S.F. program offers young Jewish adults civic lessons

Third-grade hall monitors need not apply.

But the New Leaders Project is interested in just about every other kind of leader -- as long as they're Jewish, between the ages of 25 and 40, and have what it takes to be a mover and a shaker.

"We pick young leaders in the civic community or in the Jewish community -- and the piece that's usually missing for them is the other side of the picture," project coordinator Marla Kolman said. "It creates a nice, balanced group."

With the goal of training leaders for the future, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council started the NLP two years ago.

The project takes 15 to 20 "dynamic, talented individuals" -- many of whom already have high-profile jobs in the public sector or are rising stars in the Jewish community -- and puts them through a rigorous nine-month program.

The first class "graduated" last December and the second class has six weeks remaining. The next session will begin in March, with the application and recruitment process beginning this month.

A person who takes part in the project doesn't necessarily rush out the door and start making an immediate impact as a leader, but what he or she learns often becomes part of their persona.

"It's hard to measure the success of this program too quickly," said Milton Marks III, one of last year's participants. "But in a number of years, maybe a number of people will be able to point back to the NLP as a place where they started to take a bigger leadership role and where they started to make connections."

The son of the longtime state Sen. Milton Marks II and grandson of state Assemblyman Milton Marks, the 39-year-old -- a potential future politician himself -- is executive director of a historical preservation group called Friends of the Urban Forest.

Other participants last year included the assistant vice president of marketing at Wells Fargo Bank, the director of international treasury for The Gap, the chavurah coordinator at Congregation Emanu-El and a field representative for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Those who aren't plugged into the Jewish community tend to want to get involved after going through the program -- although Kolman stressed that isn't the aim of the NLP.

"Being involved in the program, I found out a lot more about what the Jewish community is," said one of this year's participants, 29-year-old attorney Liz Brown. "It has encouraged me to get more involved in the Jewish community."

Not everyone feels that way, said fellow classmate Dan Kalb.

"The goal is to develop leaders who are in the Jewish community, but not necessarily working for Jewish organizations," the 40-year-old said.

"I'm Jewish and happy to be Jewish," Kalb added. "But if I end up doing community service for a not-specifically Jewish organization, say a civil rights organization, then that's still a good thing. It doesn't have to be the ADL."

The class meets about once a week -- usually for three hours at night -- and has quite a diversity of experiences.

This year's "curriculum" included a trip to Sacramento to meet with legislators and lobbyists; a rabbi-led text study and discussion on the Jewish concept of leadership using Moses as the example; an overview of the organized Jewish community in San Francisco; and a visit to the city's St. Anthony Foundation, where NLP participants stood in line and ate alongside the homeless in the dining room.

However, what participants seem to enjoy the most is the bonding that occurs among themselves. Many of their meetings include commentary and discussion on the weekly Torah portion, with people sitting or lying on the floor and talking about almost whatever they want. There are also Shabbat dinners and retreats.

"When we were done, we went through a little withdrawal because we were seeing each other so much," Marks said.

The program started as a JCRC pilot project in Los Angeles four years ago and has since been run in six cities across the country.

Funded by various foundations, trusts and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs -- the JCRC's national counterpart -- the program tries to weave together Jewish learning, the Jewish community, civic learning and leadership skills.

Kolman's biggest problem running the program is finding participants who are Jewish but in no way connected to the Jewish community

"It's hard to find them," she said. "Where do you look?"

There is an enrollment fee which Kolman expects to be $250 for next year's program.

While there are many other Jewish leadership programs, as well as opportunities to take Jewish communal service classes at universities, Kolman sees the NLP as unique.

"We're the only one that makes a connection between the Jewish and civic communities," she said. "NLP has a specific niche."