The Chronicle
Fall 2011
Page 29
M
y Jewish leadership journey was born and
nurtured at a small Jewish summer camp
in the 1970’s. I was easily convinced to
lead from the front and was called upon often to rally
campers into a wild frenzy of songs and cheers. But as
I grew from counselor to unit head, and finally to the
program director of a large URJ (then UAHC) camp, I
had to work more purposefully through the challenges
of integrating my natural leadership instincts with the
studied art of leading effectively. I had to admit that the
natural talent that got me “here,” to a position of con-
ferred authority, would not get me “there,” to exercising
transformative Jewish leadership in an established and
successful organization. While my dreams of becoming
a rabbi during those summer days were just emerging,
the challenges of leadership presented to me at camp
represented, in the words of author and leadership the-
orist Warren Bennis, my crucible moments.
Crucibles, Bennis teaches, are emotionally charged
situations that produce great learning and growth
within leaders. Those who exercise Jewish leadership
do well to reflect on their own experiences that shape
their understanding of why… and how they lead. I en-
tered HUC-JIR imagining myself as an informal Jewish
educator and left certain I would take my camping sen-
sibilities into the congregation, generating a new model
of synagogue life. I never – ever – saw myself as an or-
ganizational rabbi, least of all one positioned in a
Foundation focused on the strengthening of Jewish
leadership for the Jewish world, across the denomina-
tion spectrum, for both volunteers and professional
leaders in North America and Israel.
And yet, The Wexner Foundation is an ideal, in-
deed invigorating setting for my rabbinate. Our staff is
comprised of a team of Jewish professionals who study
and teach leadership, especially through our three lead-
ership initiatives, the Wexner Graduate Fellowship/
Davidson Scholars Program, the Wexner Heritage Pro-
gram, and the Wexner Israel Fellowship. Each initiative
has its own focus and tailored curriculum but all are
founded upon the belief that leadership can be taught,
leadership skills can be honed, and that those who suc-
cessfully exercise leadership are on a constant quest to,
in the words of our chairman and founder Leslie
Wexner, “know their stuff.”
A distinct view of leadership animates the work of
The Wexner Foundation. First and foremost, we strive
to serve the many different expressions of Jewish life
with a uniform sincerity. We aspire to a broad embrac-
ing of Jewish diversity and, after twenty-five years,
believe that we have become an important model
organization in this regard. Our programs foster a
steadfast respect for diversity. We regard this diversity
as a strength in Jewish life. We intentionally construct
our seminars as safe spaces or “holding environments”
for addressing differences openly and honestly.
The Foundation’s methodology of developing lead-
ers relies heavily upon building cohorts of individuals,
intentionally diverse, who bond together, develop trust,
and serve to strengthen each other through continuous
contact. Each cohort represents a microcosm of the
larger Jewish community and group members navigate
complicated relationships across substantive differences.
We seek understanding, not consensus. We place
a high value on self-knowledge, emotional intelligence,
and mastering reflective practice within the group. We
intentionally urge patience, curiosity, imagination, and
humility within each Wexner cohort and expect dilem-
mas, both those internal to the group and those of the
wider Jewish world, to be tackled by the group itself,
“
bottom up thinking,” rather than reliance upon any au-
thority figures to provide “top down” answers to thorny
problems. We believe that the best work is produced by
a Wexner cohort group when they take it upon them-
selves. This is consistent with the Foundation’s belief
that leadership is fundamentally collaborative, that it
should be vision and values driven, and that leadership
entails mobilizing others to achieve meaningful and vi-
sionary change.
Our view of leadership also encompasses the idea
that, within the Jewish world, all leaders are most effec-
tive when they engage in lifelong Jewish learning. While
the connection between Jewish learning and Jewish
leading is intrinsic to our work, we value the field of
leadership as a rigorous discipline unto itself. Leslie and
Abigail Wexner spearheaded the development of the
Center for Public Leadership at The Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard and thus we benefit from close
relationships with and guidance from outstanding lead-
ership thinkers and theorists.
We optimistically champion resilience and change.
Many of our alumni are founders or directors of out-
standing innovative organizations and cutting-edge
initiatives. We embrace invention and reinvention
of Jewish life and are committed to the support and
continued growth of Wexner alumni through ongoing
conversations, classes, think tanks, networks, e-
newsletters, and conferences. The relationships and
interactions among the constituents of our three lead-
ership initiatives are quite precious. Wexner alumni
experience a keen sense of belonging to an extended
Wexner family, a web of highly diverse individuals who
are eager to energize Jewish life. My rabbinate has been
energized in much the same fashion.
My optimism for the Jewish world is ever-increas-
ing and my view of that world is ever-expanding. And
still, from time to time, I find myself in front of a highly
diverse Jewish community leading a song I learned back
at summer camp.
Changing Leaders/Leading Change
Rabbi Elka Abrahamson, N ’85;
President, The Wexner Foundation
The Advanced M.A. Program for Pluralistic Jewish Education
(
continued from page 13)
and consideration of other points of view. Students are encouraged to recognize the
influence of different ideologies in the Jewish world on educational choices.
The third principle is
the development of reflective abilities
.
Reflection is a tool
for organizing knowledge, not only for students but also for educators. Studying aca-
demic content out of its educational context may be a futile exercise, so our program
provides opportunities for systematically scrutinizing educational practices and aims.
This is achieved by a range of techniques, including what might be termed reflective
assignments. In addition to the academic studies, each student keeps a reflective
diary, in which they describe their experiences in the field of Jewish education and
examine their practices in light of theories we studied, their values, and vision.
The fourth principle is creating a
community of colleagues
who learn together
and experience the challenges of pluralistic Jewish education. Along with its strong
intellectual and academic dimensions, the program offers students opportunities to
experience and to question the meaning of pluralism. A learning community turns its
participants into active learners, researchers, and like-minded partners with their col-
leagues and teachers. A community of
colleagues that actively experiences dif-
ferent Jewish lifestyles creates a kind of
living laboratory.
The students in our program don’t
only learn about dilemmas related to
challenges of Jewish educational plural-
ism – they are invited to experience
these dilemmas through experiential group learning. We open our day of study with a
group activity directed at issues of prayer and faith. We spend Shabbat together and,
in preparation, students from a range of different backgrounds are involved in choos-
ing how the heterogeneous group will observe Shabbat. This inevitably brings them to
examine the limits of their openness as well as their ability to compromise in order to
create communal viability.
Leaders must be prepared to take risks.
They need to challenge societal expec-
tations in order to be able to offer change. Our program invites students to take risks,
be critical, take a stand, and develop their ability to lead and forge a vision even in
challenging situations. If Israel is to have leaders who will promote a pluralistic
approach, institutions like HUC-JIR need to continue to do the complicated and
painstaking business of taking risks. Not to do this work would be the greater risk.
In the words of the Israeli thinker
Zvi Lamm, “educational decisions
are ideological choices.”
We challenge students to think
about their own choices.
Students in the Advanced M.A. Program for Pluralistic Jewish Education
at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem.
