David Teutsch, Ph.D., is a man in motion, a multi-tasker with many interests. Trained as a rabbi, he earned his doctorate from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, is past president of RRC and currently leads RRC's Center for Jewish Ethics.
One of his recent projects covers two of his main interests: the ethics of leadership and Jewish texts. Teutsch has designed a 15-month training program for future Jewish organizational presidents that combines course material on nonprofit management with lessons from Jewish texts on leadership and values.
Acharai!, as the project is known, is being offered for Jewish community lay leaders in Baltimore. The typical four-hour class meets over dinner once every three months and in full-day retreats. In one class, Teutsch discusses the differences between exercising power, authenticity and leadership. To make the discussion accessible to participants, he describes the implications of the biblical story of Gideon, who, against all odds, succeeded as a military leader and then decided not to become king. The lesson: Good leadership is different from self-aggrandizement.
"We try to deal not only with the texts, but with the values in a Jewish vocabulary, using words like kavod, that people deserve to be treated with honor," Teutsch explains.
Through the shared experience of the classroom, and in an informal setting, the lay leader participants in the program create connections across their agencies, synagogues and denominations.
"Ultimately, the goal here is to integrate Jewish values and text with a sophisticated approach to teaching leadership in the nonprofit environment," Teutsch says.
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