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| {{Short description|Intentional community in New York City}} | |||
| {{Other uses}} | {{Other uses}} | ||
| {{Coord| 40.637779|-74.083359|name=Ganas|type:landmark|display=title}} | {{Coord| 40.637779|-74.083359|name=Ganas|type:landmark|display=title}} | ||
| {{Infobox organization | {{Infobox organization | ||
| |name = Ganas | |name = Ganas Community | ||
| |image = 135-corson.JPG | |image = 135-corson.JPG | ||
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| '''Ganas''' is an ] founded in 1979 in ].<ref name=communenyt>{{cite news |author=Andrew Jacobs |author-link=Andrew Jacobs (journalist) |title=Yes, It's a Commune. Yes, It's on Staten Island. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/29/nyregion/yes-it-s-a-commune-yes-it-s-on-staten-island.html?pagewanted=all |work=] |date=November 29, 1998 |accessdate=2009-07-22 }}</ref> Ganas has non-egalitarian, tiered membership groups,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thefec.org/node/959 |title=Radical Culture Shock: The Desire for Community and the Need for Private Space |date=August 14, 2008 |publisher=Federation of Egalitarian Communities}}</ref> and is thus a partial member at the ].<ref name=fec>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefec.org/taxonomy/term/4/#Allied_Communities|title=Our Communities|date=February 22, 2005|publisher=Federation of Egalitarian Communities|accessdate=2009-07-28}}</ref> The community uses a group problem-solving process called "Feedback Learning",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fic.ic.org/video/ganasinfo.php|title=Ganas Info|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> which was begun by co-founder Mildred Gordon.<ref name=dictators/> The community attracted press attention after a 2006 shooting incident which led to lurid tabloid headlines.<ref name=nyt2008/><ref name=shocker/> The community was founded by a group of six people, and has grown to consist of 10–12 core group members plus 60 to 70 members of varying involvement. There are three businesses run by Ganas, including a bookstore-cafe. | '''Ganas''' is an ] founded in 1979 in ].<ref name=communenyt>{{cite news |author=Andrew Jacobs |author-link=Andrew Jacobs (journalist) |title=Yes, It's a Commune. Yes, It's on Staten Island. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/29/nyregion/yes-it-s-a-commune-yes-it-s-on-staten-island.html?pagewanted=all |work=] |date=November 29, 1998 |accessdate=2009-07-22 }}</ref> Ganas has non-egalitarian, tiered membership groups,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thefec.org/node/959 |title=Radical Culture Shock: The Desire for Community and the Need for Private Space |date=August 14, 2008 |publisher=Federation of Egalitarian Communities}}</ref> and is thus a partial member at the ].<ref name=fec>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefec.org/taxonomy/term/4/#Allied_Communities|title=Our Communities|date=February 22, 2005|publisher=Federation of Egalitarian Communities|accessdate=2009-07-28}}</ref> The community uses a group problem-solving process called "Feedback Learning",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fic.ic.org/video/ganasinfo.php|title=Ganas Info|accessdate=2009-07-23|archive-date=2010-02-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100218184647/http://fic.ic.org/video/ganasinfo.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> which was begun by co-founder Mildred Gordon.<ref name=dictators/> The community attracted press attention after a 2006 shooting incident which led to lurid tabloid headlines.<ref name=nyt2008>{{Cite news|author= James Barron|title=Ex-Member of Commune Is Acquitted|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/nyregion/05commune.html|work=] |date=August 5, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-05 |author-link= James Barron (journalist) }}</ref><ref name=shocker>{{Cite news|author=Heather Gilmore |quote=wacky sex sessions with a shrink|title=Commune Sex Shocker|url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/item_ij6VPUIaV3y12A6S6xrMkN/0|work=] |date=June 4, 2006|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> The community was founded by a group of six people, and has grown to consist of 10–12 core group members plus 60 to 70 members of varying involvement. There are three businesses run by Ganas, including a bookstore-cafe. | ||
| ==History== | ==History== | ||
| Ganas started in Staten Island in 1979 with six founders including ] and Jeff Gross.<ref name=meetup>{{ |
Ganas started in Staten Island in 1979 with six founders including ] and Jeff Gross.<ref name=meetup>{{Cite web|url=http://www.meetup.com/RemembranceProject/events/16517763/|title=Community as a Path to New Social Structures and Sustainability}}</ref> In 1973 Gordon left New York City where she had founded GROW,<ref name=about>{{cite web|url=http://activistsolutions.org/about/who_we_are/mildred_gordon|title=About Mildred Gordon|access-date=2009-07-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227041205/http://activistsolutions.org/about/who_we_are/mildred_gordon|archive-date=2008-02-27}}</ref><ref name=six>{{cite news |first= Iver|last=Peterson |title=Six at School Lack Degrees|url=http://ganas.awardspace.us/School_Lack_Degrees.pdf|work=] |date=July 14, 1972 |accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> an unaccredited school of ] that "turned out unlicensed group psychotherapists."<ref name=cityphd/> Throughout 1972 GROW was the subject of state Attorney General and city ] investigations into "fraudulent use of Ph.D.'s from unaccredited universities".<ref name=cityphd>{{cite news |first= Iver|last=Peterson |title=City to Look into PhD Use|url=http://ganas.awardspace.us/City_Look_PhD_Use.pdf |work=] |date=July 15, 1972 |accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref><ref name=self>{{cite news |first= Seth|last=King |title=Self-Accredited School|url=http://ganas.awardspace.us/Self_Accreddited_School.pdf|work=] |date=July 23, 1972 |accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> Gordon went to San Francisco where she studied ] which became the basis of what she termed "Feedback Learning".<ref name=communenyt/> Gordon met the five people who would become the original core-group of the Ganas community and incorporated the tax-exempt ] non-profit organization Foundation for Feedback Learning (FFL) in 1974. The new community went by the name FFL until changing their name to Ganas in the early 1990s.<ref name=dictators>{{cite journal|author=Kat Kinkade|author2=Mildred Gordon|date=Fall 1995|title=Benevolent Dictators in Community|journal=Communities Magazine|publisher=Fellowship for Intentional Community|url=http://ganas.tk/Benevolent_Dictators_in_Community.html#author|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://directory.ic.org/431/Ganas|title=Communities Directory|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> In the late 1970s they returned to New York and moved into a Lower East Side apartment, finally settling in Tompkinsville, Staten Island in 1979.<ref name=communenyt/> On Staten Island the core-group shares ownership of eight houses and three commercial buildings that house their retail stores.<ref name=ganas>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ganas.org |title=Ganas Community |accessdate=2009-07-21|publisher=Ganas }}</ref> There are about 65 non-core group residents who live in Ganas houses and cover expenses by either paying rent or working in the stores.<ref name=nymag>{{Cite news|author=Annalee Newitz|author-link=Annalee Newitz|title=Big Love on Staten Island. |url=http://nymag.com/news/features/16711/ |work=] |date=April 24, 2006 |accessdate=2007-10-31 }}</ref> | ||
| ==Culture== | ==Culture== | ||
| Ganas operates on four primary rules forbidding violence, freeloading, illegal activities, and non-negotiable negativity (requiring that complaints be discussed in group process or not discussed at all either in private or public).<ref name=utopiavisions>{{Cite web|title=Visions of Utopia|url=http://directory.ic.org/431/Ganas|accessdate=2010-11-10}}</ref> The primary focus of Ganas is Feedback Learning, an "intense brand of communication" according to '']'',<ref name=free>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/nyregion/01commune.html?_r=2&oref=slogin|title=Free Love, Hate and an Ambush at a Commune on Staten Island |last=Jacobs|first=Andrew|author2=Sarah Garland|date=June 1, 2006|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> about which journalist Jonah Owen Lamb writes: "Those new to Ganas would share their life story with the group, who would respond by picking apart their issues and deciding how those issues should be dealt with. By 'killing their buddhas,' it was felt, Ganas members could begin to take control of how they reacted to the world."<ref name=utopia>{{Cite news|url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/05/streets/utopia-has-a-web-site|title=Utopia Has a Web Site: Commune Life on Staten Island|last=Lamb|first=Jonah Owen|date=May 2006|publisher=The Brooklyn Rail|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> Mildred Gordon describes Feedback Learning as an "indispensable day-to-day guiding experience" in which members of the community provide feedback—helpful criticism—to each other. Through daily discussions of every community member's behaviour members can learn about themselves and their motivations, gain from hearing unpleasant truths, and "accept negative information with the excitement of discovery".<ref>{{Cite web|author= |
Ganas operates on four primary rules forbidding violence, freeloading, illegal activities, and non-negotiable negativity (requiring that complaints be discussed in group process or not discussed at all either in private or public).<ref name=utopiavisions>{{Cite web|title=Visions of Utopia|url=http://directory.ic.org/431/Ganas|accessdate=2010-11-10}}</ref> The primary focus of Ganas is Feedback Learning, an "intense brand of communication" according to '']'',<ref name=free>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/nyregion/01commune.html?_r=2&oref=slogin|title=Free Love, Hate and an Ambush at a Commune on Staten Island |last=Jacobs|first=Andrew|author2=Sarah Garland|date=June 1, 2006|work=The New York Times|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> about which journalist Jonah Owen Lamb writes: "Those new to Ganas would share their life story with the group, who would respond by picking apart their issues and deciding how those issues should be dealt with. By 'killing their buddhas,' it was felt, Ganas members could begin to take control of how they reacted to the world."<ref name=utopia>{{Cite news|url=http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/05/streets/utopia-has-a-web-site|title=Utopia Has a Web Site: Commune Life on Staten Island|last=Lamb|first=Jonah Owen|date=May 2006|publisher=The Brooklyn Rail|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref> Mildred Gordon describes Feedback Learning as an "indispensable day-to-day guiding experience" in which members of the community provide feedback—helpful criticism—to each other. Through daily discussions of every community member's behaviour members can learn about themselves and their motivations, gain from hearing unpleasant truths, and "accept negative information with the excitement of discovery".<ref>{{Cite web|author=Farhan Haq|url=http://www.uwcc.wisc.edu/icic/today/housing/usa-ganas.html|title='Ganas' Brings Cooperative Housing to New York|publisher=International Co-operative Alliance|accessdate=2009-07-23|archive-date=2010-06-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615192524/http://www.uwcc.wisc.edu/icic/today/housing/usa-ganas.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Mildred Gordon left Ganas in 2001 but still returned weekly to conduct Feedback Learning sessions at the commune.<ref name=utopia/> Profiles of Ganas today suggest the community has become less insular, with a more diverse group living there relatively less engaged in feedback learning.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://realestateforradicals.org/?p=131|title=From "cult" to community: Ganas mellows with age|date=November 2, 2022}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=November 2022|reason=This is a blog. See ]}} | ||
| ==Finances== | ==Finances== | ||
| ]]] | ]]] | ||
| Though Ganas is portrayed as a ] in the media,<ref name=communenyt/><ref name=nymag/><ref name=utopia/><ref name=free/> only the core group participates in income and property sharing.<ref name=utopiavisions/> | Though Ganas is portrayed as a ] in the media,<ref name=communenyt/><ref name=nymag/><ref name=utopia/><ref name=free/> only the core group participates in income and property sharing.<ref name=utopiavisions/> | ||
| Ganas runs three stores under the name "Every Thing Goes" that are dedicated to the re-use and re-sale of used goods. The stores include a furniture store, a clothing store and a bookstore/cafe with a performance stage. The businesses support the community but are labor-intensive and only marginally profitable.<ref name=communenyt/> For most of its life Ganas' income was declared on FFL's IRS form 990 for tax-exempt organizations. Since 2001 FFL has taken in an average of $475,000 in total annual revenue, including direct public support and program service revenue.<ref name=fflmerged>{{cite web|url=http://ganas.tk/ffl/FFLmerged.pdf|title=FFL 2001–2004 Tax Returns|publisher=Internal Revenue Service}}</ref> FFL's program services are listed as "Feedback Learning Skills Development" and "Interpersonal Skills Development".<ref name=06progrmas>{{cite web|url=http://ganas.tk/ffl/FFL06_programs.pdf|title=FFL 2006 Programs|publisher=Internal Revenue Service}}</ref> FFL's revenues do not include income from their "Everything Goes" stores, as those are for-profit entities. | Ganas runs three stores under the name "Every Thing Goes" that are dedicated to the re-use and re-sale of used goods. The stores include a furniture store, a clothing store and a bookstore/cafe with a performance stage. The businesses support the community but are labor-intensive and only marginally profitable.<ref name=communenyt/> For most of its life Ganas' income was declared on FFL's IRS form 990 for tax-exempt organizations. Since 2001 FFL has taken in an average of $475,000 in total annual revenue, including direct public support and program service revenue.<ref name=fflmerged>{{cite web|url=http://ganas.tk/ffl/FFLmerged.pdf|title=FFL 2001–2004 Tax Returns|publisher=Internal Revenue Service}}</ref> FFL's program services are listed as "Feedback Learning Skills Development" and "Interpersonal Skills Development".<ref name=06progrmas>{{cite web|url=http://ganas.tk/ffl/FFL06_programs.pdf|title=FFL 2006 Programs|publisher=Internal Revenue Service}}</ref> FFL's revenues do not include income from their "Everything Goes" stores, as those are for-profit entities. | ||
| In late 2006 the core group reorganized as Ganas Community ],<ref name=dos>{{cite web |url=http://appext9.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/CORPSEARCH.ENTITY_INFORMATION?p_nameid=3441574&p_corpid=3436048&p_entity_name=ganas%20&p_name_type=%25&p_search_type=CONTAINS&p_srch_results_page=0|title=NYS Division of Corporations State Records|publisher=New York DOS}}</ref> and began a new business called Ganas Food Company LLC.<ref name=food>{{cite web |
In late 2006 the core group reorganized as Ganas Community ],<ref name=dos>{{cite web |url=http://appext9.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/CORPSEARCH.ENTITY_INFORMATION?p_nameid=3441574&p_corpid=3436048&p_entity_name=ganas%20&p_name_type=%25&p_search_type=CONTAINS&p_srch_results_page=0|title=NYS Division of Corporations State Records|publisher=New York DOS}}</ref> and began a new business called Ganas Food Company LLC.<ref name=food>{{cite web|url=http://appext9.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/CORPSEARCH.ENTITY_INFORMATION?p_nameid=3432755&p_corpid=3426999&p_entity_name=ganas&p_name_type=%25&p_search_type=CONTAINS&p_srch_results_page=0|title=NYS DOC Entity Information|publisher=New York DOS}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Mildred Gordon continued to draw an annual salary of $40,000 as the executive director of FFL.<ref name=salary>{{cite web|url=http://ganas.tk/ffl/FFL_salaries.pdf|title=FFL 2008 Compensation|publisher=Internal Revenue Service}}</ref> In 2007 the legal address of FFL changed from Ganas headquarters on Staten Island to Brooklyn, and the same year FFL's tax return declared only $15,550 in total revenue and $75 in direct public support.<ref name=ffl08>{{cite web|url=http://ganas.tk/ffl/2008.1.pdf|title=FFL 2007 Tax Return|publisher=Internal Revenue Service}}</ref> The following year total revenue fell to $2295 with direct public support of $0.<ref name=ffl09>{{Cite web|title=FFL 2008 Tax Return|url=http://ganas.tk/ffl/2009.1.pdf|publisher=Internal Revenue Service}}</ref> Ganas has a real estate portfolio estimated at $10 million with holdings in upstate New York, Brooklyn, Virginia, California and Spain.<ref>{{cite news |author=Maureen Seaberg |author2=Oren Yaniv |author3=Alison Gendar |title=Ganas: Not a cult, insists groupie|url=http://www.religionnewsblog.com/14829/ganas-not-a-cult-insists-groupie|work=] |date=May 31, 2006 |accessdate=2009-07-22 }}</ref> | ||
| == Controversy == | == Controversy == | ||
| Two ex-members have made allegations about Ganas, including that it is a ],<ref name=boot/><ref name=look/> that it pressures residents into sex and ]s,<ref name=nyt2008/><ref name=free/><ref name=look/><ref name=london/> and that "they control minds with drugs that are used by psychotherapists".<ref name=shocker>{{Cite news|author=Heather Gilmore |quote=wacky sex sessions with a shrink|title=Commune Sex Shocker|url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/item_ij6VPUIaV3y12A6S6xrMkN/0|work=] |date=June 4, 2006|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref><ref name=look>{{Cite news|author=Jeff Harrell|title=A look at Ganas from one who has lived there |
Two ex-members have made allegations about Ganas, including that it is a ],<ref name=boot/><ref name=look/> that it pressures residents into sex and ]s,<ref name=nyt2008/><ref name=free/><ref name=look/><ref name=london/> and that "they control minds with drugs that are used by psychotherapists".<ref name=shocker>{{Cite news|author=Heather Gilmore |quote=wacky sex sessions with a shrink|title=Commune Sex Shocker|url=http://www.nypost.com/p/news/item_ij6VPUIaV3y12A6S6xrMkN/0|work=] |date=June 4, 2006|accessdate=2009-07-23}}</ref><ref name=look>{{Cite news|author=Jeff Harrell|title=A look at Ganas from one who has lived there|work=] |date=June 3, 2006}}</ref> Ganas opposes being described as a cult.<ref name=nyt2008/> | ||
| ===2006 shooting=== | ===2006 shooting=== | ||
| In May 2006 Ganas co-founder Jeff Gross was shot outside of his home on Ganas property. Gross survived and at trial identified the shooter as Rebekah Johnson, a former member who lived at Ganas periodically until she was evicted in 1996.<ref name=nyt2008>{{Cite news|author= James Barron|title=Ex-Member of Commune Is Acquitted|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/nyregion/05commune.html|work=] |date=August 5, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-05 |author-link= James Barron (journalist) }}</ref><ref name=london>{{Cite news|author=Tony Allen-Mills |title=New York shooting blows apart hippie commune with kinky sex on the side|url= |
In May 2006 Ganas co-founder Jeff Gross was shot outside of his home on Ganas property. Gross survived and at trial identified the shooter as Rebekah Johnson, a former member who lived at Ganas periodically until she was evicted in 1996.<ref name=nyt2008>{{Cite news|author= James Barron|title=Ex-Member of Commune Is Acquitted|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/nyregion/05commune.html|work=] |date=August 5, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-05 |author-link= James Barron (journalist) }}</ref><ref name=london>{{Cite news|author=Tony Allen-Mills |title=New York shooting blows apart hippie commune with kinky sex on the side|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-york-shooting-blows-apart-hippie-commune-with-kinky-sex-on-the-side-5ql5fwmkjlv|work=] |date=June 4, 2006|accessdate=February 4, 2024}}</ref> Johnson's attorney denied that she had shot Gross, but said that she was "wrongfully accused by Gross as payback for portraying him as a brainwashing rapist and the commune as a kinky cult."<ref name=acquitted>{{Cite news|author= Edgar Sandoval|title=Ex-commune member Rebekah Johnson cleared in shooting; guru fears for life|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/08/04/2008-08-04_excommune_member_rebekah_johnson_cleared.html|work=] |date=August 4, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-05 }}</ref> Johnson had unsuccessfully sued the group for sexual harassment in 2000.<ref name=london/> In August 2008 Johnson was acquitted of all charges.<ref name=nyt2008/><ref name=risk>{{Cite news|author=John Annese|author-link=John Annese|title=Staten Island commune leader: 'My life is at risk'|url=http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/staten_island_commune_leader_m.html |quote=Rebekah Johnson was found not guilty on charges of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and attempted grand larceny. |work=] |date= August 4, 2008|accessdate=2008-08-05 }}</ref> | ||
| Jeff Gross left the group after the shooting, and filed several lawsuits against Ganas and Rebekah Johnson.<ref name=acquitted/><ref name=risk/> Gross claimed that the leadership rejected his requests that the group upgrade security, that his personal daily schedule was published in a Ganas newsletter, and that he was "booted out" of Ganas in October 2007.<ref name=boot/> Gross is seeking damages totaling over $20 million.<ref name=boot>{{Cite news|author=Frank Donnelly|author-link=Frank Donnelly|title=Gravely wounded in shooting, founder sues Staten Island commune|url=http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/gravely_wounded_in_shooting_fo.html|quote=Gross |
Jeff Gross left the group after the shooting, and filed several lawsuits against Ganas and Rebekah Johnson.<ref name=acquitted/><ref name=risk/> Gross claimed that the leadership rejected his requests that the group upgrade security, that his personal daily schedule was published in a Ganas newsletter, and that he was "booted out" of Ganas in October 2007.<ref name=boot/> Gross is seeking damages totaling over $20 million.<ref name=boot>{{Cite news|author=Frank Donnelly|author-link=Frank Donnelly|title=Gravely wounded in shooting, founder sues Staten Island commune|url=http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/gravely_wounded_in_shooting_fo.html|quote=Gross was booted out of the group in October 2007, court papers said. |work=] |date=May 28, 2009 |accessdate=2009-07-21 }}</ref> A 2022 Esquire article followed up with Jeff, who was living in hiding. He was granted $1.3 million judgment against his shooter but it is<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a40105747/the-follower-staten-island-1980s-cult/|title=The Cult Leader of Staten Island|author=David Gauvey Herbert|date=June 7, 2022|website=Esquire}}</ref> outstanding. | ||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
Latest revision as of 17:31, 4 January 2025
Intentional community in New York City For other uses, see Ganas (disambiguation).40°38′16″N 74°05′00″W / 40.637779°N 74.083359°W / 40.637779; -74.083359 (Ganas)
 135 Corson Avenue, Staten Island | |
| Formation | 1979 |
|---|---|
| Type | Intentional community |
| Purpose | Feedback Learning, recycling |
| Location | |
| Membership | 70–80 |
Ganas is an intentional community founded in 1979 in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Ganas has non-egalitarian, tiered membership groups, and is thus a partial member at the Federation of Egalitarian Communities. The community uses a group problem-solving process called "Feedback Learning", which was begun by co-founder Mildred Gordon. The community attracted press attention after a 2006 shooting incident which led to lurid tabloid headlines. The community was founded by a group of six people, and has grown to consist of 10–12 core group members plus 60 to 70 members of varying involvement. There are three businesses run by Ganas, including a bookstore-cafe.
History
Ganas started in Staten Island in 1979 with six founders including Mildred Gordon and Jeff Gross. In 1973 Gordon left New York City where she had founded GROW, an unaccredited school of group therapy that "turned out unlicensed group psychotherapists." Throughout 1972 GROW was the subject of state Attorney General and city fraud investigations into "fraudulent use of Ph.D.'s from unaccredited universities". Gordon went to San Francisco where she studied biofeedback which became the basis of what she termed "Feedback Learning". Gordon met the five people who would become the original core-group of the Ganas community and incorporated the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Foundation for Feedback Learning (FFL) in 1974. The new community went by the name FFL until changing their name to Ganas in the early 1990s. In the late 1970s they returned to New York and moved into a Lower East Side apartment, finally settling in Tompkinsville, Staten Island in 1979. On Staten Island the core-group shares ownership of eight houses and three commercial buildings that house their retail stores. There are about 65 non-core group residents who live in Ganas houses and cover expenses by either paying rent or working in the stores.
Culture
Ganas operates on four primary rules forbidding violence, freeloading, illegal activities, and non-negotiable negativity (requiring that complaints be discussed in group process or not discussed at all either in private or public). The primary focus of Ganas is Feedback Learning, an "intense brand of communication" according to The New York Times, about which journalist Jonah Owen Lamb writes: "Those new to Ganas would share their life story with the group, who would respond by picking apart their issues and deciding how those issues should be dealt with. By 'killing their buddhas,' it was felt, Ganas members could begin to take control of how they reacted to the world." Mildred Gordon describes Feedback Learning as an "indispensable day-to-day guiding experience" in which members of the community provide feedback—helpful criticism—to each other. Through daily discussions of every community member's behaviour members can learn about themselves and their motivations, gain from hearing unpleasant truths, and "accept negative information with the excitement of discovery". Mildred Gordon left Ganas in 2001 but still returned weekly to conduct Feedback Learning sessions at the commune. Profiles of Ganas today suggest the community has become less insular, with a more diverse group living there relatively less engaged in feedback learning.
Finances
Though Ganas is portrayed as a commune in the media, only the core group participates in income and property sharing.
Ganas runs three stores under the name "Every Thing Goes" that are dedicated to the re-use and re-sale of used goods. The stores include a furniture store, a clothing store and a bookstore/cafe with a performance stage. The businesses support the community but are labor-intensive and only marginally profitable. For most of its life Ganas' income was declared on FFL's IRS form 990 for tax-exempt organizations. Since 2001 FFL has taken in an average of $475,000 in total annual revenue, including direct public support and program service revenue. FFL's program services are listed as "Feedback Learning Skills Development" and "Interpersonal Skills Development". FFL's revenues do not include income from their "Everything Goes" stores, as those are for-profit entities.
In late 2006 the core group reorganized as Ganas Community LLC, and began a new business called Ganas Food Company LLC. Mildred Gordon continued to draw an annual salary of $40,000 as the executive director of FFL. In 2007 the legal address of FFL changed from Ganas headquarters on Staten Island to Brooklyn, and the same year FFL's tax return declared only $15,550 in total revenue and $75 in direct public support. The following year total revenue fell to $2295 with direct public support of $0. Ganas has a real estate portfolio estimated at $10 million with holdings in upstate New York, Brooklyn, Virginia, California and Spain.
Controversy
Two ex-members have made allegations about Ganas, including that it is a cult, that it pressures residents into sex and green-card marriages, and that "they control minds with drugs that are used by psychotherapists". Ganas opposes being described as a cult.
2006 shooting
In May 2006 Ganas co-founder Jeff Gross was shot outside of his home on Ganas property. Gross survived and at trial identified the shooter as Rebekah Johnson, a former member who lived at Ganas periodically until she was evicted in 1996. Johnson's attorney denied that she had shot Gross, but said that she was "wrongfully accused by Gross as payback for portraying him as a brainwashing rapist and the commune as a kinky cult." Johnson had unsuccessfully sued the group for sexual harassment in 2000. In August 2008 Johnson was acquitted of all charges.
Jeff Gross left the group after the shooting, and filed several lawsuits against Ganas and Rebekah Johnson. Gross claimed that the leadership rejected his requests that the group upgrade security, that his personal daily schedule was published in a Ganas newsletter, and that he was "booted out" of Ganas in October 2007. Gross is seeking damages totaling over $20 million. A 2022 Esquire article followed up with Jeff, who was living in hiding. He was granted $1.3 million judgment against his shooter but it is outstanding.
References
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Gross was booted out of the group in October 2007, court papers said.
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Rebekah Johnson was found not guilty on charges of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and attempted grand larceny.
- David Gauvey Herbert (June 7, 2022). "The Cult Leader of Staten Island". Esquire.