Comments on: Blogging the Omer, Day 25: Newspaper beholden to its funders? – no, really?

By: Leora

Leora — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:17:54 +0000

Dan,
Don’t you wonder, even a little bit, about why a seemingly altruistic person would require that the name of a great teacher in our history be obliterated from an educational institution? (I understand that the school had to actually paint over the Akiba name in the gym for its one remaining year in
the old building!)
Leora

By: Susan

Susan — Sun, 18 May 2008 03:42:20 +0000

Just to be clear: the alumni were told that the Barrack money was $600,000 per year for the next five years, then the balance upon the passing of both Mr. and Mrs. Barrack, who I hope will live long and healthy lives. With much of that money being invested, exactly how many students will benefit from it this year? Other local schools have received larger donations, in lump sums and in excess of $100 million, and have had a building or a campus named after them. Is “enormous ego” the image of Jews that we want projected?

To answer Dan’s question in an earlier posting: “Can we please move on from this Barrack thing and discuss some real news? What are Jews doing to help the 30,000 people who have died this week world wide? Donâ€™t we have bigger fish to fry?” I know my answer: I’ll be sending my Akiba and Federation Annual giving money to the less fortunate people he is referring to. I hope Mr. Barrack joins me in this effort as well. And when I make my donation, my name won’t be on anything except the cancelled check.

By: Allen

Allen — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:39:11 +0000

Giving a large amount of money and naming the library or the campus would make the donor seem committed to the school and Jewish education. This makes the donor look like he just wants to get his name on something. That kind of gift sends a message – only give if you are getting something back. Hardly the kind of thing that will build the kind of support Jewish schools need.
ADG

By: Olam Gadol

Olam Gadol — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:16:02 +0000

I don’t get it. We want to attract wealthy donors for our institutions. we would all agree to this. Embarrassing them may scare them away. We may all agree to this too.

So, let me see if I understand: to obtain their money we let the rich do as they please?

We now have a wealthy philanthropist from NY being investigated for giving money to an Israeli Prime Minister as cash in envelopes. He claims he did nothing wrong. Yet, there seem to be no public records of the contributions. Where are the receipts? And, most important of all- was there a quid pro quo? The Israeli newspapers, and now the Israeli public, want to know. The Talansky neighbors in New York want to know.

It would be unfair to claim that there was anything untoward with the Barrak gift. But, maybe there was a quid pro quo. Maybe there was not.

If a newspaper does not let its staff keep an eye on such things then we get Talanskys (the philanthropist from NY). Now Sheldon Adelson, the wealthiest Jew in the world (who, it seems,did nothing wrong) is under investiagtion. He has, as a result said he will not do any new business in Israel.

Does this prove the point of Dan (see above). It does not. It proves that when there is a lack of openness it leads to suspicion and this leads to people who are afraid to give.Keep everying in the open and problems are avoided.

The bottom line: Barrak and the school should provide all information that has been requested. The local Jewish newspapers do a disservice to the community by keeping silent.
Olam Gadol
(who has worked for many years in fund raising for NPOs)

By: formermuslim

formermuslim — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:52:20 +0000

“Someone who gives $5 million to a cause IS NOT a lowly human being by any stretch of the imagination.”

Depends on how rich he is. If he can easily afford it I stand by what I said. In fact, even if he can’t.

By: Jeff Marker

Jeff Marker — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:44:24 +0000

I am not an alum but know a number of them. I’ve been outraged by this since I first heard about it, mostly the complete disregard of the feelings of alumna.

I don’t have a problem with including the name of the donor in the title, but eliminating the long history as “Akiba” is a shonda. Something like “Barrack-Akiba Academy” would have been a recognition of the needs of both sides.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:27:09 +0000

Meir-
To answer your question–yes!!! I often wonder whether Rabbi Akiva would rather his name on a building or 10-12 more students learning Torah. I don’t care if it is one more student. Enough said on that issue.
Fortunately, wealthy donors with the best of intentions usually lead to more wealthy donors/friends giving money; especially in the case of a school that bears their family name. Of course, we are talking about human beings: wealthy donors who are also embarrassed in public (i.e. Perelman, the last time a protest was mounted against Barrack) means that other donors will refuse to donate in turn for fear of similar humiliation. While both members of the Class of ’71 and other alumni who do not include themselves in this group, like myself, love the school and want the best for its future, I think they need to tread carefully and less recklessly. Had the ad been published, who knows what the long term damage might have been for the school’s fiscal situation? Schools still need money to run, and yes, for more scholarships for students to attend.
In response to “former’s” comment, I would like to say that I think that’s looking at this very myopically. Someone who gives $5 million to a cause IS NOT a lowly human being by any stretch of the imagination. I’m sorry it does not conform to your anonymous ideal, but since Temple times Jews have been giving less than anonymously (read: “Nicanor Arches” in Second Temple) Especially when its memory of a deceased brother who died tragically. Let’s not forget that honoring the memory of our deceased (kavod hamet) IS a Jewish value after all.
Can we please move on from this Barrack thing and discuss some real news? What are Jews doing to help the 30,000 people who have died this week world wide? Don’t we have bigger fish to fry?

By: formermuslim

formermuslim — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:28:29 +0000

The really sad part is the fact that a person is only willing to donate to a worthy cause in return for a favor. As my father would say, what a lowly human being.

By: Meir Eynaim

Meir Eynaim — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:01:34 +0000

The real outrage here is not fully covered in the Forward story. Yes, the Exponent refused to deal with a real news situation as the story makes an arm of the Federation, and its president, look bad.

That is not good.

Just as bad is the inability, after trying for months, of the alumni to get answers. Letters were answered with platitudes.

Those wanting to know if there was an inside deal here were described as malcontents.

Is it just by chance that the school gets a new name (Barak Academy), the president of Federation is named Barak (the school is named following his gift in memory of his brother), the school moves to a new campus (a deal presided over by Barak)?

Now how many students will benefit from his gift? With tuition approaching $25,000/year, a gift of $5,000,000 (which, shall we say, generates 5% interest) will allow all of about 10-15 students to attend with full scholarship. Is that worth a name change?

Is there more to the story? Will more money come in?

The alumni asked good questions but to date has received exactly zero responses that contained specifics.

By: David A.M. Wilensky

David A.M. Wilensky — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:06:00 +0000

I’m the Life and Arts editor of the Acorn, the newspaper of Drew University in Madison, NJ. Though the newspaper at large universities have the kind of ad revenue that allows them to be truly independent of any other parts of the school. At small liberal arts colleges like Drew across the country, however the story is different. We make some money from ads taken out by clubs and local businesses, but it’s small beans compared the portion of our budget that comes from the organizations on campus charged with doling out money to student-run organizations.

That being said, we are independent nonetheless. If the readership and the funders trust the us, the press remains in a position to report on what it feels it needs to report on and all is well.