. It was a summertime retreat for Polish Jewish survivors and their families. I continued to volunteer during college, my year as a Fulbright student living in Krakow, and during graduate school at Oxford. In 1998, Mr. Lauder hired my wife Rachel and me as directors of the RSL Foundation in Poland, where we served until Fall 2001. Here are a few of the many things I learned from Mr. Lauder working with him.
1. Make a Teacher for yourself
The first time I was in Mr. Lauder’s office was not for a scheduled meeting with Mr. Lauder, rather I was sent to meet his rabbi. Mr. Lauder, a titan of business and the art world, chairman of JNF and the head of the Conference of Presidents, created an office in his suite for an advisor, an elderly Polish-born chassidic rabbi named Chaskel Besser. Rabbi Besser, a retired businessman and Chairman of Agudath Israel’s Daf Yomi Commission, was one of the most respected elders of Jewish life in America. Rabbi Besser was a close confidant of Rabbi M