Cultivating New Leaders

Uriel Heilman’s October/November article, “In Search of a New Generation of Jewish Leaders,” omitted any reference to the work of the Spertus
Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership.

Missing entirely from the article—and at the core of Spertus’s programming—is the recognition that Jewish leadership training must plumb the depths of our own classical sources on effective leadership. This is not a matter of superficially overlaying a verse from Torah or dressing up Jewish literacy and calling it leadership training.

The corpus of Jewish sources on leadership, coupled with millennia of communal experiences, offer today’s Jewish leaders—women and men—a perspective on leading in volatile times. Contemporary Jewish leaders owe it to their communities to learn from Jewish communal leaders across time, in matters ranging from leadership ethics and humility to power sharing and collaboration.

Demographic studies and best practices are important, but no more so than the wisdom of our own tradition and historical experiences.

Dr. Hal M. Lewis
President and CEO, Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Chicago, Ill.

As the dean of the pluralistic Davidson school at the Jewish Theological Seminary, I am pleased to see Hadassah promoting the critical issue
of leadership. Investing more in identifying, recruiting and retaining the next generation of Jewish professional leadership should be among our top priorities as we seek to secure an even stronger Jewish future.

The Davidson school has been training the next generation of leaders for the past 20 years. We are proud of our 1,000 alumni who work across denominations and boundaries, reinvigorating legacy organizations and building start-ups in over 50 communities throughout North America. Last year, we brought together
our various leadership institutes to form The Leadership Commons, which cultivates talented thinkers, doers and visionaries to shape the Jewish future together for the common good. We are partnering with national organizations and communal foundations to take on this vital challenge, because we will only succeed if we work together.

Dr. Bill Robinson
Dean, William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education, New York, N.Y. (via website) 

 

No Denying
Thank you for Curt Schleier’s October/November article “A Portrayal Both Personal and Inspired.” As a child of two Auschwitz survivors, I am truly
grateful that Holocaust denial is being brought to light again. No matter how many times we say it was real, someone is always willing to say it was not.

Cherri Shiffman, Walnut Creek, Calif. (via website)

 

Optimistic for a Cure
Thank you so much for sharing Emily’s story (“Emily’s Endgame,” October/November issue). My brother, Irwin, a truly beautiful person, was born with cystic fibrosis. He lived to be 41. When a gene was discovered that caused the disease I became hopeful that a cure was just around the corner. Unfortunately, that cure is slow in coming, but I remain optimistic.

Donna Janovsky, Chicago, Ill. (via website)