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Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
B
efore Moses agreed to assume leadership of
the Israelites in his conversation with God at
the burning bush, he asked God what he
should tell the people was the name of the God that
was sending him. In contemporary terms, he was ask-
ing, “By what authority will I lead?”
When Marian Cartwright was working to improve
learning at her inner city elementary school, Trinity Uni-
versity Professor of Educational Leadership Thomas
Sergiovanni tells us, she realized she had to go into the
homes of the children to make sure they were clean,
well-fed, and ready for learning. In essence, Cartwright
was asking, “In order to lead, how do I need to serve?”
And recently, when President Barack Obama ad-
dressed the nation and the world on an issue of foreign
policy, he called for action that was simultaneously
pragmatic and passionate. In other words, Obama was
asking, “How can my leadership be successful?”
When we at the Rhea Hirsch School of Education
prepare our students to become the future educational
leaders of the Jewish people, we prepare them to an-
swer the questions Moses, Cartwright, and Obama
asked. Only by continuously asking themselves these
questions and reflecting on their leadership throughout
their careers will they be Jewish educators who can
touch the lives of the people with whom they interact,
transform the communities they lead, and utilize Jew-
ish education as an instrument to improve the human
condition and make the world a better place.
What Leadership Is and Is Not
While some suggest that leadership is a characteristic
that some individuals possess (and others do not), we
take the view that leadership is an activity that takes
place between and among people. As educational
change consultant Michael Fullan says, leadership is at
its heart a matter of “Relationships, Relationships, Re-
lationships.” That is one reason why so many of our
programs in education are cohort-based, where stu-
dents share their experiences at HUC-JIR with the
same group of people from beginning to end.
In class and out, our education students come to
respect their colleagues, to learn from them, and to ex-
perience the leadership that they share. Beyond the
classroom, they serve in internships where they exer-
cise and enhance their capacity to engage in deep
relationships with students, parents, and colleagues as
they work as fledgling educational leaders under the
protective guidance of experienced mentors who can
support and challenge them.
Authority
If leadership takes place in relationships, by what au-
thority do educational leaders exercise authority in
those relationships? Sergiovanni argues that for edu-
cational leaders, authority comes in many forms. At
one level, they are often the “boss” or “principal” with
responsibility over teachers and children. However,
this type of authority has limited effect in an era in
which “command and control leadership” has lost its
power. Rather, for Jewish educators, authority derives
from the professional expertise they attain by having a
deep understanding of teaching and learning and the
development of Jewish identity, the core activities of
Jewish education in whatever setting it takes place.
And even greater authority derives from educators’
moral authority, their capacity to express to others in
clear and compelling ways why Jewish education mat-
ters – for individuals, for the community, and for
humanity.
Leading and Serving
Some believe that leading is a matter of getting others
to follow, yet we at the Rhea Hirsch School of Education
teach that leadership is a profound form of service. In
a dramatic shift of the conventional paradigm of lead-
ership, we believe that one main task of leaders is to
provide those they supervise with everything they
need so that they can do the very best job they can do.
Leaders also serve their communities, always search-
ing for ways to build relationships and strengthen the
bonds of community. And most important, leaders
serve the values and ideals they and their communities
hold dear. Jewish educational leaders strive to make
every moment a teaching moment so that their every
action becomes a way to further the value of Jewish
learning.
Passion and Pragmatism
We also teach that successful leadership in Jewish ed-
ucation requires a balance of pragmatism and passion.
That is why education students at Rhea Hirsch School
of Education are required to take a course in “Leader-
ship and Management.” As management guru Stephen
Covey asserts, management is setting up a ladder cor-
rectly while leadership is making sure it’s up against
the right wall. Students leave the College-Institute with
the skills they need to keep a congregational school,
the Jewish studies program at a day school, or a Jew-
ish summer camp running smoothly. But more
important, they have the moral imagination to envision
how Jewish education can become even more effec-
tive, and the commitment to bring about the
transformation that will be needed for Jewish educa-
tion to fulfill its potential to make a difference.
The essence of the Jewish educational leader-
ship that students learn at the Rhea Hirsch School of
Education is a combination of the passionate com-
mitment to transforming Jewish life through Jewish
education with the skills to make that happen. When
students are successful at developing that passion
and learning those skills, they go on to become Jew-
ish educational leaders who will change the face of
liberal Jewish education across North America and
throughout the world.
Teaching Leadership in the
Rhea Hirsch School of Education
Dr. Michael Zeldin, RJE, RHSOE ’77;
Director, Rhea Hirsch School of Education, HUC-JIR/Jack H. Skirball Campus/Los Angeles
W
hen most people think of school leaders it is likely that the words Head of
School, Principal, Superintendent, or Board Member are their first associations.
In the DeLeT Program we know that teachers are equally important as school leaders,
not only by having a great impact on their students, but by being highly effective leaders
who guide their schools to become places of powerful learning for children
and
adults.
The DeLeT program at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles (and at Brandeis University) pre-
pares students for careers as Jewish day school teachers. Initially conceived of by Laura
Lauder and funded by the Lauder Foundation, it currently has leadership support from
the Jim Joseph Foundation and Sue and Larry Hochberg, as well as from the Aaron and
Marie Blackman Foundation. While “DeLeT” means “doorway,” it is also an acronym for
“
Day School Leadership through Teaching,” indicating our commitment to creating
“
teacher leaders.”
Recent educational publications document the importance of empowering teach-
ers, whereby teachers “have an influence beyond their own classrooms to others within
their own school and elsewhere. It entails mobilizing and energizing others with the goal
of improving the school’s performance” (Charlotte Danielson,
Teacher Leadership that
Strengthens Professional Practice
).
The DeLeT program helps our students develop two
critical skills necessary for teacher leadership: a commitment to
professional collaboration
and
reflective practice.
Collaboration is built into every aspect of DeLeT, from classes at HUC-JIR to intern-
ships at a Jewish day school. From the very beginning in their classes, DeLeT Fellows are
expected to present their work and their lesson and unit plans to each other. They are
taught how to give “professional” feedback, using specific tools. They discover that the
collective wisdom of their peers gives them valuable insight into their work and personal
growth. They are also expected to turn to their mentor teachers, their clinical educator,
The “L” is DeLeT
Dr. Robert E. Tornberg, RJE, RHSOE ’75;
Education Director,
DeLeT- Day School Leadership through Teaching
Dr. Michael Zeldin
in the classroom.
