Questions concerning the impact of vision on practice and the impact of practice on vision, along with the demand to “think big” beyond short-term goals, are the basis for thought and action at the Mandel Leadership Institute (MLI). This approach was reflected in the MLI fellows’ end-of-year tour, in which the fellows examined the role of educational vision and identity in the world of action.

The fellows, who met in small groups with leaders who are spearheading educational and social change, wrestled with a variety of questions that arose during the year and during the tour: What is the role of vision in practical activity? What values, pressures, constraints and dilemmas influence the fulfillment of visions in the world of action? What are the roles of preliminary study and experience in effecting change? What thinkers and scholars are relevant to realizing the vision? What examples inspired them?

During the tour the fellows encountered various concepts of vision and practice in three geographical and social settings:

• Yeroham—where the change taking place involves a variety of dilemmas connected with spearheading local change.
• Mitzpe Ramon—where a broad spectrum of flourishing individual enterprises pose numerous questions about extensive change in the community.
• Beersheva—where the fellows were exposed to a process of musical and cultural creativity and change.

In Yeroham the fellows met with Mayor Amram Mitzna, who discussed the challenges of spearheading change on the municipal level. They also met with individuals who are championing educational initiatives in State, State-Religious, and nonformal education systems. During these meetings the fellows discussed “integration versus segregation,” spearheading change, the challenges involved in Jewish education in Israeli society and the challenges posed by cultural creativity among young people.

The fellows toured Mitzpe Ramon in small groups as well in order to learn from up close about social and educational processes in the community from both the micro and the macro standpoints. They met with Flora Shoshan, head of the Mitzpe Ramon Local Council, and with the head of the yeshiva high school for environmental education. They learned about individual initiatives by entrepreneurs such as Keshet, an association of Mitzpe Ramon residents, and Desert Shade, a project to develop social and environmental entrepreneurship among young adults and teenagers who live in the Negev. In addition, they heard about the challenges of leadership in the Negev from two Mandel alumni—Eran Doron, director of Partnership 2000 Ramat Hanegev–Denver and director of the Tourism Department of the Ramat Hanegev Regional Council, and Yankale (Jacob) Steinberg, director of the Mandel Center for Leadership in the Negev.

Towards the end of the tour the fellows visited Beersheva, the capital of the Negev, where Prof. Nissim Calderon and David Peretz spoke about leadership, entrepreneurship, and change in culture and music.

In preparation for the study tour the fellows were given a text by the late Prof. Seymour Fox about vision and practice. At the end of the tour, it turned out that Prof. Fox’s ideas were reflected in the questions, discussions and answers that came up during and even after the excursion:

A vision is a vibrant entity…. An educational vision must be able to answer certain questions: What kind of people will graduate from this school, camp, or other educational setting? What will they understand and believe? How will they behave? What will they know how to do? In what ways will they be able to contribute to the community? And what qualities, intrinsic to your vision, will enable them to keep growing and learning?
Vision, then, is inherently both dynamic and flexible. It is not a mission statement or a declaration of purpose, which often end up as frozen, static assertions. And a vision is more than a goal.

Seymour Fox with William Novak, Vision at the Heart  (Mandel Foundation, 2000)

To read more about vision and practice, see Prof. Seymour Fox's book Vision at the Heart