Presented by Spertus Institute and JPro Chicago, Connect & Learn is an online, community-building, professional development series.
Connect & Learn workshops offer participants around the world a chance to join Spertus students and alumni for lively sessions on topics key to Jewish professional life today.
Build skills you can apply immediately to your life and work. Become part of a network of learners and Jewish community leaders.
Sessions are online, live, interactive, and collaborative.
Each session includes time to connect, network, meet new colleagues, and strengthen relationships. Sessions are free of charge thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.
Programs take place via Zoom. Ticket holders will receive login instructions by email 24 hours in advance.
Challenging Leadership: When Indecision Leads to Destruction
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
12:30 to 1:30 PM CT
What do we need from leaders in times of crisis? When is silence not only unhelpful, but actively dangerous? Join Spertus faculty member Rabba Rori Picker Neiss to study the story of Rabbi Zechariah ben Avuklos, the Jewish leader whose silence is often blamed for the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Together we will examine his efforts and his errors as we explore the challenges of leadership in crisis and the impact of indecision.
Spertus faculty member Rabba Rori Picker Neiss leads this session.
Rabba Rori Picker Neiss serves as the Senior VP for Community Relations at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Prior to that, she was Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, an organization committed to a vibrant and secure Jewish community in a thriving and just St. Louis region, after previously serving as a member of the clergy team at Bais Abraham Congregation, a Modern Orthodox Jewish synagogue in University City, Missouri.
Rabba Picker Neiss is one of the first graduates of Yeshivat Maharat, a pioneering institution training Orthodox Jewish women to be spiritual leaders and halakhic (Jewish legal) authorities. She also serves on the Board of Directors for HIAS and the Parliament of the World’s Religions. She is a David Hartman Center fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, a CLAL Rabbis Without Borders fellow, and co-editor of InterActive Faith: The Essential Interreligious Community-Building Handbook. She is married to Russel Neiss, a software engineer for Sefaria, and they have three children.
Connect & Learn is presented in partnership with JPro Chicago.
This series is presented under the auspices of Spertus Institute’s Center for Jewish Leadership, supported in part by a generous grant from the Crown Family.
This program is a Solomon Goldman Lecture, endowed by the late Rose and Sidney Shure. The series is free thanks to their generosity and the support of donors like you!
If you can, we encourage you to make a gift to support this free program and others like it!