Center for Jewish LeadershipVision and Mission for a Vibrant Jewish Future

The Center for Jewish Leadership (CJL) is the premier Jewish Leadership training institute in North America. We educate and inspire Jewish organizations and the people within them who are invested in working to create a vibrant and sustainable Jewish future. We transform Jewish life by cultivating innovative approaches to leadership and by enhancing the abilities of Jewish professionals and volunteers.

History has taught us that leadership matters. From Joshua to Jefferson to Jobs, great leaders accomplish great feats. The CJL is rooted in the belief that great Jewish communities need great leaders.

The recent Pew research study, A Portrait of Jewish Americans, clearly demonstrates that the Jewish landscape in North America is shifting. As a result, current institutions will experience significant changes to the way they operate, and new entities will develop to serve the evolving needs of the Jewish community. This transformation will require leaders—lay and professional—who are able to adapt to new realities. Pulling from the rich wisdom of Jewish tradition and applying cutting-edge practices from the for-profit and social sectors, effective Jewish leaders will need the creativity and versatility to predict and address new realities.

The CJL prepares leaders to lead by providing comprehensive leadership training for Jewish communal professionals, clergy, and lay leaders at all levels. The CJL engages the most pressing leadership issues of the day and serves Jewish organizations through a variety of means, including: succession planning, board training and consulting, and mentoring/coaching of key individuals. CJL programs cut across the lay-professional divide to create a shared vision of the Jewish future. The CJL will continue to serve as a laboratory to develop and pioneer Jewish leadership training models. Our goal is to provide outstanding leadership training, coaching, and consulting services so that the name Spertus will be synonymous with Jewish leadership.

We believe that by investing in Jewish leadership, the CJL will change the trajectory of the North American Jewish community in ways that will have profound impact on the Jewish future. We believe that an investment in Jewish leadership is the best way to insure a thriving and vibrant Jewish future.

Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, Chicago

spertus.edu/center

Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership

Why a Center for Jewish Leadership?The challenges confronting Jewish life today are simply too complex to be responded to with outdated modalities. We cannot hope to address 21st-century problems with 20th-century organizations and antiquated solutions. Leaders of today must invest in the training and development of those who will lead a very different Jewish world from the one in which they were raised. Well-trained Jewish leaders will advance Jewish communities towards a vibrant and engaged future. New opportunities for leadership development will enhance the knowledge, effectiveness, creativity, and strategic agility of current and future Jewish leaders, magnifying the vibrancy of their communities and advancing the missions of the organizations they serve.

How will the Center for Jewish leadership Impact the Jewish Community?

IntegrationJewish leadership programs must integrate a comprehensive approach to skill building with vigorous reflection on Jewish thought, texts, and experiences. Judaism has a great deal to teach about leadership skills—from critical thinking and decision-making, to strategic planning and visioning, to the importance of empathy, adaptability, perseverance, and humility. We believe that Jewish leadership training must include both theory and practice. Practical, hands-on experiences, including those that challenge participants to get far beyond their leadership comfort zones, are important in making effective leaders.

ContinuityJewish leadership training, like Jewish leadership itself, must be ongoing, consistently self-reflective, and engaged with changes and larger issues within and beyond the Jewish community. The best leaders understand the need to constantly reassess and nurture their leadership.

Multi-dimensionalityOne size does not fit all. Those in various leadership positions and those developing as Jewish leaders need diverse training, skills, and resources. Therefore, the CJL provides a broad range of programs and services, including CEO and leadership succession planning, mentoring relationships, workshops, certificates, and formal degree programs.

Mentoring and Community of PracticeJewish leadership development must also provide access to the resources that leaders need, including a cohort of peers with whom to discuss core issues and mentors from whom to learn. The result of Jewish leadership of this kind will be stronger networks, more robust communities, and more engaged individuals. This kind of mentoring, which the Jewish world has often been too slow to embrace, is essential for the development of communal leaders—both volunteer and professional.

ExcellenceExcellence (not perfection, but excellence) is the only acceptable standard. The notion that nonprofit organizations are, by virtue of being nonprofits, expected to be nothing more than mediocre, poorly managed, and ineffective is anathema. The Jewish world must demand excellence from its leaders, because Judaism, Jewish life, and the Jewish future deserve nothing less. We believe that when it comes to Jewish leadership, good enough is not good enough.

What will the Center for Jewish Leadership do?

Graduate Chris Herman (MA in Jewish Professional Studies, 2012) is now Coordinator of Pittsburgh’s Diller Teen Fellows Program, an international leadership experience for Jewish teens.

The Center for Jewish Leadership will transform Jewish life by providing an array of programs and services that enhance and develop the abilities of Jewish professional and lay leaders. Current projects and initiatives at the CJL include:

Symposia on central issues and themes in leadership, including our inaugural symposium that focused on how Jewish leaders can apply lessons of Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors to their own work

Talent development for promising mid-level professionals and lay leaders through graduate degrees, leadership certificates, and mentoring by the foremost lay and professional leaders

Master classes and professional workshops on topics—such as Writing for Social Media and Introduction to Development for Non-Development Professionals—that focus on bringing professionalism to Jewish institutions

Community mentoring project—an initiative to pair Jewish professionals in Chicago with seasoned mentors for intensive one-on-one learning

Innovation and collaboration awards to highlight impressive accomplishments by professionals and organizations

Certificate programs to enhance specific areas in the community and to train the professionals serving the Jewish communities in diverse areas including Jewish arts education, small business entrepreneurship, adult Jewish education, and community engagement

The CJL will be a national convener for the most pressing leadership issues of our day and seeks to expand the scope of leadership development services to include:

CEO succession planning, executive coaching, leadership development services for organizations and boards

Professional development sessions and retreats for Jewish organizations and boards

Partnerships with large national and multi-national Jewish organizations to provide ongoing leadership development programs for their staff

Production of publications, articles, and videos available to a global audience interested in leadership development

Successful programs will first and foremost serve the Chicago Jewish community, but will also be open to other communities, nationally and globally, that are invested in developing an engaged leadership to build a vibrant Jewish future.

Spertus Institute is a partner in serving our community,supported by the Jew-ish United Fund/ Jewish Federation.

Who will the Center for Jewish Leadership Serve?We believe that Jewish leaders are made, not born. Therefore, the CJL provides ongoing leadership development opportunities for lay leaders and professionals at all levels across the Jewish community. The audience for CJL includes, but is not limited to, the following groups:

Lay Leaders

New professionals

Current professionals

Returning professionalsr

Clergy

Volunteers at Jewish organizations

Jews working at non-Jewish organizations and non-Jews working in Jewish settings

For more information about the Center for Jewish Leadership, visit spertus.edu/center.

Deanna Drucker is Past President of the Women’s Board of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and a member of the Board of Trustees of Spertus Institute. She was one of the first lay leaders to participate in the Certifi-cate in Jewish Leadership.