Welcome to New Orleans… talk to me

Welcome to New Orleans: As I write this, Shabbat has just ended and I’m sitting in my hotel room at the Sheraton in New Orleans.

Forty floors below me, the early arrivals for the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America are starting to appear, hundreds of faces that have become familiar over the past five years as I have covered the event. By the time you get this Sunday morning, most of the 3,000 to 4,000 expected for the GA and the federations’ adjoining women’s philanthropy parley — the International Lion of Judah Conference — will have arrived, breakout sessions will be set to begin, and a flood of news and blogging and twittering about the GA will hit you.

It is going to be an important gathering for the federations, as many of them are having to cope with lowered fund-raising expectations, fewer dollars coming into the system (at least through their general campaigns), and a significant increase in need from the agencies that they support. In addition, as the recession starts to cede, the federations are faced with problems they faced even before the economy bottomed out — a shrinking donor base, a struggle to engage younger Jews in the work of the federation system, and the difficult balance between needs here in North America and overseas, including in Israel.

Between now and Wednesday, the federations will attempt to address these issues with dozens of workshops and plenary sessions. The system’s adherents will also here from A-list speakers, chief among them Vice President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Stay tuned here, on the blog and on Twitter, as we try to give you as much of the news in as live a fashion as possible from our own staff and by culling the best of the reportage from other news outlets.

Fundermentalist’s take: The exhibit hall beneath me is starting to fill with those already here picking up their credentials and their schwag. (If you haven’t gotten here yet, I am warning you, the goodies comes in a pretty, umm, noticeable stretchy silver Mylar bag.)

And already gone is a Shabbat in New Orleans with Jewish Federations of North America that can best be described as a peaceful precursor to what is about to begin.

The JFNA had initially planned a Shabbaton for those who wanted to come to the Big Easy a little early. But in the end, wary of overloading participants, the organization dropped any planned programming and merely offered prayer services — both traditional and egalitarian — as well as Friday night dinner and Saturday lunch.

I usually get to the GA just as it begins, dropping in and immediately immersing myself in the flow and the buzz of what is three days of nonstop networking and learning. This year, however, I got here Friday, hoping to cover a charity golf tournament the JFNA had planned, but unfortunately I was told “donors only,” no Fundermentalists allowed.

Still, the early arrival gave me the chance to drop in and out of the GA Shabbat, and really enjoy a subdued, quiet pre-party with some JFNA officials and conference participants. It was a Shabbat where Gary Rosenblatt of The New York Jewish Week wasn’t the guy I’m worried about beating on stories, but a mentor I’ve known for years who is came with his wife, the mom of a girl with whom I went to elementary school; it was a Shabbat where Jerry Silverman wasn’t the guy enveloped with trying to keep healthy a $2 billion to $3 billion charitable system, but just Jerry who is trying to get in some quality time with his wife and two of his daughters.

It truly felt like Jewish extended family. And it was a stark contrast with what was — and is always — going on only a few blocks from where the GA is taking place. Burboun Street on a Friday night is the definition of

Bacchanalia and everything that is perhaps morally scary about American society. And, of course, over Shabbat I bounced back and forth between the two.

People ask whether you’ve walked down Burboun, the strip famous for its strip clubs and Hurricanes — the frozen concoction of rum, vodka, other liquors and something sweet in pretty much any color you could desire. But, in truth, there is no walking Burboun Street. If you’re among the tens of thousands of tourists who flock there every night specifically to engage in the alcohol culture of New Orleans, the walk is more a stumble pushed along by the current of hundreds of drunks, most trying to find random sexual titillation in exchange for plastic beads. If you’re not drunk, the walk is a combination of avoiding getting swallowed by the current mixed with either a tinge of disgust or envy.

The running joke among those GA-ers with whom I have spoken is an open wondering of which federation high-ups will hit the Street hardest, and which Lions of Judah will escape for a night to express their inner cougars.

The JFNA and Hillel will have some trick in trying to keep the 600 college students that they have brought down to New Orleans away from the party.

I’ve learned that the two organizations made each student sign a “no alcohol” agreement as part of receiving the subsidy for their trip, even for those who are well above drinking age. We’ll see if it sticks.

Feed The Fundermentalist: Yes, even before the GA begins, I’m starting to find little tidbits of conference color everywhere. (Did you know that Netanyahu inadvertently displaced a number GA attendees from their hotel rooms with his security needs, which required booking more than 20 rooms?)

But I need more. So come and find me. I want to talk to you.

And not just for the immediate GA stuff.

I’ll be testing out several themes and looking for new ideas for upcoming stories about the federation system, so if you’re a professional or volunteer at a federation — big or small — I want to talk to you. If you’re a non-federation type just here for the conference, I want to know how you’re experience is going and find about what’s happening in your corner of the Jewish philanthropic world.

Anything that is on your mind, I want to to hear. Find me. I look like the cartoon guy in the banner at the top of this page, only sporting a short beard now (OK, fine … and a few extra pounds).

I’m looking forward to seeing you, and feel free to reach out to me either via twitter (http://twitter.com/fundermentalist) or e-mail (fundermentalist@jta.org).

Win a Kindle (and get an exclusive preview of JTA’s new digital archive): Imagine being able to do a keyword search of English-language articles on Jewish events around the world dating back 90 years. Stop dreaming. Just make your way to Booth 204 in the exhibition hall and check out our not-yet-finished-but-still-really-cool digital archive. There’s the possibility of a Kindle in it for you if you can use the archive to answer a trivia question.