For such a small group, the Jewish people sure are big on organizations. 

Let’s do a thought experiment. How many Jewish organizations do you think there are in North America? 2,000? 3,000? According to Leading Edge, there are an estimated 9,500 Jewish organizations — synagogues, federations, schools, Hillels, camps, social service agencies and more — led by thousands of CEOs, clergy and executive directors, 30,000 board members and an astounding 120,000 Jewish communal employees serving their members and clients. 

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Using financial contributions as a proxy for engagement, a 2020 report by the Pew Research Center found less than half (48%) of the 5.8 million Jewish adults in the U.S. made a financial contribution to any Jewish organizations. I’ve done the math and using this metric alone, we currently have one organization for every 293 ”engaged” adult Jews in the United States of America! 

These nonprofit organizations are led by Jewish communal professionals and lay leaders. My questions are: 

• How did these individuals learn to lead? 
• What are the stories of their leadership journeys? 
• What lessons have they gleaned from these experiences?

Over the course of my time teaching at the American Jewish University, the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and the Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management — plus hundreds of scholar-in-residence appearances, lectures and mentoring opportunities — the focus of my career has been to share lessons about leadership from communal professionals and laypeople serving the Jewish community worldwide. 

For my most recent book, Jewish Communal Leadership: Lessons Learned from Leading Practitioners, I invited nine of these leaders to share the stories of their leadership journeys and the principles they have gleaned from their careers and volunteer work. These were no-holds-barred interviews, and everyone involved offered thoughtful, honest, challenging and inspiring insights. Participants included:

•  pioneering spiritual leader Rabbi Denise Eger; 
• innovative JCC executive Zack Bodner; 
• phenomenal teacher and leadership coach, Erica Brown; 
• legendary Jewish Federation executive Barry Shrage; 
• the go-to expert on Jewish day school education, Bruce Powell; 
• foundation leaders Barry Finestone and Dan Libenson; 
• groundbreaking former Hillel director Rabbi Mike Uram; 
• and a top lay leader, Daryl Messinger. 

Dr. Steven Windmueller, a familiar and insightful presence in eJP, added his voice to what he calls “a significant contribution to the discourse on Jewish leadership.”

Here are just a few of the critical takeaways from the book for even more effective leadership: 

• Relationships begin with a hand (engaging with an embrace of welcome) and an ear (listening to someone’s story).
• Leaders are passionate advocates for their communities.
• The most important role as CEO is to be the CIO:  the “chief inspiration officer,” inspiring people to a greater vision of the possible.
• Shying away from problems is the worst leadership strategy. Managing a problem well is a great leadership strategy.
• Visionary leaders are lifelong learners, open to new and different ideas.
• Humor is the most underutilized leadership trait.
• Great leaders do not focus first on what the organization needs, but on what people need most.
• Even if you have a good description of where you want to go, if you don’t know where you are, then you’re not going to get there.
• A critical job of an effective board chair is to protect management — to “take a bullet” for the CEO or rabbi or executive director — so they can do their jobs.
• The relationship between the Jewish communal professionals and the lay leaders is sacred. Whether in service of a congregation or a nonprofit organization, Jewish communal leaders, both lay and professional, are doing sacred work.

At the JSummit gathering this week in Chicago, the JCC Association of North America will be gifting a copy of Jewish Communal Leadership to the top lay and professional leaders of Jewish Community Centers and Jewish community camps around the world. During a plenary on “The Power of Leadership,” I will be honored to moderate a conversation between Lisa Brill, an outstanding lay leader; Lee Trepeck, the charismatic CEO of Tamarack Camps; and Gali Cooks, the dynamic president and CEO of Leading Edge. And with my book in hand as they return to their JCCs, I will encourage the JSummit attendees to use the book as a “community read” with their boards and staff back home. There is a great power in literally “being on the same page” as leaders of their organizations, using the discussion questions crafted by my student and colleague, Jason G. Goldman, as a guide for applying important principles to their work. 

Leadership is an acquired skill, and the leaders featured in this volume have much to teach about the art. Tzei u’lmad: Go and learn!

Ron Wolfson is the Fingerhut Professor of Education at American Jewish University and president of the Kripke Institute’s Center for Relational Judaism. He is also the publisher of Jewish Communal Leadership: Lessons Learned from Leading Practitioners.