Jerry Nadler: Nerd

Two new pieces: A profile of a nerdy congressman and a portrait of mismanagement.

1. Nadler Bucked AIPAC on Iran — Will He Survive to Tell the Tale?

Yes, definitely. A bit from my story:

The last time Jerry Nadler faced a serious threat to his congressional seat, Bill Clinton had never met Monica Lewinsky, Newt Gingrich had not yet been voted speaker of the House, Kurt Cobain had just died and Justin Bieber had just been born.

But now, after more than two decades as the largely-uncontested representative-for-life of a congressional district stretching from Manhattan’s West Side to Brooklyn’s Boro Park, one of the most powerful Jews in New York City politics appears to face a political fight on the horizon.

Read the rest here.

2. FEGS Execs Got Fat Payouts as Bankruptcy Loomed

Further adventures in digging into how the massive Jewish charity FEGS Health & Human Services managed to run itself into the ground. The top:

One month before one of the largest Jewish charities in the country admitted to donors that it had lost $20 million, the agency’s executive vice president got a $92,000 bonus.

The signs of the impending disaster that would soon send FEGS Health & Human Services spiraling into bankruptcy, and leave tens of thousands of its employees and clients uncertain about their jobs and their care should have been clear by then to the charity’s executives and trustees. In October 2014, when records show that Ira Machowsky got his bonus, FEGS was already in technical default on a $12 million bond issue. An internal review conducted in November of that year found that three-quarters of the group’s 350 programs were losing money.

Read the rest here.