Irwin Kula

by Laura McCrystal
Staff writer

One only needs to turn the television to Fox News or MSNBC to find examples of threats to effective leadership today, Rabbi Irwin Kula said.

Kula will deliver the 2 p.m. Interfaith Lecture today in the Hall of Philosophy. His lecture will conclude this week’s theme, “The Ethics of Leadership.”

Kula is the president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, a New York City think tank and leadership-training institute. CLAL promotes understanding of religious pluralism through the use of Jewish wisdom.

Polarization, whether it stems from religious or political differences, is the opposite of effective leadership, Kula said.

His lecture, titled “Letting Leaders Go: Compassionate Leadership for the 21st Century,” will explain why leadership requires an openness to and understanding of opposing viewpoints.

“Compassionate leadership is leadership that is always learning from the side they disagree with,” Kula said. “So how does one bring together openness and deep commitment (to one’s personal views)?”

Kula’s own view of leadership stems from his childhood, he said. His parents were traditionally religious and spiritual in the practice of their own faith, yet were also open to surrounding themselves with people of different viewpoints. Kula said his upbringing exemplified the possibility of full engagement.

As president of CLAL, Kula travels and engages audiences through several media outlets. He has made numerous appearances on television programs such as “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Frontline,” and others. Newsweek named him in the top 10 of its 2010 list of “The 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America.”

Kula, who last lectured for the 2 p.m. Interfaith Lecture Series in 2007, said Chautauqua is like the “Garden of Eden.” Once someone comes here once, they always want to return, he said.

“It’s hard to imagine a place where there really is deep, genuine and honest exploration, conversation, depth and where I would say mind and heart and spirit are all integrated,” he said of the Institution. “And that’s just pretty rare these days.”

One of the keys to leading in a polarized world is the understanding that every point of view has at least a “partial truth,” Kula said. The recognition of partial truths allows for meaningful conversation, he said.

Kula said he hopes the audience members at today’s lecture will realize that they need to learn about perspectives they disagree with in order to overcome polarization and lead in today’s world. Rather than only seeking confirmation of one’s own viewpoint, at least once a week every person should read an intelligent argument for something with which he or she disagrees.

The future of leadership also depends on the realization that fear about a lack of leadership comes from one of two sources, Kula said.

“Either the person having the anxiety (about leadership) is not living up to (his or her) own capacity to be a leader,” he said, “or the other reason that they’re experiencing a great anxiety about leadership in America is that they’re not being good followers.”

Kula’s view for the future of leadership ties into the title of his lecture. “Letting leaders go” means leaders must not idealize their own roles, Kula said. Every person must embrace the roles of both leader and followers.

“It’s not really about ourselves; it’s about the process of leadership,” he said.

Kula said he has hope for the future of leadership because in today’s globalized society, young people are surrounded by different perspectives and have more outlets though which they can make connections. The younger generation in America today consists of more “mixers, blenders, switchers,” who engage across borders, than purists, he said.

As people continue to break down barriers and see truth in each other’s perspectives, the future of leadership must involve a shift in the definition of the term, Kula said.

“What a leader does, is a leader maximizes everyone’s power,” he said.