Published: 8 April 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THE SPIRIT OF PESACH is embodied by the number four: four cups of wine, four children, four questions. So on the occasion of the appointment of a new CEO, Darren Bark, to the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, The Jewish Independent poses four conundrums.
Before we start, we would like to extend a warm welcome to Mr Bark and extend our best wishes in this most challenging of roles.
CONUNDRUM 1: Managing the tribes
President Rivlin raised the alarm about the descent of Israeli society into four tribes (Haredi, secular, religious nationalists, Israeli-Arab). While not exactly equal in size, each is large enough to countervail the others. His greatest alarm was that each played “winner take all”.
That road leads to fragmentation of social cohesion. And perhaps the current political paralysis in Israel of four elections in 24 months is a case in point.
Is our NSW community far removed from this phenomenon? A quick recall of the last election of deputies, that saw many long serving community stalwarts “knocked-off”, points to precisely this same “winner take all” philosophy at play.
Your challenge: enabling a wide range of views co-habit in a socially cohesive manner.
CONUNDRUM 2: If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, who am I?
The Board of Deputies has always oscillated between fearing the “outside” world and seeking the safety of numbers by bonding with others of similar views/interests as the community.
When the Board fears the world, the “wagons are circled”, and the Board pursues its perceived community interest with some aggression and insularity.
When the Board reaches out bringing others into the tent where “an injury to one is an injury to all”, the community builds allies, trust and friendships.
Your challenge: knowing when to pursue narrow communal self interest and when to pursue common ground with other communities (notwithstanding loud voices within our community).
CONUNDRUM 3: Say what you mean, mean what you say, and do what you say you’ll do
Every organisation has governance tensions, often between the executive arm and the governing committee.
The Board is no different when it comes to the relationship between the directors/executive and the Plenum of Deputies.
Public undertakings are given, but sometimes such as in the case of an independent review of the election of 2020, but as yet nothing has been forthcoming.
More importantly, we invite you to run an eye over the policies of the Board and match them against its actions.
In your interview in the AJN last week, you describe education, advocacy and social justice as “key aspects of JBoD work”. Take out the policies on refugees, climate change and the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and compare the time since endorsement of those policy resolutions and any actions advanced.
Your challenge: account for policies of the Board and enumerate actions taken to pursue them, say, as part of every AGM.
CONUNDRUM 4: inspiration, perspiration and our better angels
The capacity of the community to assist within our community and contribute to the broader Australian community is undoubted.
There is an overwhelming merit in unity. After all, the “biography” of the Board is titled In One Voice, but unity must mean inclusiveness and engagement – it means that debates and discussions within the community must be for the Sake of Heaven. There can be no room for “a winner take all” in the affairs of the Board.
As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, “Judaism celebrates argument as perhaps the highest… form of religious expression… It was in argument that the word of God became real in the life of man… that the covenant was continued into the present and future… that divergent viewpoints were bought into relationship with one another.”
Your challenge: inspire the better angels in us all.
On behalf of the whole community we wish you well, and every success.
