One of the sessions at President Shimon Peres’s Tomorrow Conference dealt with the topic of “Grooming the future leadership of Israel and the Jewish people.”
“What is the desired profile of tomorrow’s best Jewish leaders?” the programs asked, adding, "Is it possible to locate and groom the future leaders of Israel and the Jewish People?"
(Photo: Ezra HaLevi)
Sitting on the panel were Political Science Professor Yechezkel Dror, who made headlines with various statements he made after serving on the Winograd Committee to examine the Second Lebanon War; Erez Eshel, the former Tel Aviv University student union head who resigned following a failed strike during the Netanyahu administration in 1998, who then went on to head the Ein Prat pre-military Mechina program in Kfar Adumim, which focuses on training young, non-observant Jews for leadership positions with an emphasis on Zionism, history and ethics; Leslie Wexner, the CEO of Limited Brands and Chairman of the Wexner Foundation, which grants generous fellowships to prospective Jewish leaders in North America and Israel; Hadassah Executive Director Morlie Levin, who was groomed as a Wexner fellow; and Professor Shalom Saada Saar, who teaches Leadership at MIT.
The following are excerpts of the panelists' main points and statements:
Professor Dror:
* Leadership today suffers from tunnel vision, inadequate contact with the needy and preference to associate with the rich and powerful.
* What can be done: Changing the political system – maybe presidential system – abolishing primaries, which place emphasis on capital for politicians.
* Politicians have no right to privacy – medical records and others must be made public.
* Strict imposition of responsibility when politicians fail. Has special significance after first interim Winograd report. [This can be seen as a criticism of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for not resigning when the Committee issued its interim report, though, following the final report, Dror seemed to intimate that the Committee decided to spare Olmert since he was thought to be advancing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority –ed.]
Leslie Wexner:
* Leaders are influenced by mentors, which requires the younger generation to assume that we have positive intent.
* Leadership requires one to listen [with the aim of] understanding, not offer judgment.
* Leaders’ success has to be judged over time. Many appear to be successful but they and their followers have vertigo. Their success is measured over time. History is the best judge…Leadership we also think about as personal, but it is often collective.
*Leaders see beyond the present. But a leader who is too far out is a daydreamer. Leaders are doers, who must influence people to get things done.
*Professor Dror is talking about revolution: [he is saying that] what got us here isn’t going to take us the rest of the way there.
*We believe in collective morality…It is important to lead and have a moral compass. I believe the Jewish people invented that compass. If we are going to be a light unto the nations, if we are going to repair the world – we are in serious need of leaders.
Morlie Levin:
* We are a people who have a covenant and a mission to work in partnership with G-d to create a world that is more just and fair. We have spent a lot of resources on defending ourselves. We face existential threats, spoken about in many forums, and a threat to our identity, with an increasing disconnect from our religion and the State of Israel. We no longer have the task of building the foundations of the state but we do have the task of ensuring the state’s survival. The Jewish enterprise means we have to see ourselves as a collective - not separate entities.
* Trying to identify an elaborate set of ideals for future leaders in a community as diverse as ours may not be the most ideal way to proceed. Moses was a different leader than Ben Gurion – the Prophetess Devorah was very different than Golda Meir. NGO leaders have different responsibilities and goals than government leaders.
* Three personal attributes that are necessary: humility, openness to new ideas, ability to demonstrate learning – particularly from failure, because it is not always a direct process.
Erez Eshel:
* Hebrew is the language of morals, truth, mankind and leadership so that is the language I will deliver my address in.
* We, the people of Israel find ourselves in a crisis of leadership as a people and political entity. We are in crisis. In the clash of civilizations, the world is not immune. It could be western civilization will collapse and it could be that the State of Israel will collapse.
*Our leaders are caricatures, grotesque as they may be, as to what we, today, have chosen to represent ourselves.
* Every person can be revealed as a leader. Every person is required to display leadership at a point in their life. When Moses heard that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp, and others were alarmed, he said that it would be ideal if all the Jewish people would be prophets.
* What we are marking in Israel this year is 60 years of dreams. The Torah is filled with dreams, from Adam to Abraham to Joseph and onward and onward. Dreams change reality and that is what we have. We need dreams to bring us through the next 60 years.
Prof. Shalom Saada Saar:
* Give me ten men and women like Erez and we can change the world. We have mystified leadership to a point that has made it difficult for others to understand. Harvard did not have a discipline of leadership – they put it in a corner until students demanded to know: “How do I influence without power?,” “How do I mobilize people without authority?” If you look at Pirkei Avot [Ethics of Our Fathers – a book of the Mishna], we have all the concepts needed to pursue leadership.
* It is not just Israel, but the whole world that is in crisis of leadership. Leaders today do not know themselves or have inner peace with themselves – something that is critical for true leadership.
* I believe leadership is spiritual. Think of the people who influenced you the most. It was not the people who had the most experience, but those who were able to give you time. Time is a precious gift that we don’t value anymore. We don’t create leaders’ we cultivate them through education, through listening to them. A true leader listens to the inner voices.
* The Road Map failed because there was no vision. Managers have a Road Map, leaders have a vision. Managers bring ambiguity, leaders bring clarity.
Questions from the audience
Two younger student leaders asked similar questions about why, even though there is young leadership waiting to take the reins are there the same sessions at conference after conference “featuring eighty-year-olds asking ‘Where is the leadership?’ Why are we, the younger generation, not invited to sit at the table and be involved – instead we are brought to the Negev to ride camels.”
Professor Michael Broyde of Atlanta’s Emory University addressed the speakers, saying the discussion missed the fundamental change that has occurred as technology has advanced. “We are entering an era of profound disestablishmentarianism,” he said. “The only community that is currently led is the hareidi community. The religious Zionists are not suffering from bad leadership, but incompetent laity. As the Yiddish saying goes, everybody is ‘making Shabbos by themselves.’ The problem is not building better leadership, but persuading people of the value of being led. Leadership used to share information with people and inspire them to follow, but with the internet now, nobody has any more information with anyone else. There is no trust of leadership. It is the flock who is in crisis, not the leadership.”
A man named Motti Crystal developed on Prof. Broyde’s comment, saying that the masses today are not galvanized by Moses or Ben-Gurion-type leaders, but by bloggers and smaller network leaders.
The final commenters were two native Israelis named Kfir and Noa, as well as a new immigrant from New York name Scott. Kfir and Noa asked how the panelists would go about persuading smart young Israelis to venture into politics “when for the last ten years all politicians from mayors to top echelons have all been investigated for crimes…How can we go into politics without becoming corrupted?”
Scott pointed out that the foundation of leadership is passion and called for the leadership to be made up of people who love the Jewish project – who see it not as a job but as a passion.
Prof. Saar: Before you want to change the world you must change yourself. I was diagnosed as a retarded child at the age of nine and nobody pulled me out of the retarded school. I pulled myself out because I believed my father that only you can maximize the gift that G-d gave you in this world.
Levin: The most important thing is to find a mentor. It is about who to learn from rather than where you learn. The value of mentoring is not as institutionalize or as highly regarded as it could and should be. We need help with that – to partner with you to make clear the importance and impact of mentoring. All of us want to be part of something larger, authentic and passionate.
Wexner: A lot of questions were about leadership and age. When I was young, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Generals are older than privates and professors are older than the students. I am interested in young people’s opinion, but when dealing with the subject of leadership, you need the perspective of someone who has been there. When I was an eaglet I knew I wanted to be an eagle, but I had to recognize that I was not yet there. Leadership means you have to know yourself and understand your strengths and weaknesses. In this forum you have to understand when you are a teacher and when you are a student.
Prof. Dror: The main mission of leadership is weaving the future, which means giving priority to the future. Democracy, which is the best system for most societies, has a congenital defect in that all those effected should have a say – but the next generation does not have a say on most of the decisions that decide its future. Nobody here mentioned power: leadership is not only about making everybody feel good or convincing everyone – which is not possible – but is a matter of concentrating democratic power. Leaders must often wear masks. They can’t always say what they think. Young leaders: please avoid sentimental approaches to leadership. It is impractical. Most people who talk about leadership have never dealt with the dilemma of who to send to die, or which medicines to provide – which is the same dilemma with a nicer packaging.
Eshel: Leadership is to see from afar. You need life experience to learn from the past. There is a value to older leaders who have seen the past, but when we are in a leadership crisis we turn to the young people. Professor Dror talked about reading books [the professor had said he would say to young people, ‘Read this list of books, including Plato and other philosophers, and then come back to me and we will talk about leadership.’ –ed.] Young people today are not reading those books, but they are indeed reading huge, 700-page books – Harry Potter. Why? Harry is an orphan. The young generation feels as an orphan and is seeking a way to carry the torch. It is time to pass that torch.”