In my view, the more information that comes out in the Jewish press from Israel about the Katsav-Yoffie insult, the more the underlying rifts between the global Jewish community are being revealed:

On June 28, 2006, The Jerusalem Post writes:

"President Katsav is continuing to stand by a distinction in the way he refers to Reform and Conservative rabbis: he will call them rabbis in English, but in Hebrew will only use this
title with qualification, such as "rav reformi," rather than simply "rav." But linguistic tricks will not obscure Katsav’s decision to at least partially side with the Orthodox denial of the legitimacy of Reform Judaism. Katsav says he has no choice but to take this stance. This is not true: he can choose to gently lead the nation in a different direction rather than accepting the status quo. The same, however, can be said of Reform leaders themselves. Though the Reform Movement faces an uphill battle in breaking the Orthodox monopoly over the intersection between Judaism and the state, nothing is preventing it from doing what it really needs to do to change its reputation and fortunes: help build congregations in Israel."

(The translation is by the Information Department of the Israel
Foreign Ministry: http://www.mfa.gov.il.)

As a Reform Jew from San Francisco, I don’t understand the author’s assertion that "nothing is preventing" the Reform Judaism movement "from doing what it really needs to do to change its reputation and fortunes."  Maybe this was unintentional by the author, but the sub-text implies that there are some real problems in Reform Judaism with its reputation and standing outside of Israel, and this is simply wrong.

Demographics show that the Reform Jewish movement is the only branch of Judaism showing growth in the United States– and it is thriving in its diversity and philosophy of inclusion.  Inside Israel, there is clearly one thing stopping Reform Judaism from growing– State-sponsored discrimination and rejection of the entire branch of Judaism– hence the author’s suggestion is entirely mis-placed.

Maybe this type of intra-Jewish division would be addressed more seriously by the Israeli government if American Reform Jews would reconsider their financial donations to Jewish causes that do not explicitly and actively support the legitimacy of Reform Judaism?

Puerto Ricans Meet at Masada, originally uploaded by levensohn_pascal.

We had been walking around the forbidding Masada Plateau for about half an hour in the 105 degree heat.  I felt a little dazed, but would really be dazed in a moment,

Looking at a group of spanish speakers about 20 yards away,  I said to my wife, "Isn’t that a Puerto Rican flag they are carrying over there?"

"Are you crazy, of course not." she asserted.

But there it was, and there they were– 26 Puerto Ricans on a college trip led by Universidad del Sagrado Corazon Professor of Theology Jose Lazaro– my kinsmen from the home island, and I had to travel to Masada, deep in the heart of a mineralized baking oven known as the Dead Sea, to meet them.

We talked about old times– (donde viven ustedes en la isla?), and new times (como van las cosas, tan mal como dicen en los periodicos?)–

I haven’t been back to Puerto Rico since 1989. Professor Lazaro didn’t know about blogs before our conversation– now he does and hopefully he will look mine up and see all of us together.

What a delightful surprise– something tells me we were all meant to be at Masada together today.

PS

He said the economic problems of the island are not as bad as they have been reported to be. "On an island, when people talk, small pebbles become boulders and an insect bite becomes a pain in the …"

I was very disappointed to read in this morning’s edition of Haaretz that the President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, refuses to address Rabbi Eric Yoffie as "Rabbi".  Rabbi Yoffie only represents 1.5 million American Reform Jews as the leader of the Reform movement of the United States.

This is ridiculous and really makes me scratch my head about what is going on here in Israel.  There are about 13 million Jews in the entire world, only 6 million of them in Israel, and we have to fight about who is a Jew and who is a Rabbi?  I’m sure the anti-Semites are having a laugh over this latest waste of Jewish energy–  and it makes me very sad. 

Shmuel Rosner, who is Haaretz’s Chief U.S. correspondent, posted an excellent analysis on his blog (click here) in response to the news article and the equally strong Op Ed piece in today’s print edition of Haaretz by Shahar Ilan. Rosner discusses the issues raised by this slap in the face of Reform Jews by the government of Israel.

Rosner acknowledges that we Reform Jews are very strong supporters of Israel– and he even consulted with an Orthodox Israeli Rabbi who agrees that Rabbi Yoffie should, indeed, be addressed as "Rabbi".

When I consider many of the unresolved social and political problems that Israel faces– and there are many of them–  I trace their lack of resolution to the kind of dogmatic intransigence that burdens public officials such as Moshe Katsav.  Too few American Jews are aware of this type of mindset — we should wake up and speak out. 

Fortunately, I will have the opportunity to do so later this evening, when I meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a dinner for the speakers at the Israel Venture Association conference. 

If Israel’s elected government officials refuse to recognize that there is more than one way to be a Jew, the future of our faith will, indeed, be threatened.  In my view, Zionism is not incompatible with inclusion. Consider all of the "secular" Jews in Israel– they are the majority of Jews in the country and are unaffiliated because they don’t abide by orthodoxy, not because they don’t believe in Judaism.

We have shown that we can come together as a people to protect ourselves from outside enemies– can we rid ourselves of the narrow mindedness that threatens our vitality from within?

I am posting from Tel Aviv, Israel, where yesterday I gave one of the keynote speeches at the 2006 Israel Venture Association conference on the subject of best practices for CEO transitions in venture-backed companies.

The conference is very well attended- with over 900 registered participants– which is the largest attendance in its history.  The panel discussion that followed my prepared remarks was remarkably candid. Three seasoned Israeli CEO’s– Dr. Arnon Gat of Negevtech, Ronnie Kenneth of Voltaire, and Itzik Kershenbaum of Envara, joined Moshe Mor of Greylock, Moshe Levin of Tamir Fishman, and me on the panel.  Moderator Aaron Mankovski of Pitango asked very pointed questions about the challenges posed by VC pressures to exit versusa CEO’s desire to build a bigger business. 

The panel broadly agreed that a bad board can kill a company and that both CEO’s and VC’s can do better to manage mutual expectations from the outset of their relationships. 

Israel ranks only behind California and Massachusetts as a center for venture capital investment and for entrepreneurial talent.  India and China may be grabbing the headlines, but Israel is far more developed in terms of supporting the VC/entrepreneur eco-system.  Gossip at the conference about what’s going on in India convinces me that there is a huge opportunity in India– and that it is still very early days in that story.

I can say with confidence that the leaders of Israel fully recognize that the continued growth drivers for the Israeli economy are highly dependent on an environment that contiues to nurture the human capital and innovative spirit that drive venture capital’s remarkable success in Israel.  I am honored to participate in this year’s conference– later today, I will address the IVA’s Young Venture Capitalist Forum about best practices in developing career paths for the next generation of VC’s in Israel.

Levensohn Venture Partners and August Capital hosted a gathering of over 60 VC’s and entrepreneurs, many of them active or incipient bloggers, at the Four Seasons in Palo Alto this evening to hear from the Naked Conversations authors about the state of the blogosphere and life after Microsoft for the Scobleizer.

The lively discussion featured co-moderator Dave Hornik accusing all bloggers of being "full of shit" — pointing to a thinly disguised innate pandering instinct behind the search for blogging fame in Silicon Valley in particular.  As I reflect on this, self-acknowledged self-promoter Guy Kawasaki comes to mind, though he was not in attendance this evening.

Keith Benjamin tried in vain to maintain order on the panel as the discussion continued to get hotter.  The issue of blogging credibility (are all bloggers really full of shit and who can you believe?) surfaced repeatedly.

To this point, Scoble asserted that video blogs and podcasts can go a long way to foster trust and build credibility for a blogger. Scoble’s bottom line on the subject of credible blogging is that it takes time to build credibility as a blogger– similar to building a credible brand– and that, as your following grows, your own loyal readers will call you on the carpet for misstatements– this was certainly his experience at Microsoft.

There is certainly truth to Hornik’s assertion, as self promotion is innate to all bloggers– otherwise we wouldn’t go through the effort of crafting posts meant to attract readers.

I questioned the asymmetry between the nearly 50 million acrtive bloggers and the primitive state of the blogging infrastructure–  there was agreement that the tools for measuring blog popularity and, again, credibility, are sorely in need of further development.

While executives from Six Apart, which hosts this blog, were in the room, our friends from Technorati cancelled at the last minute due to urgent out of town business– where did you go, Peter Hirshberg?  We missed you.

Another interesting fact that surfaced is that most people who use RSS and many people who read blogs don’t necessarily know it.  Shel Israel told the recent anecdote of a woman who said she liked his website but couldn’t find his blog– Shel took his website down eighteen months ago…

Yahoo! statistics show that, while 31% of Internet users do use RSS, only 4% do so knowingly.

Now that Rob Scoble is leaving Microsoft to join Podtech, he will be moving to the Bay Area–  Scoble and Gates anounce that they are leavingMicrosoft the same week– what does that tell you? Will there be more real estate for sale in Seattle? 

On that note, good night, as I fly out to Israel tomorrow to participate in the Israel Venture Association conference next week……

A recent Q&A interview profile in the June 2006 issue of Private Equity Manager highlights recent work that I have been doing on the subject of director accountability.  For a link to the story click here.

When I grew up on the island of Puerto Rico in the 1960’s, little did I know that I was living through the brief "heyday" of Puerto Rico’s over 100 year history as part of the United States. 

Both The New York Times and The Economist have devoted some recent ink to the sorry tale of "la isla del encanto". The bottom line is resoundingly bad, and the most interesting thing about the recent press coverage is that Puerto Rico’s current plight is the result of decades of poorly conceived investment subsidies and welfare transfer payments.

As a child, I knew that being born in Puerto Rico made me an American citizen, but our family could not vote for the President of the United States.  We also did not pay federal income taxes.  U.S. companies such as the one that employed my father– the Harwood Corporation based in New York City– a then-publicly-held textile manufacturing concern, took advantage of tax breaks– the most advantageous and best known being Section 936, which was only finally phased out in 2005.

Another thing I knew about Puerto Rico in the 60’s and early 70’s was that a lot of people were on welfare and found it more attractive to hang out, receive monthly checks from Uncle Sam, and maybe earn a little money working off-the-books in the "grey" economy, while avoiding the "stress" of serious work–  and guess what?  Having the option to do nothing and get paid seems to be at the root of the crisis in unemployment and the underutilization of a well-educated workforce that cripples Puerto Rico today.

So how bad are things in Puerto Rico?

Acccording to The Economist–

*Puerto Rico’s annual income per person in 2004 was around $12,000, less than half that of Mississippi, which is the poorest state in the U.S.

*Over 48% of the people on the island live below the federally defined poverty line– this is 4x the national average and 2x the misery in Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

* Best estimates of unemployemnt on the island range from 45% to 55%.

* Federal transfer payments (welfare) to the island still make up over 20% of the island’s personal income.

*Despite Puerto Rico’s beautiful beaches (and great sailing and surfing and diving) jobs in tourism engage a lower share of the workforce in Puerto Rico than in any of the 50 states.

*Around 30% of the island’s jobs are in the public sector, so Puerto Rico can boast of a bloated bureaucracy.

The Economist concludes the following:

"… Most important, however, is that the United States government assumed too big a role in the Puerto Rican economiy, and its largess enabled the commonwealth’s government to do the same.  Through hubris, clumsiness, and sheer size, these governments knocked Puerto Rico off the promising path that it was following, and the island’s economy is now lost in a thicket of bad incentives.  Two federal intrusions stand out: an oversized welfare state, and misguided rules on business investment…. Manuel Reyes, of the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association, also sees little hope that the government’s role will shrink. ‘There is no light at the end of the tunnel,’, he says, ‘because we are still in denial’."

My father was the President of the Puerto Rico Manufacturers Association before his death in 1974.  Because he was an optimist, I know he would not have accepted "being in denial" as an answer.  I also know he would be saddened to see where the road has led for this beautiful place that, ironically, remains left behind as a commonwealth that is part of the United States.

Que lastima!

A new report from the Council on Foreign Relations website indicates an overwhleming amount of public support for Abu Mazen’s call for a referendum in order to resurrect negotiations to reach a two state solution for the Palestinian people.  Over the past several months, I have met with a number of highly respected veterans of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating theatre on different occasions, and the only consensus  view that I came away with is hat prospects for negotiation of a viable two-state solution over the near term are zero.

This interview with Ziad Asali by Bernard Gwertzman, which I have excerpted below and to which you can link by clicking here, suggests that the power of Palestinian public opinion in support of Abu Mazen’s bold call for negotiation may succeed in shifting momentum to the negotiating table a lot sooner than many seasoned experts believe.

We can always hope, and we should applaud the constructive leadership shown by Abu Mazen when everyone outside of Israel and Palestine seems to have written him off.

Asali: Palestinians Support Abbas’ Referendum Plan by Huge Majority

Interviewee:  Ziad J. Asali

Interviewer:  Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor

June 2, 2006

Ziad J. Asali, president and founder of the American Task Force on Palestine, a group dedicated to setting up a state of Palestine alongside that of Israel, says that the call two weeks ago by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a referendum by Palestinians on whether to proceed with negotiations for a two-state solution with Israel has energized many Palestinians who had earlier believed he was too weak. "To have someone say ‘enough of all this and let’s just get a resolution of this issue,’ and to have someone in charge, is, I’m sure, a welcome change for the Palestinians right now," says Asali, a Palestinian born in Jerusalem, who has a medical degree.

He says that according to two reputable polls recently taken in the Palestinian territories, some 75 to 80 percent of those polled support the referendum idea, which is opposed by the Hamas-led government of the Palestine Authority, which is independent of President Abbas. "The people just want an end to this disastrous way of life. The Palestinians cannot see a way out of the present predicament other than by the two-state solution," he says.

…

Of course you have, in the current Israeli coalition government, a difference of opinion because Olmert’s own defense minister, Amir Peretz, head of the Labor Party, is very interested in negotiating. I think a lot will depend on whether or not this referendum can actually get off the ground. I suppose he’ll need some Arab support for this.

He has the Arab support. He has international support for it, and I think it has already made a difference, whether it takes place or not. You know it can be challenged, of course. Any government, and even any party that has armed people, could impose its will on them, could disrupt this process, so Hamas is in a position to disrupt it physically if it wants to, but it has to calculate its moves very carefully if the Palestinians in fact do support it by a majority of 80%, which is what we’re seeing now.

Have polls been taken?

Yes, reputable polls. Up to now around 80 percent support the referendum. Two polls actually have already published.

And it’s 80 percent?

Yes, one was. I think both of them are 75 to 80 percent. There actually is no surprise in the Palestinian people’s support for a two-state solution. Poll after poll after poll since the Oslo agreements has shown around 65 to 70 percent support for a two-state solution. I wasn’t surprised that this would go up to 80 percent now, especially after the economic hardship of the past several months. The people just want an end to this disastrous way of life. The Palestinians cannot see a way out of the present predicament other than by the two-state solution. Their main concern, actually, is the other one, which is, is it too late for a state? They would be very willing to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem.

Of course if they do have negotiations it would be extremely difficult, I would think.

Well, of course it would be very difficult because there are three situations here that Israel finds objectionable. One is the fact that the question of refugees as stated in the prisoners’ list of terms for negotiations was to be solved on the basis of the right of return. This is something that Israel would not accept. The borders as mentioned here in this document were the pre-1967 war borders. Of course this is something else that Israel would not quite readily accept either, and there is no mentioning of the recognition of the State of Israel that Israel wants out of Hamas. So these are things that Israel would not go along with readily, shall we say. There will be hard negotiations. But, you know, it gets us back at least to moving on beyond Camp David [talks that failed in 2000] and Taba [failed talks in Egypt in January 2001]. So of course they will have differences, but at least we’re talking about things that can conceivably be bridged by negotiations.