Transitions - stuff I've learned

A colleague asked me the other day "what did you learn at the Joint?"

I had to think about this. There were some intensely personal things about the kind of Jewish communal professional I've become, about my learning and development. And about the incredible opportunities I've had these past nine years to see the Jewish world and meet amazing leaders.

I'll get to that side at a later date. But I also learned some pretty amazing things about the Jewish world, leadership, and about how Jewish communities develop. 

1. We're a migratory people. One quarter of us live in a country other than the one in which we were born. Think about that when we talk about the Jewish world, our horizons and our challenges.

2. We've consolidated into a small number of cities. So we have increasing economies of scale. Not always a bad thing. But there are awful challenges when it comes to welfare and peripheries.

3. ‎Hebrew unites us. 

4. Leadership is the key factor. And vision underpins leadership.

5. ‎You can't draw a radius around being Jewish. If you start restricting yourself to one program, one building, one small geographic area ... you'll never feel connected to the passion and vision of what we have. In Ukraine, in Israel ... doesn't matter where. We don't draw borders around caring.