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Help sustain the Jewish tradition's legacy of community leadership by building strong leaders today.
"Great Jewish leadership has helped us survive slavery, guided us to the Promised Land, given us hope through exile and oppression, helped us enjoy membership in a nation of overachievers and given birth to the State of Israel. Great Jewish leadership generates vision and, as a result, followers. It inspires us and helps us to stretch higher, see farther and reach deeper."
—from the Introduction
Drawing on the past and looking to the future, this practical guide provides the tools you need to work through important contemporary leadership issues. It takes a broad look at positions of leadership in the modern Jewish community and the qualities and skills you need in order to succeed in these positions. Real-life anecdotes, interviews and dialogue stimulate thinking about board development, ethical leadership, conflict resolution, change management and effective succession planning.
Whether you are a professional or a volunteer, are looking to develop your own personal leadership skills or are part of a group, this inspiring book provides information, interactive exercises and questions for reflection to help you define leadership styles and theories, expose common myths and coach others on the importance of leading with meaning.
"Insists that our community can nurture leaders for this generation and beyond; practical, grounded insights inspire hope and confidence that we need not despair of infinite and endless wandering in the midbar of modern living."
—Jeff Swartz, CEO, Timberland Company
“Passionate and inspired ... takes the choicest wisdom from Jewish and business texts, and applies it to the day-to-day challenges of Jewish organizational life. Everyone in Jewish leadership—professionals, students, and volunteers—should read and master this volume.”
—Jonathan D. Sarna, director, Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program, Brandeis University
“Lucid, appealing, brilliant … should be required reading for those concerned with Jewish communal life today and tomorrow…. Touches the heart as well as the mind.”
—Sylvia Barack Fishman, professor of contemporary Jewish life, Brandeis University; author, The Way Into the Varieties of Jewishness
“Deeply rooted in Jewish vision and dreams, learning and literature, optimism and the possibility of transformational leadership. This book will become the basic textbook on leadership training in the Jewish community.”
—Barry Shrage, president, Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston
“Accessible…. Offers a range of helpful ideas about leading Jewish organizations today.”
—Shulamit Reinharz, Jacob Potofsky Professor of Sociology, Brandeis University; founding director, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Leading and Meaning
1. Guilt and Pleasure: Putting the Jewish in Jewish Leadership
2. Defining Leadership
3. Who Are We Leading? Age, Ethnicity, and Community
4. Vision and Mentoring
5. Authentic Leadership
6. The Optimistic Leader
7. Leading for Transformation
8. Nurturing Women's Leadership
9. Jewish Leadership and Conflict Resolution
10. Ethical Leadership
11. Changing the World, Changing Ourselves: A Crash Course on Change Management
12. Creating Meaningful Board Service
13. Who’s Next? Effective Succession Planning
Appendix 1: Twenty-five Questions a Jewish Leader Should Ask
Appendix 2: Leadership Exercises
Notes
Suggestions for Further Reading