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Succession Planning Hal M. Lewis Sigi ewish organizations wishing to develop new Notwithstanding the ubiquity of these ob - Jleaders face a number of systemic chal - stacles, however, ignoring the development of Ziering lenges. Among them: new leaders impedes an organization’s viabil - Ethics • Incumbents are hard-pressed to focus ity. Today, many of American Jewry’s leading This year our Sigi Zier - their energies on the next generation when institutions have long-serving lay and profes - ing column will focus current exigencies demand the experience of sional officers who, despite their longevity, on the ethics of lead - veterans. manifest little interest in addressing the issue ership. Each month an • It is uncomfortable to raise issues of of succession planning. Rare is the congrega - esteemed guest transition with organizational founders, phi - tion or Jewish group, for example, with a com - columnist will wrestle lanthropists, or tenured executives. prehensive approach to volunteer or with questions con - • Past leaders who remain involved often executive/rabbinic transition. Organizations cerning communal serve as encumbrances to the seamless devel - that wait for a retirement announcement be - leadership and its opment of new ones. fore thinking about future leadership jeopard - abuses. The column is Creating a culture in which leadership de - ize their integrity. Similarly, when decisions cosponsored by velopment is an organic component of the en - about the next lay leader are deferred to the Bruce Whizin and terprise, then, is far from easy. eleventh hour, an organization’s visioning and Marilyn Ziering in Premodern Jewish sources recognized planning are irreparably compromised. honor of Marilyn’s these challenges as well. Many understood Further, only an enterprise that is gen - husband Sigi Ziering, that power is alluring and difficult to aban - uinely open to new leaders and leadership of blessed memory. don. As the midrash states, “It is easy to go up styles can hope to attract and sustain the ongo - Visit www.shma.com to a dais, difficult to come down.” (Yalkut, ing interest of younger individuals. Too often, to view the series of Va’etchanan 845) While many believe recruit - prominent posts and important decision-mak - columns, with re - ing a leader is an insurmountable task, it pales ing go only to the elite few, those pledging sponses. in comparison to the larger challenge, making obeisance to conventional organizational room for the person who follows. Having sa - praxis. Leaders on the inside are likely to stay vored the limelight, holders of high office are there, with little more than lip service being often reticent to walk away. The Talmud re - accorded to alternate approaches. As recent lates this story: surveys make clear, in the 21st century serious Hal M. Lewis is Dean of Rabbi Joshua ben Quivsay said: “All my life I young Jews feel unwelcome in such environ - Continuing Education would run away from office. Now that I have en - ments and opt instead to dissociate themselves and Associate Professor tered it, whoever comes to oust me I will come down from communal organizations. of Contemporary Jewish upon him with this kettle.” (Jerusalem Talmud, A number of classical Jewish sources sug - Studies at Spertus Col - Pesachim 6:1; also see Menahot 109b) gest that the responsibility for making leader - lege. A former nonprofit ship development a top priority rests with executive, he is the au - Even Moses is said to have had difficulty thor of Models and forsaking the mantle of leadership. The sages those already considered leaders. Indeed, ab - Meanings in the History compared him to a governor “who … as soon sent such a commitment, the moniker of Jewish Leadership as he retired and another was appointed in his “leader” is simply inapposite. and From Sanctuary to place … had in vain to ask the gate-keeper to No one personified this precept better Boardroom: A Jewish Ap - let him enter [the palace].” (Deuteronomy than the Bible’s quintessential leader, Moses. proach to Leadership . Rabbah 2:5) continued on page 14

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“Butcher those who mock Islam,” “Europe you continued from page 16 will pay, your 9/11 is on the way,” and “Free Notwithstanding the sages’ account that even speech go to hell.” he had difficulty giving up his post, the Torah Al-Ghurabaa has now been banned under makes it clear that Moses succeeded in setting new legislation outlawing the glorification of aside his personal needs for power for the terrorism, but as Voltaire wrote as long ago as long-term good of the people. So committed 1764: “the law is impotent against these attacks was he, for example, to the development of of rage; it is like reading a court decree to a new leaders that he tolerated, indeed encour - raving maniac. What can we say to a man who aged, the unconventional and untested lead - tells you that he would rather obey God than ership aspirations of Eldad and Medad men, and that therefore he is sure to go to (Numbers 11:24-29). Further, the biblical nar - heaven for butchering you?” rative makes clear that it was Moses himself As the spiritual inheritors of the Enlight - who pushed God to name his successor (Num - enment, Europeans usually sneer at American bers 27:15-17). And, according to Rashi and creationists with their quirky ideas about intel - others, in the end Moses not only acknowl - ligent design and consider fundamentalists of edged Joshua’s selection, he embraced it every creed to be religious weirdoes. While Is - wholeheartedly (Rashi and Sifre to Numbers lamists might view European society as a deca - 27:23). Thus, despite the great sense of loss dent cesspit plagued by binge drinking and experienced by many at the end of their serv - sexual promiscuity, in Western minds, honor ice, Moses’ example serves as a dramatic re - killings and the persecution of homosexuals minder that an uncompromising focus on the are far more appalling. future needs of the enterprise must always We’re told that Muslims have been radi - trump one’s quest for personal glory. calized by Israel’s occupation of Palestine and A variety of contemporary best practices America’s invasion of Iraq. It’s a tidy argument from industry and academe confirm the wis - that appeals to many Europeans’ guilt about dom of these ancient insights. Even in the best Western imperialism. But fearing angry mobs of circumstances, leadership development is a and further reprisals, freedom of expression difficult, protracted process. It succeeds only — the central doctrine of democracy — is at with the imprimatur of the incumbent leader - risk as a new spirit of self-censorship takes ship who must 1) create an ongoing organiza - root. In this most accommodating of societies, tional culture in which future leaders are how can we tolerate the intolerant? It’s a par - constantly identified, nurtured, and trained, adox that has sent into a tailspin our fragile and 2) when appropriate, personally embody system of values. that principle by recognizing that the boldest I long to apply my instinctively liberal sen - act of effective leadership is often the decision timents to Muslim women’s right to wear hijab, to pass the torch to the next generation. but walking down nearby Edgware Road, swamped in summer months by visitors from the Gulf taking refuge from the heat, the sea Discussion Guide of black burkas fills me with dread. After bat - Bringing together myriad voices and experiences tling so hard for equal rights, it turns out that provides Sh’ma readers with an opportunity in women’s emancipation from male domina - a few very full pages to explore a topic of Jewish tion still can’t be taken for granted; neither interest from a variety of perspectives. To facili - Naomi Gryn, a writer can equality for homosexuals. tate a fuller discussion of the ideas, we offer the and documentary film - It was in the Netherlands — famed for its following questions: maker, is Chairman of liberal social policies — that in 2004, a Mus - 1. Does modernity collide with an ultra-re - the Society of Authors’ lim assassin killed Theo Van Gogh for making ligious life? How do we integrate tradition Broadcasting Group. a film about the abuse of Muslim women by with freedom? Details of her work can Muslim men. Now Dutch authorities have be found on produced their own film to prepare potential 2. How does the concept of “Divine sparks” www.naomigryn.com. Muslim immigrants for the realities of life in explain the outreach efforts of Chabad? Europe, with images of two men kissing, 3. Does religious-state separation preclude February 2007 naked breasts, and bad weather. Muslim fun - Adar 5767 the wearing of religious garb in the mili - damentalists have been warned: Europe is To subscribe: 877-568-SHMA tary? www.shma.com fighting back. 14