Among the greatest challenges confronting the United States and Israel this year are our respective populations’ efforts to clarify the values of our next set of leaders and dominant political parties. Though there is no single style of effective and morally based leadership that applies to all peoples, religions, cultures, nations, governments, political parties, for-profit and non-profit businesses and organizations, there are common values that best make for effective, compassionate, democratic, and ethically based leadership.

Judaism has much to say about what constitutes great moral leadership. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020) summed it up this way:

“Great leaders are great not just because they care for their own people – everyone except a self-hater does that – but because they care for humanity. That is what gives their devotion to their own people its dignity and moral strength … To be an agent of hope, to love the people you lead, and to widen their horizons to embrace humanity as a whole – that is the kind of leadership that gives people the ability to recover from crisis and move on. It is what made Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah three of the greatest leaders of all time.”

Great leadership also requires a clear policy vision along with the virtues of humility, gratitude, generosity, compassion, and wisdom, a respect for the dignity of every human being by virtue of being created b’tzelem Elohim (in the divine image – Genesis 1:27), and a sacred commitment to further the common good.

The best leaders depend upon reason, fact-based information, science, and the objective analysis of societal problems to devise and then carry out strategies to address challenges as effectively as possible.

Great leaders do not appeal to fear, anger, hate, or vengeance. Rather, they seek to promote social harmony, equality, mutual respect, and love. They are careful to avoid divisive and coarse language that appeals to base ignorance, prejudice, hatred, and cruelty.

Great leaders are constantly honing their skills. They delegate responsibility and value teamwork to enable others who have the necessary knowledge and expertise to do their best work. They give credit generously and take pride in their colleagues’ accomplishments. They take responsible criticism seriously and when things go wrong, they never blame others for failure. They assume responsibility for the failure themselves.

In recent years, the “servant–leader” model of leadership has taken hold in many religious, non-profit, governmental, political, and secular organizations and causes:

Rabbi David Ellenson (1947-2023) described that model:

“[The servant-leader] is servant first … It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The servant-leadership model is one that promotes such values as collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment … relationship-driven leaders are more empathetic, patient, and tolerant. They approach decision-making subjectively, using personal values as a guide, and they examine how each option will impact others. They are approachable; strive for harmony among their employees [and followers] and work to build consensus and trust. They also admit when they are wrong and seek constructive criticism … they are adept at listening and forging personal connections.”

The US presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (b. 1943) adds:

“Leadership is the ability to use one’s talent, skills, and emotional intelligence to mobilize people to a common purpose and to make a positive difference in people’s lives. The qualities important for leadership are humility, empathy, resilience, self-awareness, self-reflection, the ability to create a team where people can argue with you and question your assumptions, and the ability to communicate with people using stories to make people feel a part of what you are saying. The most important thing is the willingness to take a risk because the ambition for the greater good has become greater for you than for yourself.”

Great leaders take risks even when they know they will be criticized and may fail. “You must be headlights and not tail-lights,” said Congressional Representative John R. Lewis. Dr. Martin Luther King opined, “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” Great leaders demonstrate courage and speak truth to power without hesitation or fear.

Leadership is often difficult, painful, and lonely. Leaders need the support of allies who share their mission. They need, also, trusted loved ones and friends with whom they can confide their hesitations, doubts and despair, and who can advise them honestly.

Any government (federal, state, city, and local), political party, company and business, religious and educational institution, nonprofit organization and communal cause will succeed or fail based on the ethical quality of its leadership and the leader’s direct engagement with the people he/she represents and leads. It was said of President Abraham Lincoln that Union soldiers during the Civil War were devoted to him personally and to his commitment to save the Union and eliminate human enslavement because Lincoln went out to meet and engage with soldiers in the field of battle. They understood that he cared about them personally.

Challenges are ever constant and often beyond the control of even the most effective and ethically based leaders. Economic downturns, riots, earthquakes, fires, floods, disease, war, terrorism, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and anti-immigrant bigotry have challenged the patience, compassion, equanimity, vision, and management skills of every decent leader. Those nations and communities that ultimately do well, that persevere and overcome their challenges, are directly related to the moral quality, competency, open-heartedness, love, and skills of their leadership. Although there is no perfect leader, and communities that expect perfection will be disappointed when a leader fails, voters have the ultimate responsibility in democratically run organizations to make the hard decisions about their leaders and either vote them in or out of their positions.

There is a common adage that warns: “What you permit, you promote. What you allow, you encourage. What you condone, you own. What you tolerate, you deserve.”

In short – ethically based leadership, an informed citizenry, and voting matter.

Additional thoughts

“A leader needs emotional intelligence. Great leaders move us. They ignite our passion and inspire the best in us. When we try and explain why they are so effective, we speak of strategy, vision, or powerful ideas. But the reality is much more primal: great leadership works through the emotions.” –Daniel Goleman (b. 1946)

“The Jewish approach to leadership is thus an unusual combination of realism and idealism – realism in its acknowledgement that leaders inevitably make mistakes, idealism in its constant subordination of politics to ethics, power to responsibility, pragmatism to the demands of conscience. What matters is not that leaders never get it wrong – that is inevitable, given the nature of leadership – but that they are always exposed to prophetic critique and that they constantly study Torah to remind themselves of transcendent standards and ultimate aims.” –Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (1948–2020)

“No person is fit to govern great societies who hesitates about disobliging the few who have access to him for the sake of the many he will never see.” –Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–59)

“I have long believed that the key question is not which positions politicians will support or oppose. It’s the issues they’re willing to lose their office over in the name of principles that matter.” –Former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky (b. 1948)

“Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82)

This blog is edited from a chapter in my book Finding Your Moral Compass – Jewish Values for the 21^st Century (Toronto: University of Toronto New Jewish Press, 2026), 219-26. The book is available from the publisher and on Amazon.