The design of the HUC-JIR Mandel
Fellowship seminars has included a
variety of opportunities that enable
the Fellows to:
•
encounter and analyze compelling
examples of vision-guided institu-
tions, communities, and leaders;
•
engage in systematic and thought-
ful inquiry into the big questions
about Jewish life and Jewish ideas;
•
develop their visions for Jewish life at its best; and
•
cultivate an appreciation for the necessity of continual reflection on
and articulation of a personal stance that carries implications for
rabbinic leadership.
The Fellowship experience has been guided by Professor Sara Lee and
Dr. Lisa Grant of HUC-JIR with our Mandel partners, Dr. Daniel Pekarsky,
Dr. Devora Steinmetz, and Dr. Jen Glaser.
EVALUATION
Our ongoing external evaluation of the Fellowship program enables us to understand
its impact on the Fellows, as well as to constantly refine the program. One important
finding from this evaluation process is that the Fellowship sophisticates and deepens
the students’ understanding of leadership and empowers them to develop their own
visions based on their increasingly informed and thoughtfully held values and
commitments. The actual visits to vision-guided organizations and meetings with
different kinds of visionary leaders have given concrete evidence of the power of
vision as it is enacted in the life of communities and individuals.
As one
Mandel Fellow remarked: “I was really struck by the
optimism of the people we met. They’re doing things
against the grain of society. They have vision, com-
mitment, and the ability to communicate that to
others. I am inspired to create something that can
address reality in that way.”
JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD
The focus on developing a richer understanding of and commitment to Jewish Peo-
plehood is both a hallmark and perhaps the most challenging aspect of the HUC-JIR
Mandel Fellowship. At the outset of the Fellowship year, many Fellows question the
relevance of the concept of Peoplehood in the context of North American liberal
Jewish communities. Our program evaluations demonstrate that their encounters
with Peoplehood, particularly during the Israel seminar, are indeed transformative.
The diversity of the settings and individuals the Fellows encounter – from a
Haredi
school to a member of the far Left
faction in Israel – models the chal-
lenges and potential for creating
compelling forms of engagement
among Jews who are very different
from one another in culture, ideol-
ogy, and religious practice.
As one Mandel Fellow
commented: “Our di-
versity is what makes
us incredible. The fullness of Jewish life cannot be
represented by one group.”
NEW MANDEL INITIATIVE FOR VISIONARY LEADERSHIP
The success of the Fellowship has led HUC-JIR and the Mandel Foundation to
consider how this initiative can have a significant impact on broader groups of future
rabbinical leaders. This has given rise to a new phase of the HUC-JIR Mandel part-
nership that began in 2010-2011 with a pilot program for
all
students in the Year-
In-Israel program. Building on this foundation, the plan is to engage rabbinical
students on all three U.S. campuses in their subsequent years of study.
At the heart of this new phase, now called the Mandel Initiative for Visionary
Leadership, is the embedding of structured opportunities in the curriculum for all
students to integrate their academic and clinical learning in a more meaningful way
and to build on that integration in shaping their personal Jewish identities and their
professional aspirations. In the Year-In-Israel, the focus is on Israel and Jewish
Peoplehood, reflecting the centrality of those ideas and ideals in the learning and
experiences of students spending their first year of studies in Israel. The plan for
second-year students is to focus on Torah and classical Jewish texts that constitute
the core of their studies and to consider the relationship of these texts to their lives
and to contemporary Jewish life.
As we make the transition from the Fellowship to the new phase of the HUC-JIR
Mandel Initiative, we remain committed to the belief that leadership is about pas-
sion and commitment that come from a deep set of beliefs that are the product of
informed reflection about what is important and significant in Jewish life.
Leadership requires people who are both sensitive
to and willing to challenge current realities and push
forward to a better future while remaining grounded
in Jewish ideas, values, and experiences.
We also believe
that the approach taken by the Mandel Initiative for Visionary Leadership can culti-
vate the habits of heart and mind necessary for the development and ongoing
growth of the kind of leadership that will enable Jewish communities to reimagine
themselves in order to create a vital, thriving Jewish future.
The Chronicle
Fall 2011
Page 3
A Rabbi/Educator
David Levy, NYSOE ‘10, N ‘12;
Mandel Fellow
A
s rabbis, one of our major leadership responsibilities is to act as the lead
educator in our communities. We spend five years studying text, but we
are ultimately useless if we lack the capacity to convey that understanding to
the next generation in a meaningful way. The training for the Master of Arts in
Religious Education has given me additional tools and techniques for creating
an exciting and welcoming learning environment. It has become the backbone
for how I view the very important work of educating and building my future
community.
We ended our Fellowship year in Jerusalem, where we challenged each
other to articulate what it meant for each of us to be a part of a Jewish people.
We asked questions ranging from “Who is a Jew?” to “What does it mean to
be a part of a people?” Through serious study, each of us made bold statements
about how we envision Jewish Peoplehood and how it is a part of our lives, and
challenged each other to consider who is a part of our Jewish nation. It con-
cretized my belief in a broad vision of Jewish Peoplehood consisting of any who
would call themselves Jews and live lives inspired by our Tradition. We need
communities where the sense of a greater Jewish people is a part of their per-
sonal narrative. That is the inspiration I gained from the Mandel Fellowship and
the Judaism that I will be working towards for the rest of my career
.
D
uring every site visit we met with leaders of visionary Jewish insti-
tutions. These exceptional leaders could consistently articulate a
clear vision of Jewish life at its best, and were engaged in the process of
securely anchoring to that vision every new venture in their communi-
ties. As one of these leaders put it: “Values are what you live by, vision
is what you live toward, and leadership is how you get from your values
to your vision.” In each of our cohort reflections, certain themes echoed
from one site visit to the next: the importance of relationship building,
flexibility, willingness to always try something new (even though this
also means that some of these efforts will fail), openness to move be-
yond what is comfortable, and the desire to always continue learning.
In our meeting with Mr. Morton Mandel, he shared with us his
thoughts on leadership. And while he did certainly charge us to set
“
very big, very tough goals” for ourselves and for our organizations,
he also explained that he believes strongly in a simple statement from
the leadership manual of the U.S. Army: “Be. Know. Do.” My training
as a Mandel Fellow has helped me to
be
a more reflective and effective
leader. In the first months of my first rabbinical placement, I am engaged
in the deliberate process of coming to
know
my new community. Having
already embarked upon the journeys of
being
and
knowing
,
I look forward
to one day soon beginning the
doing
of visionary leadership.
Mandel Fellows at the Mandel Leadership Institute in Israel.
