More Than Managing: The Relentless Pursuit of Effective Jewish Leadership

Jewish organizational life is inundated with publications on organizational change and effective leadership, but from mutually exclusive sources: business and organizational studies, on the one hand; and Jewish studies, on the other. One addresses leadership but not the religious soul. The other speaks from its Jewish soul but is only secondarily engaged in the study of leadership. More Than Managing thoughtfully combines both to be immediately applicable to Jewish organizational life.

Inspired by thirty years of pioneering work by retail giant Leslie Wexner’s philanthropic focus on Jewish leadership, More Than Managing brings together diverse and remarkable thinkers to address challenges facing communal life and the skills and strategies demanded by them. Contributors include professors at Harvard University’s Center for Public Leadership and The Harvard Business School who have worked over the past three decades with Israel’s rising leadership in the public sector. These internationally known voices are matched by alumni and faculty of The Wexner Foundation’s professional and volunteer programs, who lead and advise Jewish communities throughout North America and Israel.

The book features diverse strategies for twenty-first-century leadership, critical lessons for organizational and communal success, and the questions vital to our changing and challenging times. Questions include how leaders may overcome the mediocrity of bureaucratic organizations; how organizations can harness volunteer leadership for transformative change; and how professionals can sustain core values in the midst of daily routine. Its diverse array of writers with international reputations in their fields makes it the only book of its kind. Potential readers include leaders of any religious not-for-profits—not just Jewish. The almost 50 contributors, including Leslie Wexner, combine secular insights on leadership with innovative insights drawn from Judaism’s spiritual heritage.

Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, PhD, has served for more than three decades as professor of liturgy at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He is a world-renowned liturgist and holder of the Stephen and Barbara Friedman Chair in Liturgy, Worship and Ritual. His work combines research in Jewish ritual, worship and spirituality with a passion for the spiritual renewal of contemporary Judaism.

His many books, written and edited, include seven volumes in the Prayers of Awe series: Who by Fire, Who by Water―Un'taneh Tokef; All These Vows―Kol Nidre; We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism―Ashamnu and Al Chet; May God Remember: Memory and Memorializing in Judaism―Yizkor; All the World: Universalism, Particularism and the High Holy Days; Naming God: Avinu Malkeinu―Our Father, Our King; and Encountering God: El Rachum V'chanun―God Merciful and Gracious. Hoffman also edited the ten-volume series My People’s Prayer Book: Traditional Prayers, Modern Commentaries, winner of the National Jewish Book Award; and coedited My People’s Passover Haggadah: Traditional Texts, Modern Commentaries, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award (all Jewish Lights).

Rabbi Hoffman cofounded and developed Synagogue 2/3000, a transdenominational project to envision and implement the ideal synagogue of the spirit for the twenty-first century. In that capacity, he wrote Rethinking Synagogues: A New Vocabulary for Congregational Life (Jewish Lights).