Over the last eight or so years I have had the pleasure of being involved with a wide variety of different Jewish organizations in greater Boston and one of the things which often seemed to come up in discussions among the lay leadership and professionals at these organizations is a desire for  better  communication between the many different Jewish organizations, communities and groups in the area. While I have seen a few different efforts to make this happen (the best example of this being, perhaps, the annual Community Leadership Institute which was organized by CJP and has now been incorporated into other programming) overall it seems like maintaining on-going communication between the various groups is a difficult thing to do. Even though it may not be easy  to maintain a high level of communication between groups, I think we are fortunate  that leaders (both professional and volunteer) in the Boston Jewish community do see this as important. We are also fortunate that some of these leaders have taken it upon themselves to create a group as part of Combined Jewish Philanthropies, known as the Young Jewish Leadership Council, or “YJLC, a group that meets on a regular basis and provides opportunities not only for young Jewish leaders to meet one another and make connections, but to share and discuss ways to build leadership skills by discussing real challenges that organizations are facing.

I’ve attended two such meetings to date, and been impressed with the level of dedication that each representative brought to the gatherings. The most recent such meeting, which took place last night, had representatives from a wide range of different organizations, including Harvard Hillel, The David Project, J-Street, Moshe-Kavod House, JCRC, JNF, AJC  and others. The evening featured an initial presentation and discussion on the topic of inclusivity in Jewish communities, with Aliza Kline and Anita Diamant of Mayyim Hayyim speaking to the assembled group, as well as break-out sessions featuring smaller group discussions.  The break out session I attended, a presentation on leadership transition and organizational change at the Washington Square Minyan, was interesting and informative. For me, the real value was not so much in learning exactly how to handle these kinds of change process in an independent minyan (although that could be an interesting topic on its own) but in hearing about the challenges they faced and how they addressed them, and then comparing and contrasting those experiences with my own work in various other organizations (both Jewish and secular).

It is one thing to just bring a bunch of leaders of organizations together into a room in order to meet one another and allow people to network and make connections organically – there is certainly value to this, and it is a component of the work of the YJLC – but I think the real value that the YJLC is bringing to the community is in providing a variety of different forms of opportunities for learning, interaction and networking. This is a smart move on the part of the YJLC leadership, because from my perspective as an educator, it takes into account that different people learn and interact in different ways, and by varying the format, they are providing opportunities for a maximum number of leaders to both contribute to the activities taking place, as well as to gain from them. I also like that the group is willing to address and engage with real ideas and real challenges, many of which are perhaps most effectively addressed by the community as a whole, and these meetings provide an opportunity for sharing ideas and brainstorming about how we can do that.

The New Vilna Review is a publication dedicated to exploring ideas of Jewish identity in the modern world, but it is my hope that this publication and the work we publish is just one part of a variety of on-going conversations on different aspects of Jewish identity, and it is good to see that young Jewish leaders in Boston are also taking the initiative to help drive these discussions. I am personally hopeful that the YJLC will continue to grow and expand, providing opportunities for young Jewish leaders in the greater Boston area to not only improve their individual organizations but to help strengthen the Jewish community as a whole, in Boston and beyond.

-Daniel E. Levenson

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

The New Vilna Review

*This piece will also appear on the New Vilna Review website as an editorial.

*Copyright Daniel E. Levenson 2010.