The Department of Community Services, part of our greater Department of Community Engagement, runs a bi-monthly series of instructive seminars for synagogue rabbis, presidents, executive directors, and other lay leaders. Sometimes these are held live and in person at the OU, while other times they are webcast. Just last night, new OU West Coast president Dr. Steven Tabak, himself a former shul president (of Beth Jacob Congregation in Los Angeles) held a webinar on “A View from the Trenches.” Over 50 synagogue leaders signed up to participate in this online event, which featured a PowerPoint presentation and an interactive Q&A. Participants were fortunate to be able to hear from Dr. Tabak and learn from his experience.
These popular leadership-training seminars are on a variety of topics of interest; presentations are archived online at oucommunity.org and are also sent to the shuls. Kudos to Frank Buchweitz, National Director of Community Services and Special Projects for spearheading this initiative, and to Adam Eisler, administrative assistant, who handles the technical aspects of the program.