What does it take to succeed in building a truly inclusive Jewish grassroots organization?
In Jewish grassroots organizing, I believe the two key components for success – besides lots of hard work and little sleep – are respect and patience. If you are very upset about what someone is saying it’s hard to listen, people fly off the handle over political arguments and write crazy emails and send them without taking a minute to think it over (especially when they are tired). Part of our determination to implement this at the grassroots is that Obama led by example with a very calm demeanor and we wanted to emulate that in our organization. We sometimes see national level leaders using very out-of-control rhetoric or encouraging it, for example, when Sarah Palin didn’t say anything when people at her rallies shouted about killing Obama (G-d forbid). Or when Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack recently used vicious rhetoric at a rally in Rabin’s memory calling Jews living in Judea and Samaria a cancer that has to be cut out of Israel (G-d forbid). This kind of leadership breeds
