Leslie H. Wexner Founder, Chairman and CEO of Limited Brands, Inc

A Leader of Leaders

Essays in Honor of Leslie H. Wexner Founder, Chairman and CEO of Limited Brands, Inc.

A Publication of THE WEXNER FOUNDATION and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life

On the Occasion of the Presentation of HILLEL’S RENAISSANCE AWARD May 21, 2008 w 16 Iyar 5768 New York City

Hillel is pleased to partner with the Wexner Foundation to publish this important book of essays in honor of our dear friend Leslie H. Wexner. A member of Hillel’s International Board of Governors, Les has helped to revolutionize Hillel through his longstanding support for Hillel at The Ohio State University and around the world.

These articles are not just tributes to Les, they are also an explication of the values that underlie his life, his company, and his foundation. We present this book in the hope that it will serve as a source of inspiration today and tomorrow.

Edgar M. Bronfman Chairman Hillel International Board of Governors

Julian Sandler Chairman Board of Directors Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life

Wayne L. Firestone President

Published May 2008.

Additional copies of this book may be obtained from the Hillel Communications Department, [email protected], 202-449-6531.

Communications Department Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center

Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Building 800 Eighth St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001

This book may be downloaded from www.hillel.org/wexner

“The most critical challenge facing the North American Jewish community today is recognizing the value of leaders and cultivating leadership.”

Leslie H. Wexner, Chairman & CEO, Limited Brands, Inc.

“Wexner leadership alumni are Jewishly and professionally diverse, but at the same time hold in common a passionate and overarching sense of Jewish peoplehood, and an understanding that creating change always generates resistance and invariably requires large measures of strategy and courage.”

Larry S. Moses, President, The Wexner Foundation

“The mission of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life is to enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world. Hillel pursues its mission by: Creating a pluralistic, welcoming and inclusive environment; Fostering student growth and the balance in being distinctively Jewish and universally human; Pursuing tzedek (social justice), tikkun olam (repairing the world) and Jewish learning; Supporting Israel and global Jewish peoplehood; A commitment to excellence, innovation, accountability and results.”

Wayne L. Firestone, President, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life Leslie H. Wexner: A Leader of Leaders

by LARRY S. MOSES President, The Wexner Foundation

I began my professional career as a Hillel Director, and later was privileged to serve as Hillel’s International Director. It is therefore with more than a little nostalgia, and an abiding commitment to Jewish life on campus, that I share the following reflections as Leslie Wexner is honored with Hillel’s coveted Renaissance Award.

It began over twenty-five years ago with a singular, compelling vision and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. From the very beginning, Leslie Wexner believed in the power of leadership. He viewed it as the decisive factor in human affairs, the element that always makes the difference in business, government, and community life. Long before private foundations became a force in the Jewish world, Les created his foundation not as a “department store” of multiple interests and interventions, but rather as a laser-like endeavor to address the Jewish people’s need for a new breed of leaders, leaders who could address the unprecedented challenges of an entirely different era in Jewish life. Les knew then what many have only come to realize over time, that the Jewish community will stagnate or flourish based upon the quality of its leadership; that with effective leaders, all things are possible, and that if we do not invest in leadership, we will endanger our future.

The Wexner leadership initiatives were born one after the other, first the Wexner Heritage Foundation for outstanding North American volunteer leaders, then the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program for promising new rabbis, educators, and communal professionals, and finally the Wexner Israel Fellowship Program at Harvard University, for gifted mid-career Israeli public leaders. Each program emerged only after long and thoughtful periods of debate and design. Each program emphasized both the power of individual leaders to effect change, and the compounding benefit of leaders situated within ideologically and professionally diverse communities of practice. Each program views the diversity of the Jewish people as a strength to be celebrated, as a way of both learning about and embracing the wide expanse of Jewish life.

Some ten years ago, after the three Wexner leadership initiatives had matured, Leslie and Abigail joined forces with Ron Heifetz and David Gergen to develop Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership, an academically-based leadership center designed to provide leadership education at Harvard, throughout the country, and worldwide. The Wexner leadership programs themselves have derived great benefit from the Center for Public Leadership, as have thousands of educational professionals, government officials, and business leaders globally.

Just as the Wexners stimulated the Jewish people to take the cultivation of leadership seriously, so too did they introduce a serious approach to leadership education at Harvard University, and through Harvard elsewhere. And to this day, some of Les’ most satisfying teaching opportunities come when he visits Harvard to engage undergraduates and graduate students alike as to the complexities, theories, and skills of leadership.

Wexner leadership alumni, and there are now approximately 2,000 from the three programs, are Jewishly and professionally diverse, but at the same time hold in common a passionate and overarching sense of Jewish peoplehood, and an understanding that creating change always generates resistance and invariably requires large measures of strategy and courage. Wexner leadership alumni understand that in an age when Jewish life is increasingly decen- tralized, competitive, and beleaguered, new leaders need to draw inspiration and strength from each other, and need to take the study and practice of leadership seriously as a lifetime proposition.

The following essays represent a range of voices from Wexner leadership programs: men and women, volunteers and professionals, teachers and students. The voices are distinctive yet harmonious. They pay tribute to one man, Leslie Wexner, who, with his wife Abigail, pioneered a new and vital field, that of Jewish leadership.

The Jewish people has survived over thousands of years because in impossible situations we adapted and flourished; because in the face of discrimination and persecution we persevered and struggled; because when others could only look backward, we kept our eyes on the future.

Leslie and Abigail Wexner have been at the front of the line. These essays attest to the impact they have achieved. And as for me, working by their side has been the privilege of a lifetime, and one that I will forever cherish.

From the very beginning, Leslie Wexner, believed in the power of leadership. he viewed it as the decisive factor in human affairs, the element that always makes the difference in business, government, and community life.

Joseph Kohane

Executive Director, Wexner Jewish Center, Ohio State University HilleL

One big reason why I enthusiastically continue at my post at Hillel in Columbus, Ohio, year after year, is due to the remarkable environment of creative possibility that Les Wexner has a knack for provoking around anything that he touches, be it a single initiative, or a plan for an entire city.

As executive director of the Wexner Jewish Student Center for The Ohio State University Hillel, I have numerous wonderful partners who have high expectations of our institution. But the Hillel ally who for me most personifies excellence is Les Wexner and the Foundation he created. These expectations are never dictated, but live solely through my awareness of Les’ and the Foundation's record of notable achievement. In fact, not once in 15 years have I been told how to run my agency, not even obliquely. But neither have I taken for granted that OSU Hillel must aspire to be a leader in its field. I just assumed it went with the job because Les Wexner’s name is on the Hillel building and the Wexner Foundation and Hillel inhabit the same city.

Today, Wexner Hillel at Ohio State is at the center of innovation, piloting new methods and initiatives that are transforming how programs and services are delivered to Jewish college youth. The Wexner Foundation’s decision ten years ago to collaborate with Hillel’s international headquarters to dramatically boost the fundraising capacity of Hillels nation- wide was instrumental in launching the current Hillel resurgence. OSU Hillel was an early participant in that experiment. Within five years its development achievement zoomed from $100,000 to $500,000. It eventually became the first Hillel at a state university with $1 million budget. There are several Hillels (although not nearly enough) with budgets in excess of $1 million now able to serve students at levels undreamed of just a decade earlier.

The Wexner Foundation has also impacted me in a somewhat different vein, through the unforgettable experience of my facilitating the intensely personal farewell sessions of the graduating class of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship during its final Winter Institute. The sessions, which take place over three and a half days, are deeply self-reflective. Each fellow offers a teaching before the class that poignantly conveys something of their profound journey during their years in the program. The lectures can be brilliant and the comments touching and revelatory. Emotions run high as fellows recount how much of their new self- understanding was gained at the expense of strongly held preconceptions. I left those sessions inspired and validated in my own work with Jewish college youth at Hillel.

I have been triply blessed to live in the same city as Les Wexner and to observe how his leadership has transformed Columbus; as a member of the same Jewish community as Les, I know how his ranging intellect provokes us to be creative and take risks for the sake of our future; as an occasional teacher for the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, I saw how kindness, commitment and rigor can realize the full promise of the merely gifted and well-intentioned.

I have learned from Les that great Hillels are like great leaders when they inspire those they serve to believe in new possibilities and in themselves to achieve them. Les Wexner’s ranging intellect provokes us to be creative and take risks for the sake of our future.

The struggle for pluralism, the concern for fellow Jews — even if we pray differently, or don’t pray at all, were Excellent models for my work as a Hillel professional.

Rabbi Esther Reed

Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumna, Associate Director for Jewish Campus Life, Rutgers Hillel

My passion for Hillel work developed before I knew I would become a Jewish professional. As a student at Bryn Mawr College, I was either president or co-president of Hillel for three semesters, and did administrative work for our Hillel director, a solo professional serving three campuses. I thrived when engaging new Jewish students or when running Hillel events, and I felt that it would be incredible to spend my life doing similar work.

My senior year of college I applied, and was accepted, to the Jewish Theological Seminary’s rabbinical school. I decided to defer the acceptance and work at Tufts University Hillel as a Jewish Campus Service Corps Fellow. Every day I worked at Tufts, I felt more and more certain about my life’s future: I would go to JTS and then I’d work for a Hillel somewhere. That's where Leslie Wexner came in…

I applied for the Wexner Graduate Fellowship program that year, hoping that I could receive funding to help me pay for rabbinical school. I didn’t realize the value of the Fellowship Institutes. I had no idea that the relationships I made through the Fellowship would make such an impact in my work. I simply hoped for a shot at this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Indeed, the Wexner Graduate Fellowship was a life-changing experience. Even though I had met Jews of different flavors of Judaism before (and I had tried out all kinds of Judaism throughout my life to that point), my Wexner classmates put a face to the “other.” We argued honestly about ideological differences and we shared our disappointments with our own movements. We talked about issues confronting the American Jewish community as refracted through the lens of individuals in our class.

Our class was unique because it was the first class to have more women than men, and the first class to have four rabbinical students from Yeshiva University (which seemed like a lot at the time). The struggle for pluralism, the concern for fellow Jews — even if we pray differently, or don’t pray at all — were excellent models for my work as a Hillel professional. The collegiality and respect that developed through the fellowship transcended the differences between us.

When Leslie Wexer created the Wexner Graduate Fellowship he could not have known how he would change my life. Because of the friendships and relationships I developed through the Fellowship, I have been more successful as a Hillel professional who can relate to students of all different backgrounds.

Thank you, Mr. Wexner, for what you have done for me, and by extension, for the thousands of students I have touched in my seven years working at Rutgers Hillel.

Karen and Neil Moss

Wexner Heritage Program Alumni, Columbus members, Hillel Executive Committee Neil served as chair, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, Board of Directors

Tonight you are being honored by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life for your devotion to Jewish leadership. We have often heard you observe that a leader must turn around to see if anyone is behind him. Well, Leslie, you don’t have to turn around; the people whom you have inspired and trained are all around you — in the Columbus community, across North America and in Israel.

You have always led by example. Your creative engagement in and commitment to the development of the three Wexner flagship initiatives serve as a model in the Jewish world. This investment of your intellect, your resources and your time provides a brilliant lesson for each of us. Your “must do” and “can do” attitude profoundly illustrates your sense of responsibility and opportunity.

More than 30 years ago, your model of dedication to the well-being of the Columbus Jewish community demonstrated for us how life can be enriched beyond our families and professions by assuming significant leadership roles within our community or, as you used to say, “our little shtetl.” Then, in 1985, we were invited to participate in the first-ever Wexner Heritage Program. Through this remarkable program, we were exposed to the most outstanding Jewish intellectuals and leaders who have shaped and are shaping modern Jewish history and though. Through Wexner Heritage, we were also connected to Israeli and international leadership at the highest level.

It was not until this adult exposure to these leaders, their ideas and accomplishments through the Wexner program that we learned what is possible and what obligations must be embraced, locally and globally. As a result of your vision, Leslie, we learned about Jewish leadership and were ourselves empowered to become active in our own Jewish federation as well as several international boards including, of course, Hillel.

Leslie, the personal example of your creative, visionary and philanthropic leadership inspires us: an accomplished American Jewish leader committed to the strengthening of current and future generations who, in turn, will inform, shape and lead the Jewish world. That you continue to be present in our lives in this generation gives us hope and confidence that so thoughtful an American Jewish leader has undertaken significant steps to ensure the Jewish future and is standing guard. This is your “watch,” Leslie, and our world is blessed and enriched by what you have accomplished and by your unique brand of leadership. Through this remarkable program, we were exposed to the most outstanding Jewish intellectuals and leaders who have shaped and are shaping modern Jewish history and thought. Through Wexner heritage, we were also connected to Israeli and international leadership at the highest level.

the Fellowship gave me a true understanding of Jewish pluralism in the best sense: an examination of not just denominations but of all kinds of ideas about Jewish celebration, an openness to others’ ideas, and a willingness to change based on those ideas. Beth Cousens

Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumna Director for Organizational Learning, Hillel

A few months ago, I had reason to go back to my university Hillel building for the first time since I graduated. Even pulling into the parking lot, I felt powerfully the influence of my experience of 15 years ago. Yet, wandering through the halls brought little nostalgia. While I could see shadows of my self and friends around me, the space felt more foreign than familiar, like something of another life, or, really, of the beginning of a journey on which I have traveled already miles and miles.

I came to college unsure about Judaism but curious, with little knowledge and less comfort in my participation in Jewish community. Hillel gave me a safe place to explore, a Jewish social network, and a way to express my Jewish commitment. I held a Torah for the first time in the Hillel library; in various settings I made friends with whom I continue to celebrate Jewish life. One evening, I stumbled into an information session about a graduate program in Jewish communal service. I completed my applications for graduate school in Jewish professional leadership in the student workroom.

Eight years after I left that workroom, and eight years into my career in the Jewish community, I began the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, prepared for a second round of graduate school. I was more knowledgeable than I was when I first connected with Hillel, but I still felt lost: rooms filled with kippot and liturgical Hebrew made me feel overwhelmed, and I doubted myself — not that I could be a leader of Jews — but that I could be confident in my own type of Jewish celebration. I had started something at Hillel that I did not yet have the resources to complete.

In the Fellowship I found the opportunity to know myself as a Jew, to test different aspects of what could be important to me as I learned from the tremendous resources of the Fellowship community. In its diversity and openness, the community gave me confidence and the capacity to learn more about Judaism without being insecure in my lack of education. As I came to realize how much I did know, and I explored Jewish life with new peers, I completed the journey that I began in Hillel as a student.

In both challenging and validating my Jewish expression, the Fellowship gave me a true understanding of Jewish pluralism in the best sense: an examination of not just denominations but of all kinds of ideas about Jewish celebration, an openness to others’ ideas, and a willingness to change based on those ideas. In the Fellowship, newly confident in what I knew, in myself as a Jew, I became less threatened, and therefore open to shifting my own ideas through interaction with others.

Today, I work at Hillel. What we practiced in the Fellowship is what we try to build in Hillel today: student leaders of varied communities that promote and authenticate all kinds of Jewish expression, a community of communities in which students can find and create their varied places in the Jewish world, all led by reflective, humble, deeply knowledgeable professionals. My own journey has come full circle: I help others find their confidence and creativity from within my own ideas about my Jewishness, ideas that have been shaped, blessedly, by the richest of institutions, by Hillel and by the Wexner Foundation.

OR Mars

Director of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program former Executive Director of North Carolina Hillel (2000-2006)

The leadership lessons that I learned as a Wexner Graduate Fellow were evident in all of my work as the executive director at North Carolina Hillel. There was no question in my mind that a prerequisite for working at Hillel was that I articulate deep love of Jewish life, demonstrate an unwavering commitment to excellence and that I be skilled in all of the areas required of me by the job. These were just the basic requirements to get the job done but only the first step in exercising leadership. Both the Wexner Foundation and Hillel’s Charles and Lynn Schusterman International Center stressed that simply running a good shop was less than what was needed from today’s Jewish leaders.

Being part of the Fellowship instilled in me several important ideas for exercising leadership. First, exercising leadership means bringing about change and that bringing about change means taking risks and venturing into the dangerous territory that true leadership necessitates from its practitioners. Second, diversity and pluralism are necessary strengths of the Jewish community and that all Jews would be served well if our leaders encouraged a nuanced respect for the many varieties of Jews. Finally, that respectfully challenging ideas and being able to have your ideas challenged is an important leadership quality and a necessity for growth as a leader.

I came to North Carolina Hillel with the commitment to put these ideas of leadership into practice and to exemplify them to the Jewish students, the volunteer leaders, the community and the university. Simply put, my goal was to have the qualities listed above become part of the culture of Jewish life on campus. Yes, Jewish life on campus would be fun, attractive, and relevant but it would also be an ecosystem of leadership from which Jewish life would grow and thrive with all Jews seeing it as their responsibility to exercise leadership at the appropriate moment.

With my Wexner Fellowship experience in mind I created the Bina Initiative on the UNC campus. It was an intensive 10-week discussion group for Jewish students to explore with one another how Israel fits into their Jewish identities. It was a chance for young Jews to come together in the spirit of diversity and intellectual rigor to address critical Jewish questions without easy answers while concurrently learning about themselves. Sound familiar? It was my attempt to bring the uniqueness of the Wexner fellowship to the Carolina campus — and now it has spread to 17 other campuses.

The leadership ideas instilled in me by the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, the Wexner Foundation’s basic principles and the community it has given rise to are now inseparable from whom I am as a professional. They are principles that are shared by Hillels around the country. They are a gift to the Jewish people and the world.

Diversity and pluralism are necessary strengths of the Jewish community — all Jews would be served well if our leaders encouraged a nuanced respect for the many varieties of Jews. Les and Abigail Wexner have wisely realized that the most important investment we can make is in recruiting and developing leadership. It is ultimately the quality of our leadership that will determine our future.

Rabbi Josh Feigelson

Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumnus Campus Rabbi, Fiedler Hillel at Northwestern University

At the core of my work as a rabbi in Hillel, I find myself constantly returning to the most famous of the ancient sage Hillel’s questions, which can be paraphrased as: Who am I? and Who are we? Or, put another way: Where do I end and We begin? Where does Us end and Them begin? This is particularly true for Jews on a university campus, who as emerging adults find themselves constantly negotiating the ways in which they do and don’t belong to larger narratives: family, friends, romantic partners, academic majors and careers. So I like to say that my goal as a Jewish educator is to inspire students to live their lives in dialogue with the Jewish story.

Without question, I developed and refined this outlook in dialogue with the remarkable group of individuals in my Wexner Graduate Fellowship class. I had been told before applying that the true value of the Fellowship lay not in the stipend (which was quite valuable), but in the life of the class. My classmates challenged and inspired me; they humbled me and made me laugh; and they brought me to a much deeper understanding of myself and my vision, my capacities and my blind spots. Many of them continue to constitute my personal advisory board.

In the last several months we have created a new student leadership structure at Northwestern Hillel. In crafting it, one of my explicit goals was that we attract the very best undergraduate student leaders, and that we create an environment in which they would deepen one another’s understanding of self through rich conversations about visions of Jewish life. At our opening meeting I read to the group a snippet of each member’s application. We studied King Solomon’s dream of leadership as described in the Book of Kings. We gathered in small groups to discuss what was currently happening on campus, what they envisioned, and how to get there. And before they left I handed them a binder with articles by Ron Heifetz and David Ellenson, and charged them with reading the articles over spring break so that we could discuss them when they returned.

Of course, what I was really doing was attempting to recreate my Wexner experience for my students (all of these elements were part of our Fellowship experience). The Graduate Fellowship never explicitly charged any of us with attempting to change the Jewish world. It was always assumed that we would. So rather than focus on practical questions of what changes to make and how to make them, the Fellowship invested in us and developed our capacity for leadership. Where so many others are trying to figure out what initiative will save the Jewish people, Les and Abigail Wexner have wisely realized that the most important investment we can make is in recruiting and developing leadership. It is ultimately the quality of our leadership that will determine our future. I can think of no greater way to honor them than by recreating for my students what Les and Abigail created for me.

Adina Danzig

Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumna Executive Director, Hillel at Stanford

As a Hillel director and Wexner Graduate Fellowship alumna, I am thrilled on this occasion to share in thanking, honoring and celebrating you for your vision and transformational leadership. Hakarat hatov, recognizing the good, is a fundamental Jewish value, and there are countless ways in which your work and the work of the Wexner Foundation have created tremendous good, strengthening the Jewish present and future.

I was and continue to be profoundly enriched by the Wexner Graduate Fellowship. As an active Fellowship participant, I was continually challenged to grow. My first significant facilitation, teaching and speaking experiences were through the Wexner Graduate Fellowship experience - all accompanied by thoughtful feedback, sending me on my professional growth journey with confidence in my ability to continue to develop and make an impact.

The relationships I developed then and that I continue to cultivate today through the Wexner alumni community are a profound gift. Words cannot adequately express the depth of value of relationships that inspire us, support our growth, nurture us and enable us to be our best selves.

But all these goods are not the reason that the Wexner programs were established, nor are they the primary focus of my gratitude.

I deeply appreciate your investment in people and your acknowledgment that, as in the business world, the world of community-building and identity-building requires the cultivation of top talent if we are to see a significant return on investment. I appreciate the realization that through networks of people — in this case multi-denominational and cross- professional networks — we can form impactful relationships, challenge others and have our ideas challenged, and find inspiration to develop our most innovative and powerful ideas.

As a Hillel director, I oversee a microcosm of the Jewish world — a community of multi-, post- and non-denominational students with an array of interests and backgrounds. I work to continually envision new and better ways to positively impact individuals and our community. I strive to understand how we can best strengthen our community and create transformative opportunities that will empower tomorrow's leaders during and beyond their campus years. I am profoundly grateful to the Wexner Foundation for the experiences and relationships that enable me to bring my best to Hillel, and I am inspired by the impact my Wexner colleagues have made in countless ways to the Jewish world. I deeply appreciate your investment in people and your acknowledgment that, as in the business world, the world of community- and identity-building requires the cultivation of top talent if we are to see a significant return on investment.

Wexner alumni are not bound

by the boxes and barriers in American Jewry. They are pluralists and idealists who turn ideas into action and leadership responsibilities.

Rabbi Irving ‘Yitz’ Greenberg

Scholar, Theologian, Wexner Foundation Faculty

In the 1970s, I changed my own life and career path to go from academia to work on the transformation of the American Jewish community. I believed that given the new openness of American society, it would be up (a Jewish renaissance) or out (a community disappearing into assimilation). To me, the key to the future was to upgrade leadership, but little was being done in that area.

You can imagine then my excitement when I heard that Mr. Leslie Wexner was planning major new initiatives to strengthen leadership in the American Jewish community. I remember the early days of conversation with Rabbi Herb Friedman, of blessed memory, and watched with admiration and joy as the scope of the Wexner vision unfolded. The Wexner Graduate Program represented a bold stroke to strengthen the professional Jewish world. Even closer to my heart was the Wexner Heritage Program, designed to nurture a new elite lay leadership corps. Then came the Israel Fellowship Program — not only to strengthen the Jewish state but also to make a statement of the centrality of Israel in our lives. I believed then, and have seen it realized over these decades, that you (joined by Abigail) have the rare combination of vision backed by judgment and generosity that is worthy of this historic juncture in Jewish life.

Over these decades, I have taught continuously in the Wexner Heritage Program. One of the great rewards of this experience has been the personal friendship with you and then with Abigail.

Although the pressure of administration and philanthropic initiatives led me to cut back sharply on lectures and teaching in the last ten years, the one teaching I would never give up was the Wexner Heritage Program. Why? No thinker or teacher can develop without a constituency to understand, respond and, above all, to nurture him. I found that the Wexnerites were the community for my personal search. With amazing consistency over the years, as a group they were seeking Jewish growth. They are not bound by the boxes and barriers in American Jewry. They are pluralists and idealists who turn ideas into action and leadership responsibilities.

I have come to realize that I owe you (and Abigail) not only appreciation for leading and meeting an historic challenge for our people but also for giving a unique personal gift to me. You gave me friendship, moral support and a chance to participate in great work. You gave me your professionals who have been true friends and partners to me. Above all, you gave me a school of students who inspired and nurtured me while they went on to create and lead important initiatives in this urgently needed Jewish renaissance. In sum, you have given Jewry a gift for the ages and given me the gift of a lifetime.

I congratulate you on receiving Hillel’s Renaissance Award. This occasion is best described not so much as an award but as a public acknowledgement of the amazing leadership on the ground which you have created in your decades of leadership, vision and generosity.

Rob Bildner and Elisa Spungen Bildner

Wexner Heritage Program Alumni, MetroWest, NJ Co-founders/Co-chairs, Board of Trustees, the Foundation for Jewish Camp

Years before you conceived the Wexner Heritage Program, you had an epiphany on a challenging mountain hike. As you told our Wexner cohort, at that moment you started to evaluate what more you could accomplish professionally beyond creating and operating an extraordinarily successful business. That moment of introspection brought forth the renowned Wexner leadership programs that forever changed the lives of those privileged to participate.

Including us. Catalyzed by that speech in a nameless conference room in a now-forgotten hotel, we created the Foundation for Jewish Camping (now Foundation for Jewish Camp). We had always been passionate about the power of Jewish overnight camps to engender an attachment to and love for Judaism in kids, and had raised the observation in numerous Wexner sessions while also noting that Jewish camps were woefully short of resources and leadership. But, that day you shared your epiphany on the mountain, we decided to concretely move to improve the field of Jewish camping by starting a public foundation to raise money and advocate for the 130 or so Jewish camps across North America. Ten years later, the FJC is recognized as one of the most innovative Jewish non-profits, has a budget approaching $20 million and is dedicated to greatly increasing the number of children enrolled in Jewish summer camps. And, may we add, now so expertly chaired, on the lay leadership side, by fellow Wexnerite and camping maven, Dr. Skip Vichness (assisted by a board dotted with Wexner colleagues).

This would not have happened without you, Les, without your inspiration, mentoring, cheerleading and generosity, nor without the guidance, too, of Abigail and Larry over these 10 years. We cannot thank you adequately for what you have done for us, for our family, for the Foundation for Jewish Camp, and for the Jewish community at large.

That moment of introspection brought forth the Renowned Wexner leadership programs that forever changed the lives of those privileged to participate.

A small group of Wexner Heritage Program graduates played a critical role in bringing about the transformation of Hillel from what once was a moribund organization to what it is today.

Paul Cherner

Wexner Heritage Program Alumnus, Chicago Member, Hillel Executive Committee

Today, Hillel is regarded as one of the most vibrant and vital organizations in the Jewish world. A small group of Wexner Heritage Program graduates played a critical role in bringing about the transformation of Hillel from what once was a moribund organization to what it is today.

In 1989, coincidentally at the same time I graduated from the Wexner Heritage Program in Chicago, I was appointed to Hillel’s international Board of Directors. Arriving at my first Board meeting, I found a consensus that we needed to breathe new life into the organization.

To my surprise, I was invited to attend an unscheduled early morning meeting. It had been initiated by two other new members of the Board, both of whom had also recently graduated from the Heritage Program in other communities. Our small nucleus of Wexner alumni met that morning with Richard M. Joel, the newly-appointed executive director of Hillel, to discuss how we could work together to bring about the organization’s renaissance. Many more meetings and phone calls followed this initial gathering as we began to undertake what appeared to be an insurmountable task. We were joined in our efforts by several other Wexner Heritage graduates from groups in various cities.

One of the milestones in this transformation occurred when we arranged for Richard to meet with Rabbi Herbert Friedman, of blessed memory, who was then the president of the Wexner Heritage Foundation. After both of these extraordinary individuals shared their vision for transforming the Jewish community, Rabbi Friedman publicly opined that if any Wexner member or alumnus was looking to participate in an organization that would make a difference in the Jewish world, that Hillel was “where the action was.” Several Wexner participants and alumni then joined our efforts to help revitalize and transform Hillel into an organization of excellence that would lead the way for future generations.

Thus began a journey of almost 20 years in which Wexner alumni from throughout the country have come together to play key roles in the renaissance of Hillel. Many of us have served in leadership positions at the international level, as well as with local Hillels, helping with building boards, fundraising, strategic planning and partnerships, and coalition building with Jewish Federations, universities and various Jewish organizations.

It has been my privilege to participate in the Wexner Heritage Program and to be able to utilize the knowledge, skills and network gained from that program to help Hillel achieve its important mission. We thank Les Wexner and the Heritage Program professional leadership team and faculty for providing us with the knowledge, insight and motivation to help Hillel make such a major difference in the life and future of the Jewish community. Jane Scher

Wexner Heritage Program Alumna, San Diego Member of Hillel’s Executive Committee and Chair, Lay Leadership Development Committee

Les Wexner is a dedicated and inspired student of leadership. And through his study and practice of leadership, he has become an amazing teacher.

Les has taught me that leadership is a serious subject about influence and partnerships, not authority; and that we all have a responsibility to think about how we lead and about the subject of leadership, in order to become more effective and thoughtful.

His strong moral compass has created a leadership style based on values and ethics, trust, respect and caring. He leads from a place of gratitude and optimism, wisdom and insight, a place where problems are opportunities and work can be fun.

I have learned by observing Les that leadership is a journey; that in an ever-changing world we need to think as leaders about the challenges of change, be committed to adapting and responding in innovative and creative ways with a clear vision of a different future. We have to be good communicators, open and flexible to different thinking in order to embrace the future, and always remember that if we are not relevant, we become obsolete.

Les asks provocative and searching questions: What is leadership? Do we think enough about the subject of leadership? How do leaders think about things? Are there different patterns of leadership? Who is going to be the next leader of the American people? Who will lead the Jewish people in the world? How do we make a difference, elevate ourselves and our communities? What are our goals and what are our responsibilities?

His love of history and his desire to learn from it place Les at the cutting edge of creative and generous intervention, which facilitates an ongoing, deep and transformative impact on the future leadership of the Jewish communities of North America and Israel. It comes as no surprise that Les is being recognized by Hillel, an organization focused on working with student and volunteer leaders in communities and college campuses across the world. Hillel is focused on creating Jewish leaders of the future, so this is a great fit. Knowing how important leadership is to Les, I am honored to have served for many years as chair of the Lay Leadership Portfolio and as an Executive Committee member of Hillel.

I believe that Les’ love for the Jewish people has changed our future. Those of us privileged to have been touched by his largesse are truly blessed. I have learned by observing Les that Leadership is a journey; that in an ever-changing world we need to think as leaders about the challenges of change, be committed to adapting and responding in innovative and creative ways with a clear vision of a different future. les possessed the self-awarness and confidence to Recognize his own limitations. He also had the audacity and the creativity to do something about it in ways that would Challenge conventional thinking.

Bernie Steinberg

Director, Harvard Hillel and President, Harvard Chaplains

I am a convert. Born a Jew, educated to teach Jewish texts, I have converted, not to another religion, but to the service and life-work of leading and educating leaders. Typical of many academics, I was cynical about leadership. I was content to live in the world of ideas in conversation with Moses, Plato, and Moses Maimonides. These guys are not only interesting, they never argue with you.

Yet I have taken on a practical leadership role in the Jewish and university communities: I have defined leadership education as a pillar of the mission of Harvard Hillel; and I teach leadership at the Kennedy School of Government using content and methods developed while teaching in Wexner programs over many years.

Les Wexner, unbeknownst to him, was the medium of my leadership calling. I listened carefully when Les talked — seriously and playfully, often thinking aloud — about leadership. I personally witnessed how his three flagship programs function in action. I was impressed with the man himself and his thinking. Here’s a brief version of what I learned.

Here was a self-made man of enormous wealth and stature, who when asked to lead the American Jewish community, not only hesitated, but thought hard and asked a very fundamental question: “Who am I to lead this community? How am I qualified? What do I know?” These are the same questions Moses asked when called by God. Les has both humility and audacity. These traits are not contradictory. Les’ humility was not lack of self-confidence. He didn’t think that he was less qualified than anyone else. It’s that he was as qualified as anyone else. And that, from his perspective, was the problem!

Indeed, Les was extraordinarily qualified in a critical sense: He possessed the self-awareness and confidence to recognize his own limitations. He also had the audacity and the creativity to do something about it in ways that would challenge conventional thinking.

Inspired by Les’ call, I realized that just as leaders need to be learners, teachers can be leaders. I realized that I needed to practice what I had preached: Maimonides’ teaching that Jewish learning and leading are mutually reinforcing expressions of service to God. In his life Maimonides was both a teacher and leader par excellence. I realized that I had to embrace the responsibility to lead a community which itself could educate leaders and generate social change on the Harvard campus and beyond.

Les, you have given me a blessing and challenge. During a period of momentous change in the world, I feel blessed to work with energetic, talented, and idealistic young people at time when they are exploring formative life-choices and shaping their identities. Our challenge is to inspire and enable these remarkable young Jews to write the next chapter of the Jewish story on the world stage as global citizens and as leaders.

Mila Wichter

Wexner Heritage Program Alumna, San Francisco

I would like you to know one story that would have been unthinkable without your and Abigail’s leadership.

After I completed the Wexner Heritage program, my favorite idea was also the least likely to succeed: starting a Jewish day school. Although there was no Jewish day school where I lived, there was a long list of reasons against starting one: n There were excellent public and private schools in the area. n Although there was a large and a well-to-do Jewish population, most were unaffiliated and/or intermarried. n The East Bay Federation has been notoriously challenged by the undistinguished history of Jewish philanthropy, and support for Jewish education has been particularly anemic. n I knew of no parents in the area who were clamoring for a serious Jewish education option for their children.

Now, you have to understand that I wouldn’t have been anybody’s first choice for a founder of a day school — I am not an educator, a philanthropist or even a parent of school-age kids. But I had just become a Wexner graduate, and that gave me the most unprecedented super- powers: convictions and connections!

So I went to all my Wexner chaverim to talk about my big challenge. I didn’t have to do a lot of explaining - they immediately got what I was trying to do. Some gave advice, others helped to nurture supporters, still others joined me on the Board. When I was directed to PEJE, the partnership became our angel investor, mentor and confidant.

When the new community Contra Costa Jewish Day School opened its doors, we already had a year of planning with our new head of school, and the 23 students entered K-2 in two mixed-grade classes.

From that moment on everything went right! A hard-working, top-notch board has been established to include a non-parent majority, ensuring community involvement and support. Our faculty and staff are the envy of the best schools in the area, but most importantly, they like each other! Our Rabbinic and Cantorial advisory board is comprised of all congrega- tional professional leadership in Contra Costa, and they work together to provide the school with consented opinions. Our school families mirror the area demographic, and the mix of the few observant families with mostly unaffiliated/intermarried families is a healthy learning and nurturing environment for parents as well as students. Last year we had our first eighth- grade graduation, and most of the graduates choose to go to the Jewish high school. The excellence of Jewish and general education is quickly becoming known in the area, and we will be approaching 100 students next fall. Remember, this is in an area that only 10 years ago has never seen a Jewish day school, and had no interest in having one! This entire creation is easily traced back to you. In short, this is what you, your vision and Wexner Heritage have done for my community:

1. Put the leadership of my community on the same page; 2. That page is to be found in the Jewish text; 3. And on that page we found a blueprint; 4. We followed the instructions; 5. The result is a new successful Jewish Day School where none existed before.

I am very happy to be able to share with you this story and the nachas that it brings to all who have been involved with this project. You have Changed not only my life, but the lives of so many others. You have enriched (if not saved) one life and in that way you have saved entire worlds.

Rabbi Edward S. Boraz, Ph.D.

Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumnus Rabbi of Dartmouth College Hillel

I would like to share two experiences with you. I had the opportunity, after receiving my semicha (ordination) from Hebrew Union College, to continue my studies with Rabbi Ben Zion Wacholder, an ilui (Talmudic genius) who was trained in the yeshivas of Eastern Europe. He taught me to read Talmud as a commentary on Scripture and Jewish life and that our purpose was to transmit its love to our people. He is a gentle and kind soul.

Although the opportunity to continue my studies with him as a graduate student was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, my family needed me to make a living. I sought the counsel of both Rabbi Maurice Corson and Larry Moses and they both gave me etzat halev (counsel of the heart). You brought them into my life and these two have made the difference.

My work at Dartmouth College is based on the consensus and inclusive type of leadership learned at the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Institutes. This has led to the opening a kosher/hallal/shakahara dining option and the growth of the Upper Valley Jewish Community, where I also serve as its rabbi, from 100 families to 215 families and 125 children in the religious school.

One project, very dear to my heart, founded by Dartmouth College Hillel in 2002, is Project Preservation. It is an experiential study of genocide and is entirely student led. Each year, students from diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds apply. It consists of a 10-week study of the Shoah on both a macro and micro level, the latter being how a specific shtetl experienced the Nazi onslaught. We recover as much of the history of the particular town as is possible. At the end of 10 weeks, we then journey first to Auschwitz where we reflect and express our profound sadness over one of the greatest tragedies of Western Civilization. We then journey to this shtetl and there, alongside villagers, we restore its abandoned and neglected Jewish cemetery. We upright buried headstones, perform general cleanup, and erect a wrought iron fence, so as to secure the perimeter. Upon our return, we create a webpage that has a map of the cemetery along with individual pictures of the headstones, their translations, and a table that shows the patronymic and its location. Students who participate have called it the most meaningful educational experience during their four years at Dartmouth.

You have changed not only my life, but the lives of so many others. You have enriched (if not saved) one life and in that way you have saved entire worlds.

May God continue to establish the work of your hands. May God establish the work of your hands firmly.

Laura Heller Lauder

Wexner Heritage Program Alumna, San Francisco former board Member, Hillel at Stanford

After being blessed by my extraordinary experience in the Wexner program from 1996-98 (and for many years since as an alumna), I realized I had an opportunity — no, an obligation — to leverage this unique model. I had to help another group of much more important people: those who help us raise our Jewish children every day in the classroom: our Jewish day school teachers.

I joined with professional leaders steeped in the world of elementary school teacher preparation, and learned how to build a program based on a clear vision of excellence I learned from the Wexner Heritage Program.

Inspired by the selective Wexner model, we knew that we could inspire the next generation of leaders to consider opening the door, the delet, to a career in day school teaching.

We also knew that we had to provide highly engaging instructors for the program, who are from the top of their field. We had to make it an intense, immersive program that spanned multiple years of commitment to test the resolve of these novice teachers. And it had to be free: all expenses had to be covered in a gracious, respectful way that treated our Delet Fellows like queens and kings. This group of “Wexner-like” elements would make it highly attractive and prestigious — much like the Wexner program.

Thus, the Day School Leadership through Teaching initiative was born in 2001. And now, seven years later, this program has trained nearly 100 new day school teachers across the country. As an unexpected wonderful addition, we realized that we also created a cadre of Mentor Teachers who became connected through the monthly additional training that we provided. And, we had so many applicants, that we became a clearinghouse for referrals to other programs in Jewish life for these motivated, young people.

Thank you, Les and Abigail, for the inspiration, and for the graciousness with which you provided this extraordinary opportunity for us all. We will be forever indebted to you — and we will never forget your warmth, your trust, and your belief in us to go on to do more tikkun olam, and make the world a better place.

Wexner Heritage Program Alumna, New York Formerly on the Hillel Executive Committee

Before I had the privilege of participating in the Wexner Heritage Program in New York City, I was an active and involved lay leader, whose interest in the Jewish community resulted from a combination of a positive Temple Youth Group experience and an adult trip to Israel. It was that trip, in my mid 20s, which deepened and enhanced my commitment enormously, and which led to my active involvement in the UJA-Federation of New York, UJA Young Leadership, the Jewish Agency for Israel ( JAFI) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ( JDC). While I had a visceral attachment to being Jewish and to Israel, I had little background or knowledge of what that entailed or how or why Judaism had survived for so many generations.

For me the years studying in the Wexner Heritage Program provided me with what I now realize was the essential missing puzzle piece — the background and knowledge to understand why we rescue the captive and care for the sick or needy. Over the last years, as I have participated in difficult communal discussions, argued for change — or for status quo — as I have reviewed grants, or participated in strategic planning processes, the essential tool kit of our heritage, which I feel I now can access more intelligently, has been available to me. I also have drawn inspiration and guidance from Jewish leaders whom we learned about and I have accepted the fact that leadership is sometimes difficult. Finally I have benefited enormously from the infinite wisdom of my Wexner peers, who are always available to share an experience, listen to a problem, give me direction. Although my errors have all been my own, my efforts in the community have been profoundly influenced by my experience with the Wexner Heritage Program.

It was the eye-opening experience that you gave me through my participation in the Wexner Heritage Program and the dimension that it added to my own life, that motivated me to become involved with Hillel. I see Hillel as a critically important way to help begin that connection to Judaism, to the Jewish community, and hopefully, to a Jewish journey of learning, leadership and exploration for college students. Just as the Renaissance profoundly affected the course of world history, I believe that the collective effect of your work through the Wexner Foundation and of Hillel’s work on campus will profoundly affect the course of Jewish history. It is so fitting that you receive this well-deserved honor, both for your vision and for your commitment to our people.

I have benefited enormously from the infinite wisdom of my Wexner peers, who are always available to share an experience, listen to a problem, give me direction.