By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent
Most of the staff of the Northwest Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League has resigned. That includes Robert Jacobs, who had been regional director since January 2004. A number of people familiar with the Seattle office’s situation described the basic problem that led to the national office asking for Jacob’s resignation as a “personal conflict” or a “management conflict” between the local leader and Bob Wolfson, ADL’s associate national director of regional operations.
“Rob has left the employ of the ADL to pursue other opportunities,” Wolfson said. “We are absolutely not going to talk about the reasons for that. Rob is moving on and we are going to seek a replacement for Rob, and we continue to be committed to ADL’s presence in the Pacific Northwest.”
In addition to Jacobs, the office manager, two interns and a corps of volunteers have departed, leaving just one staff member: Hilary Bernstein, the office’s assistant director and director of educational programming.
“At this point, there’s no capacity to respond to discrimination complaints, and there’s no civil rights effort,” Jacobs said. “There’s no staff to support it.”
Also gone is Patrick Manz, the ADL’s investigator in the Pacific Northwest office. Manz was the only resource in the region — among any organization — to track white supremacists and other hate groups, which are more active in parts of Idaho and Oregon than in most of the rest of the country. Jacobs said that the ADL would likely continue that work from Los Angeles until a replacement is found.
As a result of the upheaval and the lack of adequate staff resources, the annual fundraising “No Place For Hate” luncheon, which had been scheduled for October 10, has been canceled for this year, according to Wolfson who spoke to JTNews by phone from his office in New York.
“With Rob’s departure — and we’re currently without a fundraising executive and without an office manager — it’s really impossible to carry out such an enterprise when you’re missing three out of four positions,” Wolfson said. “It’s just math. It has nothing to do with our commitment to be in the Pacific Northwest.”
Wolfson was Jacob’s supervisor in the national ADL hierarchy. Jacobs, who was prevented from providing details of the situation that led to his resignation by the terms of his separation agreement with the organization, said Wolfson was the third person he had dealt with in that position since he became regional director.
Jacobs said his working relationship with Wolfson’s predecessors was good and that he had received positive feedback on the job he was doing from them. A formal statement said that Jacobs and the ADL had reached an agreement for him to leave and “pursue other opportunities.”
Jacobs said he is entertaining possibilities for his own future, he is committed to remaining active in the local Jewish community, including continuing some initiatives he had been working on while with the ADL.
While apparently not all members of the regional Executive Committee, an advisory board with no direct supervisory role, were fans of Jacobs’ management style, the majority of board members were strongly supportive. The board as a whole and several individual executive board members wrote letters to ADL President Abraham Foxman urging the national office to find a way to keep Jacobs in his job.
“I have observed Rob in numerous critical situations and his performance has been exemplary,” wrote Jeffrey A. Slotnick, a security expert and board member. “Of particular note was Rob’s performance during last years shooting at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. I personally have served in combat zones and never have I experienced a commander who performed as Rob did. His performance should be analyzed and captured as guidance for other directors during similar situations.”
Nevet Basker, a recent addition to the executive board and the chair of their International Committee wrote to Foxman: “Rob has inspired and coached me to be an effective, informed and outspoken supporter for Israel. Under Rob’s guidance, I have been speaking at schools and churches about Israel and the Middle East. I am now taking a public stand in local media”
“It’s unfortunate that his management differences with the ADL couldn’t be resolved in a more constructive way,” Basker told JTNews. “It’s such a shame for ADL that they’re losing such an important resource and a strong professional with local ties. This is not like New York or Chicago, where the next generation of leaders is just waiting to be tapped on the shoulder. It’s going to be hard to replace him.”
Basker said that under the current circumstances, with so many staff members leaving, the committee she chairs, which she describes as primarily involved in Israel advocacy, is looking for a way to continue outside of the ADL structure, either by coming under the umbrella of another group or forming themselves as an independent organization. She did not rule out the possibility of working under the auspices of the ADL once a new director and staff is in place.
An executive committee meeting, the first since Jacobs’ departure, was scheduled for Thurs., Aug. 23 after JTNews went to press.
Lauren Simonds knows Jacobs both in her professional role as the executive director of the National Council of Jewish Women’s Seattle Section and as an ADL volunteer.
“I found Rob to being committed to building community, to working collaboratively,” she said. “I found him to be accessible and he was very excited about the work he was doing with the ADL and the impact that it was having on our community as a whole, both the Jewish community and the wider community. He was excited about legislation, he was excited about community programming.
“He was good at reaching out, he was good at collaboration and at creating visibility. I think all of that is very important when you’re in such a small community. You have to be able to work together to bring your programs forward and not to duplicate the programs that you’re doing. And work together to get behind important legislation that is going to change the world for the better.”
While she said she thought the ADL had made a mistake in letting Jacobs go, as an administrator, Simonds said, she understood that frictions like the one described between Jacobs and Wolfson do happen.
“I believe there is a personality conflict somewhere along the supervisory line and it was unable to be resolved in a way that would benefit the Pacific Northwest region,” Simonds said. “Anybody who’s reached the level of executive director has supervised people and we all know that personality conflicts can arise. But I think that it’s truly a shame,” she added. “As far as NCJW is concerned, we absolutely want to continue to work with the ADL proactively to do whatever we can to help them continue the work that they’re doing under the leadership of their board and until they find an executive director, and work with whoever that person may be.”