Euroasian Jewish News

Chairman of EAJC Program Commission: “In a civilized society one normally respects people’s work”

To EAJC President

Mr. Mikhai Mirilashvili
 

Dear Mikhail Mikhailovich!

Despite the concerns that were expressed by leaders of founding EAJC organizations last month, the situation in the Congress has not changed for the better. Allow me to give just one example, even though there are many areas wherein the executive branch of the Congress has not been performing up to par.

Over the course of September and October 2017, the EAJC Program Commission, which was created according to the decree of the Extraordinary General Assembly, has reviewed 89 projects sent in from various EAJC communities. The Program Commission selected 45 projects that corresponded to the criteria which have been laid out in the rules for financing projects that had been approved at one of the prior Congress General Assemblies. The approved projects were applied for leaders of EAJC Jewish communities, including members of its Governing Board, from Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, and Montenegro.

In a civilized society, of which the Jewish world is thankfully largely part of, it is customary to respect people’s work, including the work of those who have spent time and creative effort to prepare projects.

In November, the Program Commission sent its recommendations on the projects to you, the Treasurer, and the Directorate of the Congress. Three months have passed, but the fate of the projects remains unknown both to the Program Commission and to most of their authors. We can’t answer the applicants whether their projects have been accepted or not, and whether or not they will get financing - including those applicants whose proposals were not recommended by the Program Commission.

The algorithm for project approval is well known and elucidated in the Congress’ documents: after the Program Commission all of the projects are passed to the the Governing Board of the Congress together with the recommendations of the Directorate General, and after that they are passed to the Executive Committee, where the Congress’ budget is formed.

You were supposed to approve the budget of the Congress for 2018 no later than December 25, 2017. And yet even now the main offices of the Congress, just as the applicants, know nothing either about the fate of their projects or about whether a budget has been approved at all, much less of what state it is in, including expenditures and revenue.

During our meeting in November, you confirmed that the Executive Committee of the Congress is due to have a meeting in December to work on the budget. However, I, who is both a member of the Executive Committee and the Chairman of the Program Commission, have not recieved any kind of invitation to this budgeting session. As far as I am aware of, other Executive Committee members have also not received any kind of invitation. It can be surmised that there was no session on approving the EAJC projects and budgets at all.

I do understand that there are many difficulties connected to the transitionary period after the Extraordinary General Assembly, but my experience tells me that this transition has gone on overlong, and has prevented the Congress from transitioning to the level at which modern international Jewish organizations currently function; that is, to transparency, legitimacy, and lucidity.

Over the last half year, I have consistently offered you, the EAJC Treasurer, and the EAJC Directorate General, the help of our professional team at the Kyiv office in overseeing the transition and establishing order on the Congress. Unfortunately, my suggestions were not accepted, which has led to these lamentable consequences.

Nonetheless, as we wrote you in January, it is not too late to correct the situation within the Congress. For this, we must unite all of the Congress’s professionals around the tasks that have been set out for us by the decisions of the Extraordinary General Assembly within the boundaries of the current EAJC Charter.

All the best,

Josef Zissels

EAJC Program Commission Chairman