Leadership Learning:  A Defining Leadership Moment
By Shmuly Yanklowitz
Shmuly Yanklowitz is  a Wexner Graduate Fellow and a second year rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. He completed a Masters Degree at Harvard in Moral and Leadership Development and is now also a doctoral student at Columbia in Epistemology and Moral Psychology. He can be reached at shmuly22@yahoo.com

  
A few weeks ago, there was a terrible outbreak of wildfires where nearly one million southern Californians evacuated their homes due to the 16 simultaneous fires, which destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.

As students at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT), a rabbinical training institution that takes pride in its commitment to social activism, we felt like we needed to respond to the tragedy. Five of us decided that we should take an emergency relief mission. I confess that I was concerned, albeit justifiably, that the communities in San Diego might not need the assistance of 5 students primarily trained in the ancient dietary laws without fire fighting skills at this time and so I was a bit hesitant to proceed. The founder of YCT, Rabbi Avi Weiss, however adamantly urged us to go to San Diego without plans, a plethora of contacts, or an agenda. He explained that responding to a crisis is not a time for commitment to a fully deliberated coordination of plans. Rather, Rabbi Weiss advised, one must arrive on the scene of a crisis and become accessible, empathetic, and immediately and humbly giving. When one is present, one’s hands, heart, and mind are accessible in ways that are not possible for a supporter or donor in another city.

Within hours of departing from NYC, we found ourselves serving undocumented workers on the Mexican border that had no access to state or local supplies or services, speaking with the Jewish community at the day school and elderly home, and counseling and administering to the needs of the victims at the supplies distribution center. Should we not have just sent money? Was it worth the investment to fly us out?

As a developmental psychologist and moral theorist by temperament and training I am inclined to think as a consequentialist and pragmatist. I am most comfortable in a leadership language of community organizing on domestic issues, sustainable development on international issues, and a rigorous schedule of Torah study, moral development, and holistic healing on a spiritual level. Could I justify spending our money on a 3-day rabbinic mission for crisis relief? Surely it’s important, but was this really the best use of our communal funds?

Since that week that Rabbi Weiss urged us to act immediately, I came to believe that the rabbi must take on a role of responding immediately to a crisis and to be a real empathic presence as a pastoral counselor and spiritual specialist in crisis relief. This response may not be about sustainability, shifting power, or about long-term investments, but it is worth remembering that there is great potential for the human dignity of victims to be significantly renewed and transformed merely through a warm spiritual presence. Times of trauma and loss demand our hearts in an attempt to alleviate suffering by sitting with those struggling face-to-face.

As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of Britain, commented: “Societies are only human and humanizing when they are a community of communities built on face-to-face encounters – covenantal relationships.” When the face of another drips in tears of despair, our response can not only be systemic but also empathic with a face-to-face human encounter. For me, it is in that connection that not only leadership is found but that God is found. 

To volunteer to submit a Defining Leadership Moment, please contact Karen Collum at kcollum@wexner.net.