Learning, Sharing, Inspiring
אני אעביר כל־טובי על־פניך
'I will pass all my good before your face'
If you are interested in taking part in our next Leadership Programme, click the button below...
For both current and emerging Jewish Community Lay Leaders
Helping regular people achieve extraordinary things.
Identifying the factors that contribute to expertise and success.
Underpinning communal and management skills with Jewish principles.
PROGRAMME DETAILS :: COURSE STRUCTURE :: COSTS :: COURSE LEADER PROFILES
BRIEFING:
THE COHORT: FIRST MEETING
FACILITATING: ED HORWICH
Date: MONDAY 23RD FEB eve online
FOUNDATION PHASE: Understanding Your Context
Session 1: Your Community's Narrative: Past, Present, and Future
Leader: Pamela Alcala
Date: Sunday 1st March 2pm
Explore your community's unique story and identity. Where did it come from? How has it developed or changed? Where does it go next?
This session lays the foundation by examining:
- The successes you've celebrated
- The challenges and mistakes along the way
- The needs you currently have or will soon face
- What you need to achieve your vision
Understanding your community's story is essential for authentic leadership, taking your community with you, strategic planning and attracting funders.
Session 2: Leading with Jewish Wisdom: Applying Traditional Texts to Modern Challenges
Leader: Rabbi Dr Rafael Zarum
Date: 9 March Mon eve
Jewish learning isn't just for scholars - it's a powerful tool for community leadership. This session explores how Jewish texts, values, and principles can inform and strengthen your leadership practice.
Learn to:
- Draw on Jewish sources for guidance in decision-making
- Apply traditional wisdom to contemporary challenges
- Lead authentically from Jewish values
- Use chevrutah (partner study) as a leadership development tool
SKILLS PHASE: Building Your Leadership Toolkit
Session 3: Sustainability & Funding: Aligning Mission with Resources
Leader: Jonny Wineberg
Date: Sunday 29 March (morning)
Learn how to position your organization and projects in ways that attract funding and build financial sustainability.
Topics include:
- Understanding what funders are looking for
- Crafting compelling cases for support
- Diversifying revenue streams
- Building authentic donor relationships
- Aligning your budget with your mission and values
Session 4: From Values to Action: Translating Jewish Principles into Community Impact
Leader: Susie Gordon
Date: 19th April Sunday a.m
How do Jewish communities transform their core values into meaningful action? Using real examples, explore the formula:
Document → Preserve memory and honor the past
Innovate → Create new Jewish spaces and approaches
Balance → Honor tradition while meeting today's needs
Learn to identify your community's core values and translate them into concrete programs, initiatives, and impact.
Session 5: Engaging and Empowering Volunteers/the community [relational leadership]
Leader: Nicky Goldman
Date: 12th May eve
Volunteers are the lifeblood of Jewish community organizations, but recruiting, managing, and retaining them requires specific skills.
This session covers:
- Recruiting volunteers effectively
- Matching skills and interests to roles
- Setting clear expectations and boundaries
- Recognizing and appreciating contributions
- Dealing with volunteer challenges
- Creating pathways from volunteering to leadership
WEEKEND RETREAT
- DATE: 29-31 May - Brighton
Take part in Jewish learning with Shabbat observant sessions and an explanatory service - Special Guest Retreat Leaders
- Building a community vision - practical exercise
- Includes accommodation and food
- Shabbat observant sessions
- Fully Kosher catering
- Shabbat early morning Explanatory Service
Session 6: Navigating Difficult Conversations... the Art of Communicating Well
Communicating well leads to understanding and cooperation - not communicating well leads to upset, discord and disruption.
How do we know which is which? And how to turn a negative into a positive?
"Clear Is Kind. Unclear Is Unkind." (Brené Brown)
Leader: Fran Horwich
Date: 15 June eve
Every leader faces challenging discussions—with volunteers, staff, board members, or community members. This session equips you with practical tools to:
- Prepare for high-stakes conversations
- Manage emotions (yours and others')
- Address conflict constructively
- Know when to speak and when to listen
- Find paths forward when perspectives differ
IMPLEMENTATION PHASE: Creating Change and Sustaining Impact
Session 7: Adaptive Leadership in Jewish Communities
Leader: Michelle Janes
Date: Monday 29th June eve
Adaptive Leadership is rooted in understanding that each of us can exercise leadership regardless of position. Our communities are interconnected systems, and we all have a stake in each other's growth and in the kind of Jewish world we want to cultivate.
Learn to:
- Identify adaptive vs. technical challenges
- Lead from any position in the organisation
- Recognize and work within complex systems
- Build collective capacity for change
- Navigate resistance and maintain momentum
- The reflective nature of leadership (how does my leadership work?)
Session 8: Managing Change: Strategies for Moving Your Community Forward
Leader: Michelle Janes
Date: 4th Aug eve
Getting your community to move forward usually involves some form of change—small adjustments or major transformations. Whatever the scale, successful change follows proven principles.
This session explores:
- Why change initiatives succeed or fail
- Building buy-in and managing resistance
- Communicating vision effectively
- Implementing change in stages
- Celebrating wins and learning from setbacks
- Ensuring changes stick
Session 9: Measuring Impact: How Do We Know We're Succeeding?
Leader: Jonny Wineberg
Date: Sunday 6 Sept (morning)
Beyond intuition and anecdotes, how do you know if your programs and initiatives are working? This session introduces practical approaches to:
- Defining success for your community
- Collecting meaningful data without overwhelming your team
- Telling your impact story to stakeholders and funders
- Using feedback loops to improve continuously
- Balancing quantitative metrics with qualitative impact
Session 10: Succession Planning and Leadership Continuity
Leader: Michelle Janes
Date: Sunday 11 October (morning)
Strong communities don't depend on any single leader. This final session reflects on the entire programme and addresses how to ensure leadership continuity and organisational sustainability.
Topics include:
- Identifying and developing emerging leaders
- Creating leadership pipelines
- Knowledge transfer and institutional memory
- Planning for leadership transitions
- Building a culture where leadership is shared and renewed
- Your personal legacy and next steps
GRADUATION: November - in person
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
Format:
10 sessions delivered over one or two sessions per month.
Online sessions run for 80-120 minutes, depending on the topic.
Peer group meetings take place in-between sessions.
In-person meetings are more discursive, motivational and inspiring.
Learning Approach:
- Interactive workshops with case studies
- Peer learning and discussion
- Practical tools and templates
- Cohort-based support network
- Optional individual coaching/mentoring
Outcomes: Participants will leave with:
- Deeper understanding of their community's context and potential
- Practical leadership skills applicable immediately
- A personal leadership development plan
- A supportive network of fellow lay leaders
- Resources and tools to take back to their communities
COSTS:
What the programme fee covers…
- 10 informative and inspiring sessions - (equivalent to £15.00 each)
- Weekend Retreat: includes accommodation and food, several inspiring workshops, plus a very special guest speaker - (£150)
- Graduation and Certificate
Programme Fee: £300*
Can be paid as a single one-off payment
or in 6 instalments (monthly) via debit/credit card.
Your commitment - is to attend all sessions and the Retreat.
All participants cover their own travel costs
We believe cost should not be a barrier, please talk to us if this is a challenge.
(*this heavily subsidised rate is only possible through the support of TNL and our benefactors, without which the full cost would be £1,000)
this programme is funded by The National Lottery & benefactors
Your Course Leaders 2026
Pamela Alcala focuses on leadership and program development. She is renowned for reshaping what Jewish learning can be, synthesizing deep Jewish wisdom with the learning experience. Her primary focus is equipping communities to create impactful narratives that drive change. She enables organisations to facilitate difficult, multi-narrative conversations with intellectual honesty while developing the strategic messaging and organisational resilience needed to thrive and attract funders. Born and raised in Santiago, Chile, she came to the U.S. to study and received her BA and master's in social work from Adelphi University as well as a master's in education and human development with a concentration in Israel Education from The George Washington University.
Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum is Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS) where he holds the Rabbi Sacks Chair in Modern Jewish Thought, established by the Zandan family. He has a Physics PhD, ordination from Rabbi Sacks, and studied at the Mandel Leadership School in Jerusalem. As well as lecturing in Jewish education, thought and leadership, Rabbi Zarum is an acclaimed educator whose latest book, Questioning Belief: Torah and Tradition in an Age of Doubt, was a Yeshiva University Book Prize finalist.
Jonny Wineberg is a management consultant with decades of experience supporting Jewish and wider voluntary sector organisations with fundraising, evaluation, organisational development and more. He has worked with more than 200 charities and community groups, helping them secure funding, demonstrate impact and build sustainability. Jonny founded Community Futures Trust CIC in 2012 to further this work.
Susie Gordon is Chief Executive of Leeds Jewish Representative Council. She works with strategy, advocacy and relationship-building, representing the community to civic leaders, statutory organisations and interfaith partners while helping to shape its long-term direction. Susie is an experienced facilitator and coach, regularly leading values-led conversations, strategy sessions and development programmes for lay leaders and professionals. Susie is motivated by a strong sense of belief in building resilient, connected communities equipped to meet change with confidence.
Nicky Goldman has worked professionally in the Jewish community for 40 years in leadership, volunteering and community development, family education, HR, youth and student work. She has an MA in Jewish Communal Service from the Hornstein Program at Brandeis University, Boston, USA (1992) as well as being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (FCIPD). She is also a Rabbi Sacks Scholar and Speaker. Nicky is CEO of the Jewish Volunteering Network.
Fran Horwich is Head of Volunteer and Community Services at The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), where she has worked for over 13 years. With 30 years of experience in the Jewish community, she has developed expertise in managing challenging and sensitive communications with professionals, volunteers, and community members. Through her extensive hands-on experience, Fran has developed practical methodologies for effective communication and relationship management. She understands the importance of strong communication skills, particularly when conversations become emotionally charged or difficult, and helps others navigate these complex interpersonal dynamics with skill and empathy.
Michelle Janes is strategically minded, passionate about enabling people and skilled at leading change. She is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Kisharon Langdon, a Learning Disability and Autism Charity that provides Supported Living, Education and Employment opportunities as well as operating multiple Social Enterprises. Michelle has experience working with Trustee Boards, Volunteers and Leadership Teams across a range of charities and has expertise in Charity Governance and Leadership Development. She is a Fellow Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD), has a PGCE in ICT and an MBA which included a thesis focused on the CEO/Chair relationship in charity organisations.
Viv Anstey is described as a serial social entrepreneur, being the catalyst for numerous start-ups in the SA Jewish scene. She has had a hand in establishing The Eliot Osrin Leadership Institute (current director), Melton (director), Limmud SA, Jewish Literary Festival, PJ Library, Tikkun, the SA Jewish Museum and Jewish trauma network. She has a Masters in Jewish Community Service (Hornstein, Brandeis University). Viv has served as professional consultant on the national SA Jewish Board Of Deputies, and as lay leader on the Cape Council. She has been an active driver on the CapeTown2040 Vision. Her passion lies in Jewish continuity, community, young leadership, Jewish education, and leadership development.