By Richard Wexler
A few weeks ago, the wonderful eJewishPhilanthropy (25 January) published an impassioned plea from two campus advocates – “No Representation Without Conversation.”
The subject matter and the demands were clearly thought through and, inasmuch as I like so many of you have thought a lot about the Next Generation of Jewish leaders, I wanted to reprint the plea and then discuss it:
“To the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations,
In Deuteronomy 31, God instructs Moses to pass on the mantle of leadership. Moses turns to Joshua, puts his hands upon him and, in a moment of Divine Presence, Joshua becomes the leader of the Jewish people. For thousands of years, the Jewish people have passed on Torah and communal leadership, l’dor v’dor, from one generation to the next.
As two people deeply involved in and passionate about Jewish communal life, we fear that the number of modern day Joshuas, who happen to be our peers, is dwindling. This past week, we saw what intergenerational success looks like as an estimated four million people filled streets around the world to demand change, justice, and equality. These marches proved that young people are going into 2017 with passion and conviction, ready to make a difference in the world locally, nationally, and globally. Nonprofits, political parties, NGOs, and even corporations are swinging the door wide open to younger leadership, professional and lay, as a way to reposition and adapt to a quickly changing world. Those organizations that aren’t doing so are actively shortchanging their long term viability and relevance, and simultaneously alienating a significant portion of their support base who want to be meaningfully engaged.
In a TED Talk about the changing nature of democracy, Pia Mancini made clear that generations past decried “no taxation without representation,” whereas this generation operates on “no representation without conversation.” The difference is stark as young leaders everywhere are taking their rightful seat at the table, and actively participating in “the conversation.”
We wonder, are the Jewish organizations, that in many ways define the tapestry of the American Jewish world, opening seats at their decision-making tables to new voices? We don’t think so. And, if we don’t reverse this trend soon, we jeopardize the future of our Jewish organizations, and the Jewish people as a whole. We worry that too many of our Moses’ are without Joshuas in their midst.
Just over 2% of all nonprofit trustees are under the age of 30. More concerning, a majority of these young trustees are the sole member of their board in their age bracket. Young people represent over 20% of the population, and need to likewise represent a meaningful percentage of board members actively engaged in supporting our Jewish organizations. As the only two young people who serve on a very large board, we fear that assumptions are made that we alone can represent an entire generation. We can’t. And we need a more diverse group of peers at the table to represent the rich diversity our organizations aim to engage.
2017 needs to be a year of change. The era of the “token young person” is over.
Young leaders on every level have valuable experience, expertise, and insight to share with organizations and causes for which they care. The window of opportunity is shrinking quickly, as a time will come when those passionate young people will turn elsewhere to lend their time and voices.
We ask the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations to make it a priority of top concern to require that by 2020, each constituent organization have a significant number of young adults serving in meaningful leadership roles on their boards.
If these 52 organizations lead by example, we are confident that it will have a ripple effect throughout the Jewish world. The time to be bold is now – we owe it to the Jewish world future generations will inherit.
If not now, when?
Most Sincerely,
Debbie Rabinovich
Andrew Keene”
The suggestion that Jewish organizations “… open seats at their decision-making tables” as articulated by these two thoughtful and demanding young people is one worthy of sincere examination and reflection. Young leaders deserve to be taken seriously; I have a few in my own family. I have some suggestions in response:
- First, understand the organizations on whose Boards you wish to serve. I’d start with the Conference of Presidents to which the writers’ demands are addressed and which, as you readers know and understand, cannot “require” its members to do anything at all. And doesn’t. The fact that the letter is addressed to the Conference at all indicates that more homework might be, is in fact, needed;
- Second, and most important to me, is the demand for what I would characterize as “immediate gratification;” “the immediate election of young men and women to seats on the organizational decision-making boards.” Where I come from Board seats are earned not “given” – earned by service on Agency boards, Federation committees, in the campaigns. One grows into Board membership; one is not bestowed with that membership because of age. In fact, in my community as well, I suspect, yours, we do have a number of young leaders on our Agency and Federation Boards who have served on Committees, led Agency and Federation efforts and now serve on the Boards.
Nowhere in the eJP-published letter do I read of these young leaders’ interest in “working their way up” to Board service; to learning the complexity of our organizations before leading them. What I read is the desire/demand to be immediately parachuted into leadership. I have a suggestion for them…
At the end of 1999, my brilliant friend and colleague, the indefatigable Jeffrey Solomon and I published an article in the Journal of Jewish Communal Service – “Setting Standards for Volunteer Leadership and the Profession.” I’m proud of the award the article won in 2000 but more so that it became part of the curriculum in some schools of Jewish communal service. I understand the desire of all those young, old and in between to want to be immediately “in the rooms where it happens.”
I also believe that those who want it the most will “earn it” and earn it quickly if they first learn, and then participate, and, then, determine if they still “want it.”
Richard Wexler is a Past Chair of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, the United Jewish Appeal and the United Israel Appeal and Co-Chaired the merger that created what is now JFNA. He is the author of the blog, “UJThee and Me.”
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Andrew and Debbie are two outstanding young leaders in the Reform Movement. Andrew is the current co-chair for Connections 2017 the Conference of the World Union for Progressive Judaism in Jerusalem in May while still a student at Drexel . Andrew and Debbie aren’t saying they or others should be put into leadership roles without earning it, they are saying that organizations need to find more ways to include young leaders in what they do. In the Reform movement the NFTY President has a board seat. The movement has appointed the last few NFTY Presidents including Andrew and Debbie to the URJ board. Andrew has added the WUPJ board to his resume. This 65 year old Jewish leader agrees with Andrew and Debbie. For Judaism to thrive for the next generations we must appeal to these young people. Break the Paradigm…..remember the story of the Swiss Watch. Switzerland once owned 85 percent of the worlds watch industry. Someone tried to sell them the idea of electric watch. They turned it down. Today Switzerland does not own 85 percent of watch sales. It’s time to pay attention to our young college grads…..time to hear what they say. Time to keep the leaders of our youth movements active. Do not downplay Andrew and Debbie, be proud that they are interested in leading us to a great future.
Excellent commentary, I must wonder though, who instilled this entitlement attitude of today’s young adults? The attitude of somehow thinking that an entry level position is the corner office or entry to non-profit involvement is a board position. There are ways, however, for non-profits to ensure the voice of young adults is heard, and many do this. Young leadership boards are common place and frequently have a representative on the Board. Completely dismissing young adults would be an error, they are the future, however putting them in positions of critical decision-making and authority without the necessary experience would be an error as well.
The idea that the people who deserve to be at the table with “earn it” strikes me as steering straight in to the myth of meritocracy, the idea that people are successful only because of the merits of hard work, not because of any other unequal advantages. This is particularly absurd in this context. To become a board member for many Jewish organizations, particularly for federations like this guy serves, you have to make a large donation. Not everyone, especially not college students and young adults, can afford to give thousands of dollars to federations! If federation leaders want us to give donations when we’re able, telling you to sit down and “do your homework” is not the way to incentivize us to contribute to this institutional structure. At the JFNA General Assembly people continuously expressed concern about millenials not giving to federations. If your response to an article asking to be included in a conversation about how you can better serve young people is to dismissively tell us to wait our turn, then your fear that young people won’t want to give to federations and other historical communal structures is well warranted!
I think there are two factors that haven’t been in addressed in this post or in the Journal of Jewish Communal Service article to which the authors refer.
First, the Journal article sees the disappearance of committed volunteers as the result of shrinking passion, motivation, and financial resources. Their answer? More training and standard-setting for volunteer leadership. It is interesting to note that the article was conceived and published right before the publication of Robert Putnam’s book Bowling Alone in which he addressed, among other things, changes in the way Americans spend their leisure time and connect with others, including the form and depth of volunteerism.
Second, and related to the above, while passion is mentioned in the post and the article, there is no mention of mission and measurables. In their article they write, “That which motivates the volunteer must be an incredible passion for Jewish life: for belonging to something greater than one’s self.” I agree, but passion alone isn’t enough to attract the best and brightest. People want to know that the organization to which they are contributing time and resources has focus, knows what it is working towards, and has a set of metrics upon which to measure success.
So yes, training and putting in one’s time is good; it encourages humility and develops a deeper understanding of the organization. But given advances in technology, communication, and the on-the-spot availability of new ideas and programs, attention to mission alignment is just as important to organizational success as the “career path” of volunteers.
Put another way: it is the responsibility of “veteran” volunteers to create organizations that attract and welcome the next generation of leaders, whether they walk in the front door, or arrive by parachute.
I am so perplexed! In re-reading the excellent article by Andrew and Deborah – I am at a loss as to where and how they convey a sense of entitlement or an expectation that they or anyone should be in a leadership role based on age ALONE. That said, if working one’s way up requires years and years and years of service as well as huge financial commitments – then we will never get to the position that we as seasoned leaders claim we desire! The numbers speak for themselves. If 20% of the population is only represented by 2% – we clearly have an issue! The Jewish world has many young leaders; in their youth movements, places of higher education and the world at large. Should the rest of the world be benefitting from their energy and inspiration while Jewish organizations lose them at an alarming rate? I think not! I am willing to enlarge the board table and expand all of our horizons.