NJJN editor, Holocaust council director named to state leadership program

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

Andrew Silow-Carroll, editor-in-chief of New Jersey Jewish News, and Barbara Wind, director of the Holocaust Council of MetroWest, have been named fellows of Leadership New Jersey, a program offering civic-minded residents an opportunity to develop knowledge of issues and skills to solve statewide problems.

Wind and Silow-Carroll will be part of the class of 2006, marking the 20th anniversary of the program, which has about 1,000 graduates.

The group of about 50 fellows attend 10 monthly seminars that take them across the state to “explore the trends, forces, and people shaping the state’s future,” according to the organization’s Web site.

“The fellowship is a great opportunity to learn more about the state and its political, economic, and environmental challenges,” said Silow-Carroll. “That’s important not only for me, a relative newcomer to New Jersey, but for the newspaper, which has become a statewide Jewish voice.”

Silow-Carroll also noted that he would “be able to network with accomplished New Jerseyans beyond the Jewish community. It’s important to build such relationships in order to share ideas, discover new approaches, and develop allies for whatever challenges lie ahead.”

According to the fellowship’s Web site, LNJ participants “deepen their understanding of New Jersey’s problems and opportunities, of its needs and resources. New Jersey benefits from the increased pool of potential leaders and from the heightened sense of civic concern that those leaders develop.”

The LNJ selection committee “places equal importance on candidates’ professional achievements and civic leadership,” Shelley Jacobs Mintz, executive director of the Partnership for New Jersey and LNJ, wrote in an e-mail to NJJN. “Our selection process has been called ‘a model of intentional diversity.’ We strive to have each class look like the state, by work sector, geography, race, gender, and age. LNJ fellows are about one-third each from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.”

Wind, who has received a scholarship from the Alan V. Lowenstein Scholarship Fund to cover costs, told NJJN in an e-mail that she hopes her experience with the group “will serve to reinforce the work of the Holocaust Council of MetroWest in prejudice reduction and respect for diversity.”

She also said she hopes “to create a platform to reinforce New Jersey’s mandate to teach Holocaust and genocide education on a statewide basis.” Wind plans to “encourage students at NJ state colleges and universities who are preparing for careers in education to take at least one course in Holocaust/genocide studies to help them meet this mandate while gaining a better appreciation of diversity, history, politics, and human rights law.”

This year’s seminar examined a wide range of NJ issues, including education, government and politics, health and human services, economic and community development, criminal justice and corrections, the environment, and race and public policy.

Mintz told NJJN, “We are looking forward to working with [Wind and Silow-Carroll] during their seminar year and beyond; they are joining a distinguished group of LNJ fellows for our 20th anniversary class. Andy and Barbara will likely learn a great deal about our state — from their LNJ seminar year and the LNJ network. Whether on the streets of Camden, Newark, Paterson, or Trenton, they will surely contribute much from their unique Jewish communal experience.”

Ron Kaplan can be reached at RKaplan@njjewishnews.com.

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