Jewish Las Vegas

Las Vegas entertainment executive Tom Ficara emails:

Luke….here is a bombshell from a person who claims to be a Board Member from the Las Vegas Jewish Federation.

Wow!

We are about to announce a very big name lawyer who is going to pursue this case.

Tom sends along this:

An Open Letter to The Jewish Community of Las Vegas:

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

The purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention a very serious situation regarding the lack of executive leadership, moral values and subsequent board inaction regarding the treatment of staff, past and present at the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas.

Under the dictatorial leadership of Elliot Karp and with the implied consent of Board Chairman Leonard Stone, Mr. Karp ha unleashed abuse, threats and intimidation upon the professional staff. This should come as no surprise since Mr. Karp has a long history of anger management issues including documented incidents at other Jewish Federations across the country.

He is “maintained” by Vicki Agron and her husband. It was Ms. Agron who championed his candidacy despite the fact she knew he was fired by the Cincinnati Jewish Federation for abusing a female co-worker, a fact that several members of our executive committee ignored.

Since early spring at least five senior level professionals have been dismissed by Mr. Karp. They were professionals who were dedicated to the values, mission and principles of our Federation. Mr. Karp and his CFO, Marjorie Greibel, devised various scenarios to hasten these people’s departure. We are talking about real people who Mr. Karp is still trying to destroy financially by contesting their unemployment and cheating them out of earned commission sales, as well as openly practicing reverse anti-Semitism through psychological and religious discrimination against selected former employees, both non-Jewish and Jewish employees.

Currently there are at least two lawsuits against the Jewish Federation. Negative national publicity, including a running blog on Luke Ford Blog continues to present our Federation in a very negative light because of Mr. Karp’s erratic current and past behavior and the lack of fiduciary responsibility exercised by Mr. Stone and our Board. I believe like you, most of our fellow Board members either know very little or worse yet, know nothing about the events. We are asked for a check and sadly for too many of us, that is the extent of our involvement. The public is finding out the truth about Mr. Karp’s abusive and racist behavior. Ultimately we will most likely have to pay for Mr. Karp’s transgressions as we have now drawn the attention of internet media and many other Federations across the country.

Mr. Karp was asked to quietly resign in a move designed so he might save face and allow the Federation to begin the healing process. He apparently refused, thus assuring that we will be engaged in a very visible and tragic public relations battle we simply can’t win. What we are not being told is that tremendous legal expenses are beginning to pile up as the Federation continues to fight efforts by former staff members to collect their unemployment benefits. The motive behind this fight is one of spite.

Lest you think this letter is about faceless people let me “introduce” you to 5 former dedicated Federation employees who incurred the attacks of Mr. Karp and were unjustly fired. Many of us worked closely with thee individuals. These were people with children, homes, grandchildren. They did not deserve to be treated this way. Mr. Karp’s stated rationale was that all of them were disgruntled employees and had to go. As smart business people and professionals this is an insulting excuse for this actions and behavior.

Joanne Friedland faithfully served the Federation for 14 years as director of sales for the now defunct Jewish Reporter. Several years ago during a very difficult period in the Federation’s leadership she and Arthur Bloberger kept the Federation alive through the paper. This past summer after selling a recording number of ads Joanne and the paper’s staff were fired. Mr. Karp had made the decision to shut the paper down much earlier, but did not tell them until High Holidays ads were sold. To date Mr. Karp has refused to pay Joanne’s commission because he coerced several advertisers to consider the advertising contract they agreed to be used as a tax-free donation to the Federation. That is his out in not paying Joanne her hard-earned commissions. Joanne was forced to accept a $1,400 buyout ($100 for each year of service) and has had her unemployment challenged.

Arthur Bloberger, dedicated editor of The Jewish Reporter, was a veteran newspaperman, who took great pride in producing a widely recognized professional publication. He worked many long hours (without overtime) to ensure our community had a paper it could take great pride in. Mr. Karp determined that since Arthur wasn’t Jewish he had to go. Since Mr. Karp’s arrival as CEO he continually demeaned Arthur as the company” goy” and told people he was an embarrassment to the Federation since he couldn’t possibly understand the Jewish perspective. Arthur’s health was seriously jeopardized by Mr. Karp’s continual harangue and ultimately forced him to leave his position prior to it being officially terminated. To add insult to injury Mr. Karp has personally ordered the Federation to fight Arthur’s unemployment claim “to teach him a lesson”

Charry Kennedy, director of Women’s Philanthropy, fell into disfavor with Mr. Karp by telling the truth regarding his regrettable and unprofessional behavior toward another professional member this past summer. Despite raising significant dollars a month women’s Jewish community her every decision was second guessed. Her last day at the Federation resulted in her having to call Metro to escort her to her car because Mr. Karp was “off the deep end” threatening her in her office. She locked the door fearful that he might repeat his scene with a female employee in Cincinnati (who he slapped). Charry has also had her unemployment claim challenged.

Marc Levine came to the Federation in March as director of communications and marketing. By the end of the summer he too was fired. Marc had a personal family tragedy that required several trips to Florida as his daughter gave birth to premature twins. His grandson died soon after birth and his granddaughter, a micro preemie, was in extremely critical condition as she clung to life for nearly months. Mr. Karp continually berated Marc for spending too much going back and forth to Florida to provide support for his family. He told Mar he could no longer go to Florida unless he had his (Karp’s) written permission prior to planning any trips. Marc refused and was ultimately fired in September.

Aaron Schwamberg was fired in the early spring. He served as director of the Federation’s JEWEL program as well as Mr. Karp’s daily whipping boy for whatever went wrong, real or imagined.

There are other current employees who on a daily basis are subjected to Mr. Karp’s anger. Leonard Stone was invited by eight staff members to come to the Federation offices and listen to their concerns. He came to the meeting and warned the staff he wasn’t interested in anything Mr. Karp did unless it involved “a white powder and a razor.” Leonard Stone empowers Mr. Karp to continue his abusive behavior upon Federation staff by not responding to numerous requests for help regarding staff treatment and their eventual unwarranted termination.

My fellow Board members and friend, this is the current state of our Federation executive leadership. Much of this information will soon come out in the press and as part of the legal testimony. Subpoenas are in the process of being issued and affidavits have already been filed.

As leaders and influential members of the Las Vegas Jewish community we must make our voices heard and re capture the Federation so the true mission and values of creating a united Jewish community are allowed to go forth.

The time to make our voices heard now. As a full board and leaders of the Jewish community we can do the right thing and put an end to the evil being perpetrated.