Leadership Anonymous

It was a sizzling September day. I was behind a table at the Club Fair handing out shiny, glazed donuts. My peers meandered by with their giant plates of stromboli as I attempted to convince them to sign up for Jewish Club.

My biggest leadership endeavor was starting the Jewish Club at my school. After returning from a cultural excursion to Israel and Europe, I was reminded of how proud I am of my culture. When I came home, I sought to educate my Jewish and non-Jewish peers about Jewish culture. I wanted to share fun aspects of my culture, mostly through eating foods and playing games like dreidel.

I knew a Rabbi who ran Jewish clubs at other schools, so I asked him for help. Since he was the teaching figure, my responsibilities were to advertise meetings, coordinate logistics for our gatherings, and work on administrative details at my school. I promoted meetings by launching email campaigns to my peers. I explained how the meetings would be fun and non-stressful – and I threw in donuts as bait: admittedly, the donuts may have been the best selling point.

This past summer, I went on another Israel trip, but was inspired in a different way. We learned about the Jewish state and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict This year, I want...