AJC’s Don Schlesinger lays down the law

DON Schlesinger jokes that a few years ago, when he left his former career as a corporate attorney in Las Vegas to go to work for a Jewish non-profit agency in San Francisco, he not only halved his salary but doubled his living expenses.

Today, in his current role as area director of the Colorado chapter of the American Jewish Committee, Schlesinger laughs at what must have been a difficult transition, insisting that he has absolutely no regrets.

“Despite those economic sacrifices,” he says, “the work is far more meaningful. I love what I do.”

He doesn’t speak nearly so passionately about what he calls the first half of his professional life — two decades as an attorney specializing in real estate and  land leases, and a brief political career as a commissioner for Clark County, Nevada (which includes Las Vegas) where he learned a few valuable lessons about what not to do while in office.

A local media wag dubbed Schlesinger the only politician “who left Las Vegas office poorer than when he started,” he recalls with an ironic wince.

“Half of the members of the board who immediately succeeded me are in federal prison today, having been convicted of or connected to a bribery scandal,” Schlesinger says. “Las Vegas politics is definitely a notch below on the ethical level and on the responsibility level.”

So, while in his late forties, Schlesinger, a New York native, felt it was time for some serious change in personal priorities.

“At what was my big mid-life, mid-career timeframe, I decided to give up my practice of law and do work that I thought would be more meaningful for me during the second half of my life, professionally,” he says.

“So I got into the Jewish non-profit world and had an opportunity to work for AIPAC and ADL over a four year period in San Francisco.”

Schlesinger considers his period with AIPAC and ADL to have been dues-paying time, a sort of initiation into the world of Jewish organizational life.

He says that he was primarily assigned to work in development — “a nice word for fundraising” — and felt that something was missing.

“I enjoyed the work very much,” he says, “but I was missing that advocacy, community relations, public policy piece. When the opportunity arose to take this job with AJC and to come to Denver, which really has been a city of great interest to me, I jumped at the opportunity.”

Asked why he exchanged a relatively prestigious legal career for the rough and tumble world of Jewish organizations, Schlesinger doesn’t miss a beat.

“Rough and tumble is relative,” he says. “Once you’ve been in the political world, particularly in Las Vegas, everything else seems to pale in comparison.”

His transition, however, had much more to do with positive motivation than with negative, Schlesinger emphasizes.

He wasn’t interesting merely in shifting into the non-profit world. It was the Jewish part of that world that attracted him.

“I was involved in synagogue life. I served in Las Vegas on the Hebrew Academy board of directors. The opportunity to evolve into this line of work and really become an advocate on behalf of the Jewish community — and get paid for that — is wonderful.”

SCHLESINGER is 51 years old now but looks about a decade younger. That may be due, in part, to his passion for sports. He still competes in amateur hockey and softball and once coached a youth hockey team, in addition to providing legal counsel for the Las Vegas Thunder minor league hockey club.
He is also an avid skier and, reportedly, a skilled pianist.

He is bringing the same global and enthusiastic approach to his new professional responsibilities at AJC in Denver, a role he has been fulfilling since last December.

Among his earliest accomplishments, after consulting with the Colorado chapter’s board and other lay leaders, was to push for a new strategic plan, clarifying the organization’s regional and national priorities. After considerable debate, that plan was finalized and adopted earlier this year.

A necessary prerequisite for such a task is a clear understanding of precisely what it is that AJC stands for. Doing a little compare-contrast exercise, based on his own recent work experience, Schlesinger summarizes AIPAC as “strengthening the bilateral Israeli-US relationship,” and ADL as “being the central address to respond to acts of discrimination against the Jewish people.”

The AJC, on the other hand, is not quite so neatly categorized.

“Our mission is to provide protection to vulnerable Jewish and other ethnic and religious minority communities,” Schlesinger says. “We work with government officials and other leaders around the world to provide that level of support, often in a very quiet, diplomatic way.

“The other piece of our global work is to try to strengthen ties between Israel and the nations of the world in economic trade, security measures, etc.

“That’s the short, Reader’s Digest version of our mission at AJC and hopefully what distinguishes us from the US-Israel relationship of AIPAC and the anti-Semitism piece of ADL.”

While striving to uphold those national objectives, the Colorado AJC has a new strategic plan that puts them into a somewhat finer focus.

“Our focus is what we call the three I’s — Israel, immigration, interfaith,” Schlesinger says.

“We work closely with interfaith partners. We have regular discussion forums with the Archdiocese, the Colorado Council of Churches, the Mormons, to try to build bridges and ties among these diverse faith-based groups, then to build coalitions to support public policies that are of mutual interest.”

Schlesinger notes that it has recently been more difficult for AJC to forge similar ties with the Colorado Muslim community, partly due to a rapid turnover rate in that community’s religious and lay leadership and partly due to post-9/11 and post-intifada tensions between Muslims and Jews. He plans, however, to continue seeking a more substantial relationship locally.

TWO of the three “I’s” of the chapter’s focus — immigration and interfaith — are proving to be a valuable and effective nexus.

“Comprehensive immigration reform appears to be one of those significant public policy pieces that across the spectrum is generally supported by each of our faith partners,” he says.

“Obviously, each of us may have different priorities with respect to that, but for the most part, it really does unite us in a common goal and purpose. We use relationships to build a broader-based, faith-based and faith-inspired community support for immigration reform.”

Schlesinger summarizes the AJC’s platform for immigration reform:

• secure borders and enhanced national security;

• a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants;

• adjusted quotas for future flows of immigrants, with an emphasis on family reunification, which Schlesinger calls “a core value” of the Jewish people;

• a process of substantial reform for US detention and asylum systems concerning immigration;

• enhancement of resources for the integration of immigrants who are already in the US.

• Support for the children of undocumented immigrants.

“These are the broad tenets of what we hope would eventually someday form the basis of a bipartisan set of principles that would be encapsulated in any ultimate comprehensive immigration reform program.”

CHAMPIONING such reform is an integral part of AJC’s general commitment to protecting those who Schlesinger describes as “vulnerable minority populations around the world, whether Jewish or otherwise.”

These may include victims of religious or political persecution, ethnic cleansing or genocide and those who suffer the effects of natural disasters, such as the earthquake-ravaged citizens of Haiti.

AJC routinely works on behalf of such victimized populations, Schlesinger says.

“It’s important for our organization and others to be able to rise to the defense of those communities, not only to provide means of support but to expose the problem and advocate for these causes.

“We have unique experiences in the Jewish heritage that require and compel us to do so. That’s one of the reasons why we focus domestically at AJC on promoting immigration reform. We think it’s a humanitarian value.

“All of us as Jews . . . have roots and connections outside this country. We came here for a better life and we think it’s a basic Jewish value not to ignore the plight of others around the world who may look to our country as a safe haven as refugees seeking a new life.”

The third of the AJC’s “I’s” is, of course, Israel.

The AJC’s primary concern regarding the Jewish state is defending it against a concerted and sustained international effort to delegitimize and demonize Israel through UN reports and declarations, anti-Israel activities on college campuses or publicity-oriented campaigns such as the recent “Freedom Flotilla.” Read the related news coverage

AJC is “very supportive” of Israel’s right to self-defense, says Schlesinger, who is blunt in condemning what he calls “not a double standard, but an absurd standard, to which Israel is subjected in the world.”

His defense of Israel is grounded in unsentimental realism.

“In the numbers game, Israel is always going to come out on the short side of this,” he says. “There’s one Jewish state and 20-plus Muslim states in the Middle East. Israel is always going to be out-numbered and outgunned in the court of world public opinion.

“Ever since the ‘67 war, Israel has evolved from being perceived as the David in the Middle East to now being perceived as the Goliath. That’s the narrative anyway that those who have the numbers pursue.

“And so it’s our obligation in the Jewish communal world to advocate strongly for Israel, and for the unique relationship between Israel and the US, for increasing support for Israel within the greater global community.”

The stubborn antipathy of Israel’s foes does not discourage Schlesinger, who believes that American support of Israel remains rock solid. So long as that support is unchanged, he says, Israel will remain capable of defending itself against its enemies.

“Poll after poll shows a sustained, strong level of support within the American community, not just the American Jewish community, for Israel.

“That hasn’t happened by accident. It’s happened because the organized Jewish community has resolved to work hard together, strategically and wisely, to make sure that our country continues to be the main, key, strong ally of Israel.”

WHAT gives Schlesinger greater cause for worry is what appears to be a growing trend among younger American Jews — “the 30-something crowd” — to take the existence of Israel for granted.

“That younger generation has less of a connection to Israel, less of an understanding of her history, and assumes that Israel will always exist because it always has during their lifetime.

“Because of all of that, one of our challenges is to try and provide meaningful, non-preachy, non-judgmental ways of offering education and perhaps a broader perspective within our own Jewish communal world.”

Schlesinger discusses a local AJC initiative to get started in the second half of this year to work with the rabbis of all major area congregations, including all Jewish movements, to “identify a group of 30-something congregants . . . and provide a discussion series in an intimate setting, a safe environment, where people can ask questions and not fear that they’re being preached to or subjected to judgment if they are critical or display a lack of knowledge of Israel or the Middle East.

“It would not be an advocacy workshop but truly an education forum with the goal that people who are going to emerge as a the new leaders in our Jewish community would develop a greater understanding and appreciation for the challenges that Israel confronts.”

Copyright © 2010 by the Intermountain Jewish News