A Program for Future Leaders from Around the World, in Israel

March 11, 2009 

by Daniel E. Levenson

Leadership within the Jewish community, both in Israel and in the Diaspora is something which I am keenly interested in, so when I saw the flyer advertising the MASA Building Future Leaders seminar, I was intrigued. The idea of the seminar, from what I experienced, was really twofold: the first part involved bringing in different speakers ranging from former Chairman of the Israeli Defense Forces, and present member of the Israeli Knesset, Moshe Ya’alon to Merav Ben-Ari, founder of a center for at-risk youth called “Derech Ha Etgar” in the Israeli cities of Natanya and Herzillyah, as well as field trips to Har Hertzel, where most of Israel’s former prime ministers are buried and the Begin Center, which celebrates the life of former Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin. What I liked about this part of the program is that we had a chance to hear these people speak and to see these places, and then react in our own way. I, for one, thought that Moshe Ya’alon was a really interesting person to hear from, even though politically he is much farther to the right than I am when it comes to Israeli politics, and I vigorously disagreed with some of what he said in terms of the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations. I still enjoyed hearing him speak though because it gave me something to think about, and similarly, when our group heard from Moti Kanias, founder of the Israeli non-profit “Areivim”, I found myself thinking that he was to the left of where I stand. Both of them were interesting speakers, and they both gave me a lot to think about not only in terms of leadership, but with regard to the different approaches people are taking today within the Jewish community to deal with some of the challenges we are facing.

The second part of the seminar happened much more informally, over meals and between sessions, when we had a chance to start to get to know each other and learn something about the communities that each of us had come from. While I knew before that there were Jewish communities in places like Argentina, Hungary, France and Brazil, it was really amazing to be able to meet other people in their 20’s and 30’s who are leaders within those communities, and to be able to do so in Israel. On the last day of the shabbaton we did a group exercise where everyone put a bead on a map of the world to show where they or their families had come from, and all I could think of when I looked at the final product was how astounding it is that over two thousand years ago the Jewish people had been expelled from our homeland, and  in this vast expanse of time had wandered to the far reaches of the earth from Russia to India to Australia to America, and now we, the descendents of those people were gathered once again in a room in Jerusalem, talking about the future of the Jewish people. While we still have two more sessions of the seminar to go, I think that this moment is one that will definitely stay with me. It was a powerful reminder that no matter how far apart the Jewish people may be spread around the world, no matter how many years have passed, we still have a connection that runs deeper than time or geography, it is a connection to the land of Israel, and a connection to each other. If we really are going to make a difference in the Jewish world today, this is something we must always keep in mind. No matter what are differences may be within the Jewish community, we have a common past, a difficult present, and, I believe, a shared destiny.