Author and Speaker Sarah Hurwitz Kicks Off the Second Cohort of the Rabbi Rudolph Leadership Development Initiative

October 29, 2026 in Scroll

By Sara Gordon

The Rabbi Rudolph Leadership Development Initiative began work with its second cohort during Sukkot this year. The initiative aims to cultivate and empower emerging leaders in their 30s and 40s within the Beth El community. The program engages participants in three workshop sessions providing them with the tools, insights, and connections to deepen their leadership journeys at Beth El.

The new group of eleven participants, along with additional Congregation Beth El leaders, gathered for a social in the sukkah on September 28. Following the social, the group had the privilege of joining in a dialogue with author Sarah Hurwitz regarding issues facing the Jewish communal landscape and Jewish communal leadership today. Sarah Hurwitz is the author of As A Jew: Reclaiming Our Story From Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try To Erase Us, and Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life – in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There). She was a White House speechwriter from 2009 to 2017, starting out as a senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama and then serving as head speechwriter for first lady Michelle Obama.

Beth El’s own David Rittberg, senior director for U.S. Jewish Grantmaking at Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, posed thought-provoking questions to Sarah and the two shared their thoughts regarding major themes that Jewish leadership is grappling with. Before his time at Schusterman, David served as executive director at the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU, Hillel at New York University, and was part of the Hillel staff at The University of Arizona and at Stanford. Given his background and experience (which is to say, he speaks Rabbi Rudolph’s “Hillel” language) we are thrilled and grateful that he will be facilitating the three working sessions for the second cohort of the Leadership Development Initiative.

Gail Fribush graciously opened the session with words about Rabbi Rudolph and set the stage for how this initiative came to be one way of honoring Rabbi Rudolph’s legacy.

David framed the conversation around three consequential trends facing American Jewish life. First is the surge: the dramatic increase in interest and participation in Jewish life since October 7. He pointed to research showing that 20,000 more young people engaged with Hillel in the year following October 7, 2023, creating an enormous opportunity to help young Jews turn toward Judaism and deepen their connection to 3,000 years of Jewish history, tradition, and community. Second is the reality that antisemitism is now woven into the fabric of the American Jewish experience. Sarah and David discussed how the nature of that antisemitism is changing and why Jewish education must better prepare young people to recognize and respond to the forms they are encountering today. Third is the fear of a fracture within Jewish life: divisions that are already visible and could deepen as Jews respond differently to Israel, antisemitism, politics, and the events of the past several years. David argued that Jewish leaders have a responsibility not simply to manage those disagreements, but to protect against a deeper rupture in Jewish community. Against all three trends, Sarah emphasized the importance of Jewish peoplehood and of turning toward Judaism with “awe and reverence, joy and pride.”

We are looking forward to continuing our work with this cohort and seeing how they grow and deepen their connections to Beth El.