JEWISH LEADERSHIP AND THE JEWISH RENAISSANCE New Challenges for Leadership Development

JONATHAN S. WOOCHER, PH.D. Executive Vice President, JESNA, New York

Today, the core afftrmatiort of Jewish leadership development programs is that those who aspire to Jewish leadership must be Jewishly literate. However, Jewish literacy alone is not sufficient to guarantee effective leadership. The curriculum therefore should encompass what leaders need to know and experience to enable them to build vibrant Jewish communi­ ties, thereby allowing others to participate in the processes of Jewish growth.

n a very real sense, leadership development a new culture of expectations and opportuni­ IDrought me to Brandeis University and ties for Jewish leaders to enhance their capa­ seven years of learning from and with bilities and to grow as Jews. Bernard Reisman. As a rather obscure Jewish Thinking back over the past twenty-plus studies professor at Carleton College in Min­ years of my own involvement, it seems clear nesota, it is unlikely that I would have come to me that the most important theme in the to Bernie's attention when Brandeis sought evolution of leadership development during to fdl a faculty position in the Hornstein this period is the ever-growing emphasis on Program in Jewish Communal Service were it Jewish literacy. Early on, the issue was not for the work I had done for the Council of approached somewhat gingerly and in small Jewish Federations designing and conduct­ doses. In the mid-1970s, most federation ing a new "model" leadership development leadership development programs combined program dealing with contemporary Jewish practical orientations to the work of federa­ issues. (How I came to be doing that at all is tion and its agencies, some skills develop­ another story—but not for this essay.) In ment, and perhaps some introduction to cur­ turn, the attractiveness of the opportunity to rent Jewish issues and/or explorations of per­ go to Brandeis was enhanced by Bernie's sonal Jewish identity. Jewish learning in any indicating that one of my job assignments traditional sense was not a goal or expecta­ wouldbe to help Hornstein develop programs tion. The first program I designed was billed in continuing education for Jewish leader­ as an innovation because it used a "scholar in ship. residence," though, tobe candid, it was pretty During my years at Brandeis, Bernie, I, light on Judaic substance. CLAL came along and other colleagues did indeed put in place and began to make Jewish study an intrinsic the first pieces of what has become a rich and attractive centerpiece of its leadership array of advanced leadership development training sessions. Today, the "Cadillac" of programs for both professionals and volun­ leadership development programs, the teers now sponsored by the Hornstein Pro­ Wexner Heritage program, is almost entirely gram. We began such programs as the Dis­ about intensive Jewish learning. Its core tinguished Leaders Institute and Sherman affirmation is that those who aspire to be Seminar for Outstanding Young Profession­ Jewish leaders must be Jewishly literate—a als, which continue to this day. We also dramatic reversal ofthe implicit assumptions mounted a variety of other institutes for rab­ operative only a few decades ago. bis, Jewish educators, communal profession­ This transformation in the normative con­ als, and lay leaders. Together with the efforts tent of Jewish leadership development pro­ of many others, these programs helped shape gramming clearly parallels the overall shift

131 Journal of Jewish Communal Service / 132 in this Jewish community's public agenda increase in entropy. As a collective system, during this period. 1 do not foresee having to we are less capable of working effectively fight again the battle over whether Jewish together. The symptoms of this change are to learning really is an important requisite for be seen in phenomena ranging from the rise Jewish leadership and hence for leadership in denominational fragmentation and ten­ development programs, whether introduc­ sion to the declining role of central commu­ tory or advanced. But, having won this point, nity campaigns. But the changes go much there still remains an enormous challenge: deeper. Jewish life today is lived more indi- How do we integrate the commitment to vidualistically than ageneration ago. History helping leaders increase their Jewish knowl­ and the public agenda speak less powerfully. edge and understanding into a larger frame­ The quest for personal meaning, more than a work of leadership development, one that sense of group belonging, is the criterion by enables them to fiinction effectively as lead­ which choices of lifestyle and behavior are ers in a dramatically changed Jewish envi­ made. The family, not Jewish institutional ronment? If we cannot today imagine leader­ life, is the arena in which and on which ship development without Jewish learning, it Jewish energies are focused. Hence, it is more is nevertheless also true that Jewish literacy difficult to bring and keep Jews together for alone is not enough to guarantee effective collective action. Even highly committed institutional or communal stewardship. This Jews find it difficult to forge broad shared is especially true at the advanced level, where agendas. In Jewish education today, parti­ leaders are expected to exercise significant sans of day schools, congregational educa­ influence over the direction of Jewish policy. tion, Israel experiences, early childhood edu­ Let me expand a bit. We need to start, 1 cation, summer camping, and other worthy believe, with a sense of where we are today as causes too often find themselves contending a community. The good news is that, at its over whose favored mode or setting is the core, today's community is almost certainly most effective, important, and worthy of ex­ the strongest Jewish community in American panded communal and philanthropic sup­ history. We have an elaborate—some might port. say, overelaborate—institutional structure. The "personalism" of Jews today is by no America's Jews are by and large prosperous, means a wholly negative phenomenon. If secure, and comfortable both in their Judaism cannot supply personal meaning to Americanness and Jewishness. (The excep­ disparate individuals, if it cannot evoke some tions to this rule, though perhaps relatively measure of deep feeling, it is doomed in small in number, most definitely continue to today's world. Indifference, a sense that need and merit the community's concern and Judaism is irrelevant to our personal lives support.) In manifold ways, Jewish spiritual (what in survey language we might call "just and intellectual life is flourishing, although Jewish-ism"), remains our greatest enemy. we justifiably worry that many Jews neither What is happening in Jewish life is complex participate in nor care about the creative and multifaceted. Certainly, if one looks at opportunities available to nurture and ex­ the Jewish populace as a whole, we are faced press their Jewishness. with cross-cutting trends. Some Jews are We are a strong community, but not one living at or beyond the margins of what we whose fiiture can be taken for granted. For think of as the Jewish community. These are me, the concern is less the classic ones of the Jews we worry about when we bemoan assimilation and intermarriage, but rather, assimilation. (The term and concept are, 1 subtle, though by now widely recognized, believe, seriously flawed as tools for explicat­ shifts taking place in the nature of Jewishness ing what is happening today, but can still be as Americans understand and practice it. The used as a shorthand for pointing to the not- net increase in Jewish energy over the past insubstantial number of Jews who manifest several years has been accompanied by an little overtly Jewish behavior in their lives.)

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But, as noted above, the other side of the story the potenfial for a Jewish renaissance in today is the also not-insubstantial numbers of North America and globally, direct personal Jews who are actively engaged in seeking to participation in the excitement of Jewish forge personally meaningful Jewish identi­ growth surely is a desideratum, if not a requi­ ties. Some of these individuals look like site, for Jewish leaders. Hence, there is every conventionally committed Jews: They be­ reason to seek to reinforce those trends over long to synagogues and Jewish organiza­ the past two decades that have placed ongo­ tions; they engage in some number of ritual ing Jewish learning—as well as exploration observances; and they contribute to Jewish of Jewish spirituality and an expansive vision causes. But for many of these, and for many of personal Jewish activism—at the heart of others who do not look like conventional the curriculum for leadership development. Jews, the personalist and constructivist char­ But, we need to go beyond the personal. If acter of Jewish identity development today leadership development is seen only as a tool gives their Jewishness a dynamic, fluid, idio­ for enhancing the participants' own syncratic quality that challenges institutions Jewishness—important as this is—it risks to stay apace with and relevant to their indi­ becoming self-indulgent, elitist in the nega­ vidual Jewish journeys. tive sense of that term, and even capable of Jewish institutions and communities are creating a barrier between leaders and those being asked to take on a multiplicity of tasks— whom they need to reach out to, engage, some pulling in opposite directions. They guide, and support. must be rich, nurturing Jewish environments The true test of leadership is the ability to for those who are vigorously engaged in grow­ translate compelling personal experience into ing as Jews while appreciating that this growth the regularities of institutional life, thereby will itself be taking place along different axes allowing others toparticipate in the processes for different Jews. They must also be attrac­ of Jewish growth. This requires a kind of tive and welcoming to those who are seeking "second-order" learning, the focus of which connections, but are not yet sure of the direc­ is on the building of vibrant Jewish commu­ tion or even whether to embark on a serious nities, communities that can engage indi­ Jewish journey. They must satisfy the needs viduals who are coming from diverse places of activists, who are the lifeblood of institu­ with diverse aspirations and draw them into tional vitality, andyet avoidbecomingclosed- connections with other Jews that are both in communities of initiates who intentionally satisfying and enduring. It is this second- or inadvertently exclude those who may em­ order learning, 1 would suggest, that consti­ body different sensibilities. Institutions and tutes the most important curriculum for vol­ even local communities must generate suffi­ unteer leadership development and profes­ cient loyalty among participants and mem­ sional training today. bers to create a counterweight to the ethos of The good news is that we already know a consumerism, which renders all commitment great deal about what the work of Jewish contingent and temporary. At the same time, community-building entails, even in the new institutions must recognize that isolationism circumstances in which we live today. The and attempts to assert proprietary ownership primary thrusts of this work remain what they over individual Jews ultimately render them have always been: on the one hand, helping and the Jewish community as a whole less diverse Jews discover a shared purpose and capable of escorting and assisting these Jews vision that inspire collective effort that is at along the full length of their journeys. the same time personally meaningful, and, on The work of creating and guiding institu­ the other, encouraging Jews to support each tions and communities able to meet these other in their individual efforts to relate to multiple challenges is what Jewish leader­ and pursue that which is ultimately meaning­ ship today is all about. In an age of dynamic ful in their lives. Classical Judaism balances Judaism, when it is not unrealistic to speak of and synthesizes individualism and collectiv-

WINTER/SPRING 1999 Journal of Jewish Communal Service / 134 ism in its understanding of true community, following components: and this continues to be a worthy and elusive ideal to pursue in our own community-build­ • serious exploration of the sociology of ing efforts. contemporary Jewry, the dynamics of group It is the tachlis, not the theory, of commu­ and institudonal life, and change theory nity-building that is so challenging today. • structured opportunities for personal and What are the sharedpurposes and visions that collective introspecdon, for encounters can draw Jews together for common action? with other Jews whose Jewish visions may In a time when our spiritual quests take on so differ, and for testing and refinement of many different and even contradictory forms, their skills as community-builders how can we be genuinely supportive of one • thoughtful consideration of the particu­ another's journeys? That the answers are not larities of diverse institutions—syna­ obvious is itself perhaps the clue to how to gogues, federation, JCCs, schools, etc.— move forward. Leadership development to­ to understand better what each needs in day should be about asking precisely these order to thrive questions and endeavoring to answer them, if • attention to the challenges involved in only provisionally, in the concrete work of forging "a community of communities"— Jewish institutional and communal transfor­ the kinds of productive collaborations mation. among institutions and ideologies that al­ There is today a vast literature on organi­ low us to connect more meaningfully with zational change. One of the key insights that more Jews over 1 onger periods of ti me than emerges from this literature is that change is any single institution can possibly hope to ultimately about and predicated on learning. • grappling with what is perhaps the ulti­ The learning organization is the paradigm mate challenge we face as a community in for an organization capable of thriving in an an individualistic age: making the collec­ environment of continuous change. In the tive dimensions of Jewish life—the con­ Jewish world, this paradigm already informs cept of Jewish peoplehood and our connec­ some of the most exciting initiatives in insd- tion with Israel—personally meaningful tutional/communal change—the Reform movement's Experiment in Congregational In one sense, this is a very traditional Education; Synagogue 2000; and continuity model of leadership development, not so far initiatives in Boston, New York, and Minne­ removed from what has been attempted for apolis—with learning being understood and decades. But, the truth is, it is too rarely being pursued in two keys: the Jewish learni ng that done and, certainly, even more rarely being is essential to shaping authentic Jewish vi­ done well today. Consider this concrete sions and sustaining Jewish growth and the example. New initiatives in adult Jewish institutional learning that enables these vi­ learning—whether framed as part of leader­ sions and commitment to supporting Jewish ship development or not—have indeed cre­ growth to become embodied ever more deeply ated a growing cadre of Jews who understand in organizational purposes, culture, and be­ and appreciate the informing and transform­ havior. ing power of Jewish study. But almost no­ The curriculum for Jewish leadership de­ where in the Jewish world are the participants velopment should therefore encompass what in such programs being prepared to lead the leaders need to know and experience in order much-needed effort to transform hundreds of to guide their institutions and communities schools, congregations, and other educafional through processes of change aimed at making settings into compelling and effective Jewish them more vibrant Jewi sh communities. T his learning communities. There is a palpable means Jewish learning and a good deal more. gap between what these leaders and others are Leadership development should include the experiencing in the way of high-quality Jew-

WINTER/SPRING 1999 New Challenges for Leadership Development / 135 ish learning and what they are able to bring to that requires time, skilled facilitation, whatever formal roles they play as "Jewish and a commitment to talking together educational leaders." In part, this gap re­ about topics that excite passions. flects the enormous complexity of the task 3. Leadership development must take place itself Creating consistently great schools or in the context of doing. The notion that other educational institutions is difficult and leadership development is preparation for expensive. But in part, it simply reflects the something that one will do, rather than fact that in Jewish education at least, the real sustained reflection on what one is al­ challenges of leadership development have ready doing (with others), is outmoded. not yet been taken on seriously. Happily, in Life and circumstance change so quickly other arenas of Jewish life, somewhat more that leadership development must be a progress has been made, but there is still a lifetime endeavor, part of the continuous long way to go. learning that Judaism insists upon. As 1 reflect on the contours of the "ad­ 4. Leadership development must be pre­ vanced leadership developmenf initiative sented as a privilege, not a burden; an that Bernie Reisman initiated two decades opportunity, notjust a responsibility. The ago at Brandeis, 1 see five guiding principles process of leadership development, if done that strike me as still applicable today as we well, can be intrinsically rewarding. Lead­ design Jewish leadership development for an ers at every stage in their lives and careers era of Jewish renaissance. have the potential to grow and to become engaged deeply and enthusiastically in 1. Leadership development must help Jew­ the process of doing so. The challenge to ish leaders forge a personal vision that designers of leadership development pro­ guides their own Jewish journeys and grams is to tap this potential. This re­ their work as leaders. It must help leaders quires a rigorous insistence on quality in answer the questions: Where do 1 want to both design and implementation. go as a Jew, and where do 1 want to help 5. Leadership development is itself about guide others? The answer to these ques­ building Jewish community. The per­ tions will not be a product of traditional sonal relationships among participants, Jewish learning alone, although the en­ and between participants and teachers, counter with Jewish texts, history, and are no less important than the curricu­ thought is indispensable to shaping an lum. Opportunities to celebrate together authentic Jewish vision. It must reflect a complement learning together. In the serious grappling with how Jewish tradi­ end, what we model is the most powerful tion and contemporary reality (in all its form of learning, and we learn to build multifarious complexity) intersect. Hav­ community by being a community. ing such a vision is the difference between (in Bernie's words) being a "technician" These are not new ideas. Bernie Reisman and a "statesman." has been teaching them for years to students 2. Leadership development must help Jew­ preparing tobe professional communal work­ ish leaders shape shared visions. The ers, to volunteer leaders, and to the Jewish struggle and excitement of seeking and community as a whole. Times change, but finding commonalities in what we value fimdamental values and human realities do as Jews and in how we are prepared to not. And, neither do the challenges of turn­ work to see these values realized are es­ ing these fundamentals into action that can sential to maintaining the morale of lead­ strengthen and enrich Jewish life. This is ers, the vibrancy of institutions, and the what Bernie has done througliout his career, central place of community in Jewish life. and now it is our privilege and responsibility Developing shared visions is hard work to continue this work.

WINTER/SPRING 1999