Partnerships with the graduates of the various Mandel leadership programs are one of the cornerstones of the Mandel Graduate Unit’s work. This includes organizing a range of events on issues facing graduates in their professional lives, in order to bolster their ability to realize and implement their vision. As part of its “Partnerships with Graduates” program, the Unit held a study day titled “Management Challenges in the Post-Modern Age –Particularly in Work with Millennials” with
Rabbi Carlos Tapiero, graduate of Cohort 20 of the Mandel Jerusalem Fellows program and deputy general director of the Maccabi World Union. Rabbi Tapiero was hosting the forum of directors of Maccabi confederations in Latin America, the United States, and Europe.
The event was attended by some 30 leaders from the Maccabi organization in Israel and around the world, including global executive director
Eyal Tiberger. It included both theoretical and practical components and was developed in partnership with Rabbi Tapiero, who shared one of the main challenges faced by Maccabi leaders around the world: the difficulty of connecting young people to traditional institutions and frameworks, and of building bridges between the old world and newer generations.
The event was introduced by
Moshe Vigdor, director general of the Mandel Foundation–Israel, who spoke about the Foundation’s work and vision. He was followed by
Professor Pierre Kletz, chair of the department of public policy and administration at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and founder of the university’s MBA program in social leadership, which is run in partnership with the Mandel Foundation. Professor Kletz spoke about the implications of technological developments for the current generation, describing the characteristics of today’s generation and debunking some commonly held stereotypes about it.
Dr. Granit Almog-Bareket, director of the Mandel Graduate Unit, presented several models of management and leadership. She then taught a specific model for sharing managerial dilemmas with peers in response to particular difficulties expressed by several participants, who said that they often feel lonely, due to being the sole decision-maker in their local organization or due to the immense responsibility on their shoulders. The participants were divided into smaller groups, and practiced using the managerial tool they had been shown.
Next, the Maccabi leaders met with graduates of the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, who spoke about their visions, their initiatives, and their work:
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Professor Yonathan (Yoni) Mizrachi, graduate of Cohort 1, an expert in information systems and head of the department of sociology and anthropology at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, spoke with the participants about the evolution of virtual reality, the characteristics of the digital world, and the importance for organizations of having a digital strategy.
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Naomi Eini, graduate of Cohort 22, an educational psychologist and entrepreneur, presented her approach for fostering the development of insights and life skills, which is based on the Jewish bookshelf and founded on knowledge and tools taken from psychological practice. This approach helps her bridge between the traditional world and the modern world.
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Menachem (Mendi) Rabinovitz, graduate of Cohort 10, and principal of the Beit Biram campus at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, spoke about the challenges of Zionist Jewish identity in North America in the present and the future, and presented his work on education for Jewish identity and on the Co.Lab project run by the UJA-Federation of New York.
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Tzipora Gutman, graduate of Cohort 24, and founder and director of Shira Village, a youth village for girls from Haredi homes who have chosen a different path for themselves, spoke about the process of founding the village, which began as an idea for her personal project at the Mandel School and which was realized after she completed the program. The village is a unique framework that provides young women who have departed from their Haredi lifestyle with a high-quality general education that includes full bagrut matriculation, alongside extensive Jewish studies and a supportive environment.
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Dr. Miriam Korkus-Panoyan, graduate of Cohort 7 and director of the Zichron Yaakov municipal education department, spoke about the multi-generational link between young leaders in their formative stages and more senior leaders. She also described the connection that the education system in Zichron Yaakov is creating between entrepreneurship and “maker” centers, on the one hand, and local history and stories of the past, on the other.
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Odeya Barkan, a graduate of Cohort 22, musician, and coordinator of Jewish and Arab music studies at Ono Academic College, spoke about music as a bridge between worlds, and about the challenge of finding interfaces between the two Jewish and Arab tracks of study while maintaining their very different identities.
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Michael Krasner, graduate of Cohort 24 and director of the Gonenim Music and Dance Center in Jerusalem, presented his vision for turning his institution into a community center that will be both a home for artistic excellence and a “tribal bonfire” around which the entire community can gather. Michael spoke about the challenge he faces in striving for artistic excellence while at the same time trying to make art accessible to the wider public as part of the general leisure culture and as a means for general human development. Michael then played three musical pieces for the participants together with Odeya Barkan.
The study day was planned and led by
Dr. Granit Almog-Bareket, the director of the Mandel Graduate Unit, and
Ayala Bavly, the Unit’s editing manager.
