meaningful for the participants and their families, many deliberately excluded rituals and traditions that have been integral parts of Judaism for centuries.

As I read this article, I couldn’t help but think about the early builders of Rodeph Sholom who established our congregation an Orthodox shul in 1842. When CRS evolved into a Reform synagogue, its leaders kept traditions that were key parts of Judaism—they remained steadfastly committed to ritual, education and social action. I also thought of the more recent sustainers of this community, many of whom came to America and to Rodeph Sholom after escaping the Nazi regime in Europe. Their lives had been at risk because of their Judaism. What would they think of a deliberate exclusion of tradition due to a perceived lack of immediate relevancy?

Reform Judaism is built on the concept that individuals have the freedom to interpret ritual in a way that is meaningful for them. We are not expected to follow all the commandants. Rather, we have the opportunity and the obligation to learn about them and embrace those that help us feel spiritual and perhaps more connected to God. There is room in our laws and liturgy for each to find what resonates on a personal level.

Does Secular Bar Mitzvah take this freedom too far? That is a question only the individual can answer. And--in reality, I don’t believe Secular Bar Mitzvah is a fad that will sweep the nation. But, just for a second, imagine what would happen to our religion, to our entire people, if a significant part of a generation of Jews became Bar Mitzvah without any mention of God, prayers, or Torah. With no mention or acknowledgment of the actual commandments themselves? What would the following generation of Jews be like? What rituals would they pass on to their children? If one generation breaks the chain, can it ever be repaired?

There are about 6.5 million Jews in the United States, how many of them—and then, perhaps as a result, their children and their children’s children—can we afford to lose? How many of the 2 million in New York City? How many links in the chain are we willing to drop due to lack of familiarity with, or knowledge of, ritual, limited access to a synagogue, ineffective Jewish education or just indifference?

At Rodeph Sholom, the answer is simple. None. Jewish tradition is too important, our history too rich, and our future too exciting, to allow anyone to miss the opportunity to enjoy all that is has to offer.

Every day, our amazing clergy and top caliber staff focus on developing the prayer experiences, the educational programs, and community service opportunities that will deepen our members’ engagement in Jewish life. Rodeph Sholom’s focus on Judaism’s core values of ritual, education and repairing the world is what makes us who we are as a community. These values can serve as a foundation for each individual, help provide a framework for decision-making, and give purpose in these continued times of uncertainty.

The priorities are evident in all our offerings, which are far too numerous to name, but allow me to mention a few. If it is ritual you seek, Rodeph Sholom prays together as a community each Friday night and offers 5 different services most Shabbat mornings. In the coming weeks there will be an array of holiday celebrations; you can join us in the spring for Purim or for our Freedom and Congregational seders. If you want your intellect stimulated, choose from adult education classes, our women’s Torah study group, learning sessions with our clergy and several Shabbaton. Get involved in the community through Mitzvah Day, One Voice to Save Choice activities, Community Organizing, volunteering in our homeless shelter or simply by donating food tomorrow to our annual food drive. We have concerts, a book club, a family trip to Israel, mah jongg, community theater. There is truly something for everyone.

I am incredibly proud and lucky to be a part of all that goes on here. In times where many congregations around the country are cutting programs and losing members because of indifference or financial hardship, Rodeph Sholom is fortunate to be relatively strong. While there might be wild gyrations on Wall Street and political uncertainty in Washington, our purpose is clear and our path well defined.

And so, we must continue to fulfill our obligation by securing our future. But we cannot do it without your help. Since the day Rodeph Sholom was founded, it has been an integral part of our mission to welcome all who seek to be members of our community, regardless of their financial means. I hope I can count on your continued partnership and support that enables us to keep this most sacred promise.

And, equally important, your participation in our programs and activities strengthens our community, making it all the more vibrant. You are the sustainers of our remarkable heritage. The fabric of our tradition is a tapestry—the more threads it has, the stronger and more beautiful it is. Whether your family has been here for 5 generations or you are attending your first Rodeph Sholom service, you are a critical part of both our history and our future. Your active involvement helps strengthen not just this generation, and not just your children’s but their children’s as well. So, I thank you for your role in helping us keep THIS most sacred promise.

Your support this past year has been incredible and much appreciated. I look forward to working with you as together we can continue to build a community that will flourish for generations to come.

My family joins me in wishing you a g’mar tov and a 5772 blessed with health, happiness and peace. Shanah Tovah.

Summer Plans

Posted on the bulletin board next to my desk is a picture of me in a hospital gown, in a hospital bed. On the tray in front of me is my laptop and I am on the phone—a conference call to be exact. It was taken 8 and a half years ago, just 16 hours after my first son was born 6 weeks ahead of schedule.

My son, thankfully, was completely healthy. However, for a Type-A personality like me, who had planned how she was going to handle her maternity leave at a relatively new job, an early delivery proved the old adage—humans plan, God laughs.

Since then, I have taken vacation and enjoyed family time all with my blackberry or laptop in tow. I don’t think I have gone 24 hours without checking in with the office—weekends included. My organization has offices in Israel where the workweek is Sunday to Thursday, so early Sunday mornings will find me on email or on the phone addressing a variety of situations. Often times, these are not true emergencies and the time pressure could have been avoided.

My children, now 8.5 and 6 years old, are proud of the work I do. But still, they are very aware of the time their parents spend on blackberries, email and conference calls. As am I. My own father died at the young age of 46. He was a wonderful, attentive father. Despite working very hard, it was clear to my sister and me that his family was always his priority. “No one lies on their deathbed wishing they spent more time at the office” was a phrase he used to say—until he had the chance to prove it.

Each year, there are hundreds of articles attesting the benefits of vacation—not just on personal life but on professional life as well. I remember one from a few years ago that John Baldoni wrote for his Harvard Business Review blog that struck me as particularly well thought-out and succinct.

This year, I will heed the advice of so many experts, with a few modifications. I have made plans to be away from the office for nearly 4 weeks. While much of it is just a change of venue, some of it will be pure vacation time. I have rented a house at the beach for the month of August. I have arranged coverage for my kids to make sure I can be effective-- writing, responding to emails, reviewing budgets, making conference calls. I have a reading list of work related books that I have been meaning to tackle for years. I have set aside time to just think about work, the organization and how it can grow. I can be pro-active, not just reactive. And, I am taking the time I need to rejuvenate and reboot, as all leaders need to do.

Maybe with the recent market panic this is the wrong time to do this, or maybe this is the best time to get the perspective I need. Either way, the work is not going to stop, but the view from my window will change. I will be in touch and look forward to coming back to my real office fully rested and ready to jump right in.

Haven't I Heard This Song Before?

Today's issue of eJewish Philanthropy contains yet another article lamenting the dearth of qualified managers and leaders in the Jewish philanthropic community. As a leader in this sector, I sympathize with many of Scott Brown's points and agree that the community does not do enough to identify, cultivate and retain highly qualified professionals. We must set higher standards for our professionals if we want our organizations to perform at the levels our community needs and our audiences deserve.

However, this article, like many others on the topic, fails to mention that perhaps one reason why some organizations suffer from a lack of quality managers is that they refuse to consider more than half of the applicant pool--women. According to Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community (AWP), women represent 70% of the Jewish professional workforce, but few rise to top positions. (At a later date, we can discuss the state of affairs that dictates the need for our industry to have an entire organization dedicated to this topic). Contrast this situation to the advances made in other industries. Women now head 23% of the universities in the US, including four out of the eight in the Ivy League. More than half of the nation’s [non-Jewish] foundations have women at the helm. Just this month, Sheryl Samberg of Facebook graced the covers or was featured in articles in The New Yorker, Forbes and Fortune and has been floated as a successor, albeit a longshot, to Timothy Geithner. Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured an article on two sisters who were CEOs of publically traded companies. The list of companies with women at the helm and in upper management is growing faster than I can name them, but the number of women leading Jewish organizations has remained relatively stagnant.

Some say that top jobs in Jewish organizations are not attractive to women. I disagree. I am fortunate to be the head of a terrific organization with a board of directors that has always judged me for my performance and my skills, never my gender. However, I see many organizations that are not like mine. I have heard the war stories from my colleagues throughout the Jewish world. The gender bias is very real in Jewish communal life and comes into play in hiring practice and promotions on a regular basis. Women, the bright, talented, qualified women—the rising stars to whom Mr. Brown refers—will be able to read the situation for what it is, see the limited opportunities and make the decision to pursue careers in other fields. It is happening now and will continue to happen. Until we as a community are willing to look at all the factors that are contributing to the leadership shortage, we will never be able to adequately address the crisis.

Time for Bubble Wands?

I continue to be amazed at that outpouring of commentary the closing of JDub Records has generated. First, I will emphasize, that this article has nothing to do with JDub. I don’t know the organization intimately, but I do admire all that they accomplished. This post is a generic commentary on the industry and the issues that have been raised recently.

There has to be some element of supply and demand in the not for profit world. You have to deliver value to your funders and the end-users of your services. Jocelyn Harmon makes this point very succinctly in her recent post Getting to Value.

Organizations close all the time—and, I will continue to argue, that perhaps more should. Can the established Jewish community do more to help organizations flourish and grow beyond the start-up stage? Yes, but automatically offering growth capital and capacity building funding is not the magic bullet. Many later stage organizations need to be encouraged to rethink their business models. Perhaps, like with for-profit start-ups, the initial management team needs to be supplemented with experienced leaders who know how to take organizations to the next stage of growth. In some cases, there is a limited “market cap” that an organization will reach and it needs to be managed accordingly. We also should not underestimate the value of an organization that does not live forever. Like foundations that are designed to exist for a specific period of time, certain organizations may chose to wind down operations once the mission is accomplished or they no longer can have significant impact.

If funders truly want to make a difference they have to be able to sift through the noise and find the organizations that are or can add value. Just like in the Internet bubble of the late 90s, there is a lot of clutter in the market. However, there is also a tremendous amount of exciting and innovative work being done that is making real change in people’s lives. Now we just need to make sure we are helping those organizations grow and flourish in the way that makes the most sense for them and their audiences.

Not-for-Profit is an IRS Classification….

It does not mean that basic rules of doing business do not apply—especially the most basic; that at some point dollars in have to be equal or greater than dollars out on a sustainable basis.

I too was saddened to hear about the closing of JDub, an organization that forges connections to Judaism through the arts, media and culture. Afterall, I am into Jewish cultural renaissance just as much, or likely more, than the next person. And this article is not about JDub or about any one organization in particular. Rather, it is a response to Sarah Kass’s fear expressed in eJewishPhilanthropy that the closing of organizations like these due to financial constraints after 9 years of operations will inhibit the creativity of others to launch new ventures.

I disagree. I will throw out what is going to be a very unpopular opinion: there are too many new not for profit organizations, but there are not enough good ones.

Lately, it seems that in both the Jewish and secular world, if anyone has an idea of an audience they want to serve, their first thought is to create a new not for profit, rather than seeking to partner with an organization working with a similar audience or in a similar space. As a result, a duplicate organization is created. In the for profit world, competition can lead to lower prices, market efficiencies and consumer benefits. In the not for profit world, it can lead to a duplication of resources, donor confusion and diversion of money from those who need it to overhead.

The non-profit world is so crowded with startups, some without any operating sense or enough customers to either fund or accept its services, it feels like the Internet bubble of the late 90s. As in the late 90s, even savvy funds are having a hard time finding the strong organizations. Funds are getting diluted and the organizations that should survive, the ones that have a good model and serve a real audience, are getting lost in the noise.

Organizations—even those with the 501c3 designation—need to run with operational discipline. They have obligations to the communities they serve to fulfill their promises. They are taking hard earned money from donors and have to spend it wisely and effectively. Yes, not for profits need seed money, start-up capital and investment, but if after some period of time—and that time period could vary—they are not able to retain existing funders and attract new funders and partners to sustain operations and fuel growth, perhaps they have to start asking themselves some hard questions. Are they operating efficiently? Are they meeting a real need in the community?

At some point, we have to look around at the proliferation of not for profit organizations that are competing for the same dollars, the same staff and the same attention and say dayeinu.

It’s Not Other People’s Money – it’s Yours

[The following is a piece did as a guest writter for www.gogirlfinance, terrific site that helps women gain confidence ind dealing with money)

“I think you should try it just once,” my then-fiancee/now-husband said. “It will be slow going at first, but you are going to like it.”

“Okay,” I agreed reluctantly. “But only because you are so into it.”

It was a few months before our wedding. We had moved past china patterns and were on to merging bank accounts and coordinating spending. We were in agreement that it should happen when he suggested we track information via a computer-based personal finance program.

Clearly, Jonathan knew what he was doing. Quicken can become an addiction for a Type-A personality like me. To this day, I methodically (okay, obsessively) enter all our income and expense information into the program, and review it on a regular basis. Want to know what we spend each month on clothing? Groceries? Babysitting? I can give you a fairly good estimate off the top of my head, but if you need an exact number, give me 20 minutes in front of my computer and I will produce a color-coded report.

While we both have MBAs and demanding jobs, the responsibility of our day-to-day accounting has fallen to me, but I am not complaining. I spend a couple hours every few weeks entering information and paying bills. Every six months or so, I create—well, actually, Quicken creates—a chart that shows spending and income by category and my husband and I review it.

There are several programs, some of which are free, that can manage household finances. Despite the availability of these tools and their relative ease of use, I am amazed at how many women have little knowledge about their family finances. Women who, until they were married or had children, not only managed their own finances, but were lawyers, bankers, teachers, consultants, retail buyers, editors, event planners, etc. Some of them still work outside the home. Now, they don’t know their household income, the cost of their housing, what their family spends on groceries, clothing, utilities, etc. Ask them how many bank accounts they have, what’s in their IRA or 401K, if they have adequate life insurance, or college savings for their kids and they smile and just shrug. “My husband takes care of it; I am sure we are fine.”

Are you? You sign your name on your tax return (please don’t tell me your husband forges your signature), do you know you are legally responsible for what’s written? Ignorance is not bliss. Consider a few frightening scenarios: you are chasing down bank accounts while your soon-to-be ex is chasing his former secretary down the beach in the Caymans. Or it’s a few days after the funeral and you don’t know if you can afford to stay in your home and send your kids to the same school next year.

True, these are disasters that are not likely to happen. But, you still need to know what is going on. If you don’t know where it’s coming from and where it is going, you are missing an opportunity to have an equal say in your family’s future. You are also ceding control of a critical aspect of your life. And, if you have children—girls or boys–you are setting a pretty poor example for them.

Take the time to know what is happening in your life financially. Even if you are not the one paying the bills and making the deposits, you need have an understanding of your finances. If you are not comfortable using a software program like Quicken or Mint, ask someone to explain it to you. Set aside time each month to review paycheck stubs, bank statements and bills. Know where your accounts are and how much is in each one. If you need outside assistance, find a planner or banker with whom you are comfortable. There are several banks that have divisions geared just to women who can. Your life and that of your family could depend on it.