Opening the Jewish Bookshelf to Arabic-Speaking Readers
The Sir Naim Dangoor Centre for Universal Monotheism is pleased to announce the publication of a complete Arabic translation of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks’ Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible — دِراساتٌ في القيادة — now available to read and download free of charge through the Dangoor Centre’s Arabic Digital Library.
Following the publication of the Arabic edition of Studies in Spirituality, this is the second complete volume by Rabbi Sacks to be made available through our Arabic-language Jewish Literature Bookshelf. It forms part of the Centre’s continuing initiative to make important works on Judaism, Jewish thought, Israel, and the Jewish cultural and intellectual tradition accessible to Arabic-speaking readers.
What Can the Torah Teach Us About Leadership?
In Lessons in Leadership, Rabbi Sacks returns to the weekly Torah portions to ask a question that is as contemporary as it is ancient: What makes a leader?
Reading the biblical narratives through the lens of leadership, Sacks examines figures such as Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and the great women of the Bible, exploring the qualities that enable individuals to assume responsibility, confront failure, inspire others, and shape the future. The book addresses questions of courage and accountability, power and influence, vision and education, leadership in times of crisis, and the responsibility of leaders to create not merely followers, but future leaders.
At the heart of the book lies one of Rabbi Sacks’ most compelling ideas: leadership is not reserved for those who hold formal positions of authority. It begins with the willingness to take responsibility, to recognize that something needs to be done and to become part of making it happen. For Sacks, leadership is therefore not primarily about status or power, but about service, moral purpose, and the capacity to enable others to act.
This is what gives Lessons in Leadership a significance that extends well beyond its immediate Jewish context. Its discussions speak to educators, students, community leaders, public figures, parents, and to anyone confronted with the question of how individual responsibility can shape collective life. Rabbi Sacks’ reading of the Torah transforms ancient narratives into a remarkably contemporary conversation about the challenges of leadership and the moral choices on which societies depend.
The publication of this translation is also part of a broader undertaking. Over the years, the Dangoor Centre has developed a free Arabic digital library bringing together books and texts concerned with Israel, Judaism, Jewish history and culture, and the Jewish intellectual and religious tradition. Our purpose is simple but important: to enable Arabic-speaking readers to encounter these works directly, in their own language, and without financial or institutional barriers.
Translation, in this context, is more than the transfer of words from one language to another. It creates access to ideas, histories, beliefs, and traditions that too often reach readers only through secondary representations. Making these texts freely available allows students, teachers, scholars, religious leaders, and interested readers throughout the Arabic-speaking world to enter the Jewish bookshelf for themselves.
We believe that meaningful cultural dialogue begins with access to one another’s texts and ideas. A digital library that is open to everyone can therefore serve as a modest but tangible bridge between intellectual and religious traditions, one built not on the erasure of differences, but on knowledge, curiosity, and respect.
Lessons in Leadership is a particularly fitting addition to this project. A book devoted to responsibility, courage, education, service, and moral influence now joins an initiative founded on a related principle: that knowledge should cross linguistic and cultural boundaries, widening the circle of those able to take part in the conversation.
The Arabic translation was prepared by The Connecting Hamza NGO, by arrangement with Koren Publishers Jerusalem.
The complete Arabic edition of Lessons in Leadership is now available to read and download free of charge from the Dangoor Centre’s Arabic Digital Library.
