Tag Archives: Jess Schwartz Academy

Into thin air: The Staggering Loss of Millions of Dollars by JSA’s Leadership and some equally frightening information about RAVSAK and PEJE.

12 Sunday Jun 2011

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Before I begin, I would like to call your attention to Rabbi Stephen Kahn’s Blog because I believe it represents what is best about any community: thoughtful discourse about sensitive events brought to the fore. Rabbi Kahn addresses the issue of forced Pluralism and his thoughts about the Pardes – JSA Merger.

I know that in almost all instances, I have pushed Pardes to open their books, file their IRS 990’s, and bring a healthy dose of sunlight on to their financial position so that we can step up and help. One board director told me that he thought that I was wrong to push for openness in the midst of merger plans and I told the board member that since the merger is not yet final, that their shareholders (which are the parents of the students) must be consulted, because a school without students is called Jess Schwartz Academy. When you read below about the staggering amounts of money that have been donated to JSA and to King David, you will see exactly why a top down decision, driven by wealthy donors is not a gurantee of success. Indeed, it seems to be a recipe for failure.

The William and Ina Levine Foundation and the Jess and Sheila Schwartz Foundations are required to make their tax returns available to the general public. These foundations comply with the law and their gifts to other philanthropies and non-profit organizations are well documented and they are to be commended for their philanthropic works. Both Guidestar and Charity Navigator provide access to their tax returns, and those links are located here for the Ina Levine Foundation and here for the Jess Schwartz Foundation.

In the Levine Foundation’s 990 for 2008, they made gifts totaling $970,586. Of these gifts, the Federation of Phoenix received $300,000, the JCC received $110,000. There were no donations made to Reform Jewish Charities or to Jewish Schools in the Valley. In their 2007 990 filing, the Levine Foundation generously supported the King David School with a gift of $325,000. They also gave $302,000 to the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, and $72,947 to the JCC. They gave a total of $1,707,988 and Phoenix is very lucky to have such supportive donors in the Levine Foundation. There were many smaller donations to Orthodox and Conservative Schools, but nothing to any Reform Schools. This is not to be taken as anything bad, the Levine Foundation supports the giving vision of their Trustees and it is terrific that they give away such large sums of money. In 2006, the Levine Foundation gave $1,000 to the Jewish Federation, $84,840 to the JCC, and $250,000 to the King David School. That year, their charitable donations totaled $1,157,391.00

The Jess and Sheila Schwartz Family Foundation gave away a total of $1,780,695 in 2007, according to their 990’s. The Jess Schwartz Community High School received $1,001,356, and PEJE (Partners for Excellence in Jewish Education – this is the organization frequently cited by Jill Kessler) received $325,000. In 2008, the Jess and Sheila Schwartz Foundation gave away $1,688,550. The Jess Schwartz Community High School received $999,446, the Federation received $50,0000, and King David School received $205,000.00. Pardes received $4,600 (first Reform based Jewish gift I have seen from either foundation). The JCC received $22,500. In 2009, the last year I have access to records, the Jess and Sheila Schwartz Foundation donated $898,793, a drop in giving by the foundation of approximately 50%, but still incredibly generous, and the Jess Schwartz School received $198,798 (down from $1.2 million the year before), the Federation received $50,000, and PEJE received another $300,000.00 Interestingly, the Phoenix Hebrew Academy, which was founded by Jess Schwartz, received $100,000. There were no gifts made to Reform Jewish Schools.

It is very difficult to know what the financial wherewithal of these foundations are because the JS Foundation operates as a pass through, where the body of money is put into the trust every year and then spent. So if the people funding the Foundation have substantial assets, then the funding can go on for a very long time. The Levine Foundation has substantial holdings in equities, which is very detailed, but again, the last information I have available is from two years ago.

What is absolutely incredible, and not able to be disputed from the records that we do have, is that King David School and the Jess Schwartz Academy were the recipients of more than $2.8 million dollars from these two Foundations within the last four years and there is nothing to show of this incredibly generous support to the community other than an empty building and 40 students. I am guessing that my figures are actually just a small fraction of what these two foundations have donated (the law only requires three years of the most recent statements to be posted). I actually get a knot in my stomach when I think about how poorly their donations were stewarded by the leadership of JSA, and if anything, the leadership of JSA owes a very large apology for taking this money and setting it ablaze. They owe an apology to the Foundations first and foremost, and second, to the Jewish Community in whose interests they were supposed to act and protect. Unfortunately, sometimes “sorry” is just not enough.

This brings me half way around the circle to asking, why does Pardes want to embrace this? We know money is not the key to success, and we know relying on a concentration of small donors is not a key to success. It was mentioned at the Town Hall Censorship Festival when the merger was explained, sort of, that the merger would eliminate confusion among donors and would allow Pardes to get national grants from Ravsak and PEJE. According to Ravsak’s 2008 990 filing (Ravsak is technically known as the “Jewish Community Day School Network), also available on Guidestar, their largest inbound grant came from PEJE, and it was about $110,000. Ravsak’s 990 from 2008 boasts that they serve the leadership and management needs of 30,000 Jewish Day Students from 120 Jewish Day Schools in North America and they stand at the cutting edge of Jewish Day School Education and Leadership. In this year, they received $1,076,481 in donations and grants and their executive director earned $140,000.00, or 14% of all money given to Ravsak (that’s a disgraceful ratio by the way). Finally, I have found A Jewish organization that makes the Federation’s management look like Warren Buffet. So, basically, that leaves approximately $860,000 to deal with 30,000 students and 120 schools, or, $7,166 for each school, or $28.00 dollars per student. So it looks like merging the schools to please Ravsak might get Pardes $28.00 per student = $8,960.

We also need to look at PEJE, the Partnership for Jewish Education. Their 2009 990 shows that they took in $2,290,700 and spent $442,000 compensating their Rabbi – leader, Joshua Elkin (who will be stepping down to do something else as of May 11, 2011. Just to keep this in perspective, Warren Buffet’s salary is $100,000), and $191,146 Compensating Amy Katz and $191,146 compensating Cheryl Finkel. That is $824,000 paid to three people of a tax exempt organization that collects 2.29 million dollars. So they are spending 35% of the money they collected on themselves. A new low, even worse than Ravsak. Maybe we should be happy with the devils we know. I don’t even think Bernard Madoff stole that high of a percentage of the money he collected. PEJE also gave out 11 grants, the largest was $150,000 to Ravsak, and then 10 other schools received $236,000, but the New Orleans School received $66,000 so the 9 other Jewish Day Schools received on average $18,888.

Clearly, the idea of merging the schools to get PEJE and Ravsak funds has either not been researched enough, since it will yield very little in the way of funding, or the Board of Pardes has been deceived. I actually do not know what is more troubling, merging with JSA or being affiliated with PEJE or Ravsak. If I was affiliated with PEJE or RAVSAK, I certainly would not tell anyone. So this argument about access to grant money goes into the intellectual dishonesty bin with, ‘they were going to start their Hebrew Language Charter School.”

Now, what remains? In my mind, the only possibility is that these two foundations, the William and Ina S. Levine Foundation and the Jess and Sheila Schwartz Foundation have promised Pardes something monetarily to become a Forced Pluralistic School and move to the Jess Schwartz campus. However, I actually think this is really unlikely because it would be beyond my ability to comprehend how such successful business people like the Levine’s and the Schwartz’s could be duped again by the management of JSA. Donors want to see results, and even the most passionate donors eventually realize they have been lead astray and that the assets that they worked so hard to accumulate, were just set ablaze, under the justification that this was somehow “good for the community.”

I think now that the matter of the campus is settled and everything is not rushed, it would be prudent to call off the merger, focus on building Pardes, being open with Pardes’ financials so we know what we are all facing, and not doing things in haste. Really, if we need to be deciding what is best for Pardes from the likes of the management of Ravsak, PEJE, JSA and the Federation, G-d help us all.

CALL OFF THE MERGER! Why I’m proud of Pardes, and the true meaning of “Hineni”, the Pardes Anti-bullying program.

10 Friday Jun 2011

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As Jill Kessler’s FAQ pointed out, the Hineni program of anti-bullying will be taught at the soon to be merged school. First, I would start with teaching it to the JSA board.

Today I found myself speaking with two of my friends who are on the Pardes Board, both of whom were excited to tell me that Pardes was staying put, for a minimum of a year. Apparently, this did not sit well with the JSA Board (and I stand corrected, the JSA Board has about 8 people on it, not just the two people identified in their annual reports to the state and their IRS 990’s). I was informed that the JSA Board just urged the Pardes Board to default on their present property, abandon their obligations to a mortgage holder who has been good to Pardes, and just move on. When the Pardes Board explained that is not the manner in which they do business, the JSA Board threatened to walk away from the merger. I am now advocating to the parents to put their feet down, voice their opinion to the board, and demand that that the board call off this merger.

I am proud that Pardes’ Board took the approach of integrity and did nothing to blemish their reputation. Pardes is a crown jewel of the Reform Jewish Community and the Jewish Community in general here in Phoenix, and they should not do anything untoward to blemish their reputation, their ability to serve the community, and their ability to get financing for expansion in the future.

I have had it with the bullying that goes on from the Jess Schwartz board. That the Jess Schwartz board is inept and accomplished at destroying schools is proven, but beyond that, they are collectively nothing of substance. A school that was the product of a wealthy donor kept afloat by corruption at the JTO. Corruption that enabled their Treasurer to funnel money to the school from the JTO without any oversight. It is not lost on me that when I brought this matter up publicly, the Treasurer of JSA was forced to resign from the JTO, and without that money, JSA imploded, dragging down King David with it. No less a community arbiter than the Jewish News highlighted that the JTO’s management practices were not even close to being in keeping with best practices. Is this the culture or the example we want for our Pardes’ Kids, to merge Pardes with a school run by thugs, by people who destroyed King David and their own school in the process? By people who rigged the JTO to support their dying monument to their own pride?

Who is the Jess Schwartz Board to put a gun to Pardes’ head and tell them that if they don’t merge the school and move to the JCC Campus that they (JSA) will go ahead and start their Hebrew Language Day School, implying that they will destroy Pardes in the process? Look at the names of the people on the board of that scholastic misadventure (they have changed their name so many times in the last three years I just call it JSA – the Jess Schwartz Abyss). The last names of those board members are frequently the same names of people who have donated heavily to the JCC, whose names are festooned on the wall in great big letters, memorializing their lack of wisdom for all to see. I once thought that these self appointed wise men should read Fooled by Randomness. Now I would be happy if they could just make it through Yurtle the Turtle. What kind of Jewish Community builds a 35 million dollar health club, then sets about trying to raise another $10,000,000 to keep it afloat, diverting money from Jewish agencies and Israel. Is this something we should be proud of? If it is, then I am ashamed and our Federation is a disgrace, a pox on all of our houses.

Intellectual Dishonesty: I had one Pardes Board member (who had kids in both schools and who was very active in the Federation) tell me that the threat posed by the opening of a Charter Hebrew Language School by JSA was very credible. The director told me this was the driving force behind this merger because it is proven that when a Hebrew Language Charter School opens, all the surrounding private Reform schools fail because the Reform Jews will go for the free charter school to avoid paying private school tuition. To that board member: your statement is intellectually bankrupt. If that was your motivation to merge the school, leave the board. To wit, there are only two Hebrew language charter schools in the United States, one in New Jersey and one in Brooklyn, and that is not a viable statistical sample, even if what the board member said was true, which it is not. That sounds like something posited by the board of the Abyss which was not researched by the Pardes Board.

The time has come for the Pardes Board to stand fast to its wonderful heritage, to be open with us as supporters and parents, and rally us to the cause of Pardes. I think we should have a campaign of fund raising to reward Pardes for calling off the merger, and tell Pardes that we will all give money to Pardes for doing what is right. If every family gave an additional $100 per month to Pardes, that would be awesome. And I know money is tight, it is tight everywhere, but I did not contribute to the annual fund this year because I was not asked, and the year before I gave $4,000. So if Pardes calls off this merger and opens their books to us, their community of supporters, I will give the $4,000 that I did not give this year. What could be more exciting than supporting the crown Jewel of Jewish Reform Education and restoring Pardes to its Reform identity? I urge you to email or call the board with pledges that are contingent upon them sending the Abyss on its way and let them know that we stand with Pardes as a Reform Jewish Day School, that we support Pardes as a Reform Jewish Day School, and that we will financially sacrifice for Pardes with our pledges.

In concluding, why would Pardes even want to merge with people who threaten them? What is the possible impetus? To get a shiny new campus that is not needed and that we can not afford. Show the JSA Board the door and wish them well in starting their Hebrew Charter School and let them score their own hat trick of destruction when that fails. I am no Kreskin, but this is the reality: the JCC, if not deaccessioned from the Federation, will finally kill the Federation off, which might actually be a good thing. Because if all they can come up with are solar panels, that is not much of a vision. Photovoltaic panels generate electricity, not wisdom.

Fooled by Randomness: The Magic Kingdom

28 Saturday May 2011

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One of the continual themes that I have heard from select board members of both Pardes and JSA, and from what was attributed to past Phoenix Federation Chairs in the Jewish News is that this proposed merger is good for the community. I believe this is a very slippery slope because it assumes that the leadership of Pardes is now focused not only on the success of Pardes, but on making decisions about Pardes based upon their ability to divine what is good for the community.

When looking at the failure that is the Jewish Federation here in Phoenix, I have been told by several of their board members that the reason that the Federation failed was because they continually bailed out the JCC, donors backed out of commitments, key donors got indicted, and some passed away in tragic and unexpected circumstances, etc. Of course there are unexpected occurrences in every business, but planning for such events, not relying on a select group of donors to whom one becomes beholden, are the hallmarks of good stewardship in running any non-profit charitable organization. The collapse of the Federation is due to many factors, but bad management is at the top of the list.

When did running a health and social club, which is essentially what the JCC is, become part of the Federation’s mission? When did devoting the resources needed to fund the agencies that are dependent on the Federation, and fulfilling the Federation’s commitment to Israel take a second position to funding the JCC. While these decisions might be what is good for the community, I doubt it. I wonder if anyone who is in a self-appointed position to determine what is in the best interests of the community thought about selling the JCC campus to a health club company, which would allow the Federation to concentrate on their core mission of fundraising and delivering those funds to those organizations who need them the most? I suppose that the same people who built the JCC were also major Federation donors, so rather than making a determination that the community could not sustain a facility like that, they influenced the Federation to take on the JCC as part of their mission and reneged on promises made to the needy. Rather than admitting a mistake, they compounded it. I am not sure this is leadership that knows what is good for the community, nor am I certain that their input in affecting a merger between Pardes and JSA is wise.

It seems that our self-appointed community leadership has determined that the success of the JCC/JSA Campus is a Magic Kingdom, Phoenix’s Jewish Disneyland, and a priority above all else. For these leaders, it appears that there is some type of health club shortage and that the Jews will not be able to work out anywhere else, or that there is not another venue for the events that the Federation hosts. I guess that because all of the large synagogues have space that is vastly under utilized and could be used to host social events, and because there seems to be an abundance of health clubs, I am just unable to see the logic behind this so called “good”. Of this I am certain: When decisions are made for our community, cloaked in secrecy, and without input from our community, then there is no better excuse to fall back on in the event of failure than, “we did it for the community.”