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April 10, 1998 Southeastern Virginia Jewish News
Young Leadership Conference in Washington
Washington 11 is not an event;
it is a happening. The UJA
National Young Leadership Con-
ference takes place every other
year in Washington, D.C. This
year's Conference was held
March 22-24 and attracted the
largest crowd ever• Paul Peck and
David Leon served as the Tidewa-
ter Conference Co-Chairs. Both
Leon and Peck are members of
the UJA National Young Leader-
ship Cabinet• Deb Aleck, also a
member of the UJA Young Lead-
ership Cabinet, served as the
Northeast Region Recruitment
Co-Chair, and made Tidewater
look good by her success in
recruitment. Brian Schneiderman,
Chairman of Tidewater's Young
Leadership, served as the Chair of
the Capitol Hill visits.
The Tidewater delegation
included the following people:
Deb Aleck, Stephanie Calliott,
Betsy and Erik Cooper, Karl and
Lisa Denison, Debby and Fred
Fink, Robert Friedman, Shari and
Bruce Friedman, Sue Gitlin, Jodi
and Jay Klebanoff, David Leon,
Betty Ann Levy, Alicia London,
Gary Moss, Charles Nusbaum, Jr.,
Paul Peck, Brian Schneiderman,
Price Shapiro, Monica Stein, John
and Renee Strelitz, Ross Wein-
stein, Adam White, Howard
Weinstein, Amy Zelenka, Hillel
students, Elyssa Lefeore and
Rosanne Hinshaw and Betsy
Karotkin, staff.
Below are excerpts from letters
by some of the Young Leadership
pcjpswho shared some of
their thoughts about the Confer-
ence.
I had such a great experience
meeting people, attending concur-
rent sessions, and being part of
the lobbying on "The Hill."
Throughout the conference, the
theme, "From Passion to Action,"
was ever present; I began looking
at what a difference I can make as
a young Jewish leader for myself,
my family and for the conununity,
• and am now more inspired to fur-
ther my Jewish education and
increase my observance of all
things Jewish. Of the many won-
derful sessions I attended, "Find-
ing the Holy in the Mundane"
was particularly meaningful. Den-
nis Prager and Rabbi Rachel
Sabath spoke beautifully on how
we may invest time, situations
and objects with holiness and how
we are altered in the process.
Because I was so inspired by
Dennis Prager, I purchased the
cassette tape of another session in
which he spoke, "Why Be Jew-
ish?" and I look forward to read-
ing his books. All in all, Washing-
ton 11 proved to be fun, moving,
and inspirational. We as a com-
munity should aim to double tho
size of our delegation for Wash-
ington 12 in 2000.
Charles G. Nusbaum, Jr.
I attended a session entitled,
"Jewish Leaders: Do They Really
Lead the Jewish People?"
Shoshana Cardin made a state-
ment, which, at first, I did not
agree with: "You may be qualified
to chair a local United Way Cam-
paign, but that does not make you
qualified to chair the Federation's
campaign." My initial thought
was, "Fundraising for the United
Way is equivalent to the Tikun
Olam mission of the Federation's
campaign." Yet, the more I spoke
with others and thought about it,
the more I came to realize the
importance of the "Jewish" lead-
ership aspect. A provocative ques-
tion raised was, "Can you be a
Jewish leader without the check to
back it up?" Shoshana Cardin said
sometimes, but not often. This is
where I am not in complete agree-
ment. The Jewish community
needs time as well as money from
its leaders in some cases, the
expenditure of time may be even
more valuable. Overall, the con-
versations were stimulating and
provocative.
Stephanie Calliott
With 3,000 young leaders in
Washington, D.C. for the biennial
UJA National Young Leadership
Conference, it would make sense
to feature nationally and interna-
tionally renown speakers in 5 ple-
naries and over 50 concurrent ses-
sions.
One session entitled "Why Be
• ,,,
Jewish. featured writer, lecturer,
and talk show host Dennis Prager,
and David Elcott, Vice President
of the National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership (CLAL).
While the rifle may seem rhetori-
cal, it became evident in the ses-
sion that it is often "how to be
Jewish" that we focus upon, i.e.,
how to balance Jewish activities
in our daily lives or how to keep
Jewish traditions allve in 0 faro,
ilies. However, it is the "why" that
we often lose sight of or maybe
never address in the first place.
Are we Jewish because our par-
ents are Jews, or because that is
the religion and path we have cho-
sen for ourselves? How many of
us are informed about our her-
itage, our traditions and the Torah
but have not embraced why being
Jewish is important? Why should
we practice Judaism? Why should
we be active in the Jewish com-
munity? The answers are endless
and we can look to many
resources and mentors in our own
community to find the right ones
for each of us.
Of the mariy memorable
insights of this session, one made
by Dennis Prager will remain with
me: "The purpose of religion is
not to make you feel good, it is to
make you do good."
This message has struck a per-
sonal chord. I believe that feeling
good about Judaism is the first
step to doing good. It was certain-
ly evident among the 3,000
attending Washington 11. We
were able to "feel good" and then
"do good" by concluding the 3
day conference with visits to our
Congressmen and Senators on
Capitol Hill. We have so many
opportunities in our community to
"do good." By knowing both the
"how" and "why" of being Jewish
we can continue to build on our
already strong foundation.
• Betty Ann Levy
All of the speakers at the
Young Leadership Washington
Conference were very good, but
in particular I enjoyed Dennis
Prager's talk on "Why be Jew-
ish?" and Rabbi Kushner's talk on
Jewish spirituality. While we hear
many of the same speakers here in
Norfolk, they seem more engag-
ing at this conference. Perhaps the
energy level of 3,000 plus people
makes the speakers more motivat-
ed. I enjoyed seeing old friends
from past missions to Israel, pre-
vious conferences and fellow
National Young Leadership Cabi-
net members.
David Leon
Betsy and I had a wonderful
time at the conference. It was a
good opportunity to get to know
our regional colleagues better. In
addition, we were able to meet
Jews from different parts of the
country and to talk with them
about issues relevant to theft dom-
munities.
The best seminar we attended
was entitled, "The Peace Process
- What's Happening Now?" Both
Dennis Prager (Special Middle
East Coordinator for the Depart-
ment of State) and Eliahu Ben-
Elissar (Israeli Ambassador to the
U.S.) provided the American and
Israeli positions on the "Peace
Process." In an interesting con-
trast, the two representatives
spoke about on-going discussions,
each interpreting the situation dif-
ferently.
The best conversation I had at
the conference was with a dele-
gate from Pittsburgh. He was con-
cemed that an important issue for
American Jews was not being dis-
cussed at the conference. While
Jews in the U.S• have emotional,
national and financial ties to
Israel, Israel's economy has
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15
YL Conference participants from Tidewater and Richmond pose with
Rep. Owen Pickett.
Above -- Rep. Norman Stsisky
chats with Brian Schneiderman,
YL chairman, and Ross Weinstein
Sen. Chuck Robb and Paul Peck,
far right
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