Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program

This course will introduce you to the foundational components of the Jewish Professional Leadership degree: a) an introduction to Jewish communal life and its organization, b) thinking about leadership and your professional path, and c) core leadership practices and tools related to strategy and communications.

Throughout the course, students will deepen their understanding of themselves and those in the Jewish communal sector, while exploring the theory and practice of leadership through the lens of how it applies across different Jewish communities and organizations. The focus on strategy will be on practical tools and applications related to building a strategic plan, and core skills related to communications and crisis management.

The purpose of this course is to prepare Jewish professional leaders with frameworks, concepts, tools, and skills to manage and lead nonprofit organizations effectively while also enhancing the quality of employee work life. The course integrates contemporary management theory and research, case studies, and experiential assignments to provide understanding of individual and group behavior in Jewish nonprofit organizations. Topics include (but are not limited to) organizational culture, power and influence, organizational structure, human resources, group dynamics, lay-professional relations, and organizational innovation and change.

Mission-driven organizations rely on effective human resource management (HRM) to ensure that the employee policies and practices align with the organization’s goals and values. In this course, students will learn how to supervise and coach peers, direct reports and upper-level management; how to influence without authority; and the use of best practices and metrics in DEI work.

After a disturbing increase in antisemitic incidents since the beginning of the 21st century, the Jewish community is now reeling from the sharp rise in global antisemitism. In this atmosphere of growing antisemitism, it is more important than ever that Jewish professional leaders have the skills and knowledge to prevent and respond to anti-Jewish propaganda and acts. In this course, students will gain an understanding of the complex factors that contribute to antisemitism, develop tools to prevent, confront and combat it, and learn about effective crisis leadership.

This course emphasizes the impact that a comprehensive development program can have on achieving Jewish communal vitality. Students will learn why contemporary Jewish communal professionals must be both organizational and communal development strategists and adept donor relationship developers, regardless of position or title. Students will begin to develop requisite fundraising acumen and skills accelerated by engaging in solution-based thinking around case studies reflecting contemporary fundraising challenges.

This course provides students with the fundamentals of nonprofit financial management. Through the course modules, students are introduced to techniques in budgeting and allocating resources, key concepts in financial accounting, and are challenged to analyze and assess nonprofit financial health. Throughout, case studies of Jewish nonprofits are used to illustrate concepts and trends, and students are required to focus on one or more Jewish nonprofit in their assignments and final project, providing the whole class with an opportunity to analyze trends in the larger Jewish nonprofit ecosystem.

This course uses history to shed light on the issues and challenges facing the contemporary American Jewish community. It asks how the community assumed its current shape, and uses a series of historical case studies to examine past crises and the lessons that might be learned from them. The goal of the course is to help students craft a “usable past” – to think historically about contemporary issues, to employ the hindsight of history to understand the present, and to plan ahead for the future.

This course is an intensive examination of contemporary issues in Israeli society and a survey of the complexities of the Israeli state. The aims of the course are to provide students with a broad understanding of Israeli politics and society, unpacking some of the innate tensions the country faces as it balances being a Jewish and Democratic state.

What does managing Jewish nonprofit organizations mean and require? How do Jewish organizations differ from other nonprofits? How can nonprofit management address the diversity and complexity of Jewish identity? This course critically explores the world of nonprofit management within Jewish communities and contexts, examining its unique intricacies, dilemmas, and tensions. Bridging theory and practice, we will analyze case studies, engage with academic and practitioner texts, and reflect on our own personal and professional experiences. 

This course prepares graduate students in the Hornstein Program to understand how evaluation and needs assessment research methods are used to aid decision-making, policy analysis, and program development in the Jewish community. This course will focus on research methods, and debates about program evaluation and the use of systematic data to inform program development. Our discussions of research methods aim to prepare students to work with evaluation research studies, a critical aspect of

decision making in their future professional and volunteer roles in the Jewish community.

This course uses history to explore Jewish communities around the globe. Each week examines a key theme that has shaped Jewish communal experience: identity, community, antisemitism, religion, migration, Zionism, philanthropy, and peoplehood. Through historical and contemporary case studies, students will trace how Jews have defined themselves, organized communal life, responded to persecution, migrated across borders, and built institutions across centuries and continents. In each case, we will explore how Jews understand what it means to be a Jew and how those self-understandings structure their communal lives. Readings include sociological reports, historical articles, primary sources, and works of modern Jewish thought and literature. The course invites students to think historically about the present: to use the tools of Jewish history to better understand contemporary Jewish challenges, and to imagine possible futures. Ultimately, it asks: What kinds of Jewish identities and communities do we want to create, and how might our past help us build them?

It’s a bit audacious to call this course “Solving Complex Problems in the Jewish Sector.” After all, people spend their entire careers trying to do just that. But it’s not a sisyphean task to tackle the challenges and goals of modern Jewish life by carrying out our missions in effective and collaborative ways. Together, we’ll explore practical approaches to systematic, interpersonal, organizational and mission-critical challenges. You’ll learn how to break down complicated problems into manageable parts, explore additional frameworks to unpack problems, and leverage both your collective wisdom to find solutions. Get ready to dive deep into the messiness of leadership and change. As the great sage Ted Lasso says, “taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse. If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong.”

Today’s Jewish communal landscape is built on a complex system of historical trends and innovation, interlaced with dynamics of power, money, education, and influence. And you’re a part of this! Our shared goal this semester is preparing to enter and/or advance in the Jewish communal sector.  Our class will focus on two main areas: 1) practical tools to help with your present and future career searches, and 2) understanding and navigating crucial themes in Jewish organizational life today.