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A legacy lives on
“In Jewish tradition, we wait one year – a full cycle of chagim – until we say Yizkor. This is because in the first year, it is often too painful to say: ‘We remember’,” said Rabbi Dovid Wineberg. He was speaking at a recent event to mark one year since Cape Town Jewish community doyen Eliot Osrin’s passing, and to launch the Eliot Osrin Leadership Institute in Cape Town.
TALI FEINBERG
The crowd gathered to pay their respects demonstrated the huge spectrum of people impacted by Osrin, and the “gaping hole” he left behind, in the words of community leader Philip Krawitz.
For a community that is still grieving Osrin’s untimely passing, the event was the ideal moment to celebrate his life and legacy, and to chart the way forward. “At his funeral, I spoke of Eliot being a leader of the same level as Moshe Rabbeinu, and now I want to talk about another leader a thousand years later: Elijah the Prophet,” continued Wineberg.
“When Elijah went to the desert looking for G-d, he did not find Him in an overwhelming force of nature, but rather in the silence and stillness of his heart and soul. This was the kind of leadership that Eliot embodied – soft power, moral leadership, quiet commitment, and leading by example. In his remarkable lifetime, he never looked for a title; he just got the job done.”
It is these qualities that the leadership institute hopes to take forward. Throughout his incredible five decades of dedication to the Cape Town Jewish community, Osrin ensured the financial security of its major institutions. His passion and care is evident in the service he rendered to Herzlia School and Jewish education, as well as to welfare services such as the Highlands House Home for the Jewish Aged, fundraising, the Community Security Organisation and Telfed.
When Osrin’s formidable wife, Myra, and her children looked back on his life, they felt that a leadership institute was the one service the community was missing, and that Osrin would have proudly been associated with it. It was through this project that they chose to immortalise his name. It was launched in partnership with the David Susman Community Foundation, an organisation dedicated to financially future-proofing the wellbeing of the Cape Town Jewish community.
The leadership institute will secure the same by harnessing the community’s “people power”. It will ensure that community leaders who are willing and able can follow Osrin’s example by using their robust skills, knowledge, abilities and networks to lead the Cape Town Jewish community into the future, in accordance with Osrin’s vision and legacy.
“After many years dealing with Cape Town Jewish community organisations, I see that most of them have severe challenges in creating leaders for the future,” said the institute’s chairperson, Ronnie Stein. “It is therefore imperative that individuals will be equipped with the right skill sets and knowledge to enable them to play significant roles now and in the future.”
Added director Viv Anstey: “After researching local and international leadership institutes, we’ve formulated a programme customised to meet our needs. Participants will gain in-depth knowledge of our community and of themselves as leaders, learn about ethical leadership and best practice, and be exposed to theory, projects, peer learning, coaching and mentorship.”
The course will be steeped in Jewish values and texts, accessing a wealth of guidance and wisdom from our own heritage of Jewish leaders.
The ideal applicants are between 40 and 60 years old, live in Cape Town and have the potential, resilience and fortitude to lead the Cape Town Jewish community, explained steering committee member and United Herzlia Schools chairperson Natalie Barnett. Candidates do not need to be already involved in community work. “Everyone is a potential leader. We aim to develop and inspire those who have already stepped up to the plate, as well as those who haven’t yet realised their leadership potential.”
The institute’s faculty is made up of cutting-edge academics and professionals from business schools and public leadership, including Dr Grant Sieff, CEO of IC Growth Group; Brian Isaacson, director of Aligned Leadership Consulting; Rabbi Gideon Pogrund, founder and director of the Gordon Institute of Business Science’s Ethics and Governance Think Tank, and co-founder of the Ethics Evolution; leadership development coach Dr Marianne Camerer; and Professor Brian Levy, academic director, Graduate School of Development Policy at the University of Cape Town.
Said Anstey: “We foresee that the institute will become an active hub and an incubator of leadership programmes that reflect Eliot’s legacy of inclusivity, compassion, mentorship, community cohesion and financial discipline – all of which he will be remembered for.”
As Osrin himself said at a celebration marking his 80th birthday and 50 years of dedication to the Cape Town Jewish community: “I guarantee you will discover that, while public service improves the lives and world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring to your life.”
- To apply to the Eliot Osrin Leadership Institute, visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/eolislp or email applications@osrinleadership.org, or call 021 461 0776