The Movement for Reform Judaism

Dan Weil, a former RSY-Netzer Madrich, who is now serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, together with Colonel Martin Newman, Corporate Communications Adviser for Youth & Cadets at the Ministry of Defence; WO2 Rod Wright; SAC Fran McKay and Major Glen Lindsay of the Army Diversity Team will be visiting the leaders during their Shemesh preparations in Snowdonia.

They will organise ‘action-centred leadership' training exercises which will simulate disaster relief scenarios. Confronting the challenges presented by these scenarios, leaders will need to work together as a team to find solutions.

Dan Weil, whose idea the scheme was, said: "Having been involved with RSY-Netzer myself, I realised that, whilst madrichim have always been great at leading Peulot, their leadership experience when faced with a difficult situation in darkest, wettest Wales is often limited. These skills of getting people from a to b and achieving tasks, which are the Forces' bread and butter, will give them the confidence to lead the Chanichim on hikes and to cope with living in a field for two weeks. We felt this was something we could usefully contribute to the Jewish community."

As well as developing the young leaders' teamwork and leadership skills, Colonel Newman hopes that this project will help to raise the profile of the Army amongst the Jewish community.

He commented: "My main objective is to spread the word within the wider Jewish Community that there are still Jews serving in the British and Commonwealth Armed Forces. Hopefully this will gain community support for our activities and help the ‘not for a yiddisher boy' mentality. Our objective isn't to recruit, but we do want to get the message across that you can serve and keep your religious identity and practices." 

For further details, please contact:
Andrea Newman, Movement for Reform Judaism Public Relations Officer

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