Staff Writer

Hadar Susskind was not a typical teenager. While most of his friends from Columbia went to college, Susskind was leading 15 other 20-year-olds up a hillside in Lebanon as a member of the Israeli army.

The experience taught the Jewish Council on Public Affairs' new Washington director lessons about such things as "attention to detail," he said.

"I learned that you really have to have a stopper in your canteen," he remembered last week. "Otherwise, the water makes too much noise, and somebody shoots at you."

But spending 2 1/2 years "working to make Israel safe and secure" also taught him what he wanted to do with his life ‹ working to help both the Jewish state and the American Jewish community be better places.

"[If] I'm going to spend three years of my life when I think I [could] be doing things that one could say objectively would be more fun, that's a big commitment," he said. "Once you've done that, it's not even a question ... that those goals are what I'm committed to and what I want to work for."

Susskind, 32, has spent the past seven years in Washington working for a better world, the past three as Washington representative for the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life. Before that, he was assistant director of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society's Washington office.

Those positions have provided him with a "good, deep understanding of the Jewish community" and the priorities of the various Jewish agencies in town, he said, which should give him a good "head start" when he assumes his new job on Dec. 1.

JCPA is an umbrella agency, representing 13 national and 123 local community relations agencies on public policy issues and aiming to serve as a unified communal voice. While he noted that the groups do generally agree on many issues, there are disagreements. The groups also vary in the emphasis they place on particular issues.

Thus, he sees the most important part of his new position as "the listening part," talking to the various agencies so he knows where everyone is, what each is focusing on and "making sure that everybody is involved in the things that they want to be involved in."

And he noted that he and his staff "are not going to be expert on every issue," so they will be looking to the community for expertise, as well as information on what issues are resonating outside of Washington.

Taking over the job from Reva Price, who left in the spring to work on Jewish outreach and other issues for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Susskind comes to JCPA a few months after Steve Gutow took over as executive director, and as questions are being raised about whether partisan divisions among leadership has resulted in the organization staying on the sidelines for crucial policy battles.

Susskind acknowledged that Washington has become much more partisan in recent years, but said JCPA's job is to "navigate that and not fall into ... one side or the other." He said he is completely comfortable working on both sides of the aisle, having dealt often with both Republicans and Democrats at HIAS and COEJL.

After working on specific issues at both of those groups, he said he is looking forward to being able to advocate on the "wide array of Jewish community policy issues" that JCPA provides. In particular, he pointed to the opportunity to work on Israel and Middle East issues.

Israel has been an important part of Susskind's life. He was born in the Jewish state to American parents, but spent most of his childhood in the United States and graduated from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia. Brought up by his parents with a strong Jewish background, he spent a year in Israel during high school and went back after graduation on a Habonim-sponsored yearlong program.

It was then he decided to stay, and join the Israel Defense Forces.

"I looked at it as the entrance into society there," said Susskind.

He ended up with the rank of sergeant first class in the Givati Brigade, spending half of his time in Lebanon and the security zone and a portion of his service in the West Bank and Gaza.

In addition to "bringing a certain maturity to my life at a younger age than might have been the case otherwise," Susskind said that it gave him some valuable perspective.

For instance, he noted that while many arguments about Israel among American Jews break down into left vs. right, the situation is more complicated.

"There are real security challenges that have to be dealt with by the army there," he said. "That doesn't mean everything that the army or any particular Israeli government does is necessarily the right thing."

"The role of the American Jewish community is to support Israel unquestionably and unequivocally, [but] that doesn't mean you have to support each and every specific action that takes place," he continued, noting that Americans support their country while not backing every action taken by their government ‹ and Israelis feel the same way.

After he left the army, Susskind attended Tel Aviv University, and later spent some time as the John Madden of Israel, working for the National Football League's office in the country and serving as a TV analyst for football games broadcast to the Jewish state.

He also met his wife, Ilana, in Israel. Ironically, she also was born in Israel to American parents and grew up in the Washington area, but they actually attended the same bar mitzvah celebrations and other parties while growing up, Susskind said. When she wanted to attend graduate school, they returned to the U.S. and have now settled in Takoma Park with their two young children.

He quips that the principles he has been teaching his 3-year-old ‹ "Be nice and help other people" ‹ carries on throughout life, although one has to "try and articulate it a little differently on the Hill."

As someone who has dedicated his time to various community service causes over the years ‹ from working in soup kitchens to mentoring children ‹ Susskind said being able to advocate for Jewish values full time is special.

"I consider myself very lucky to be able to take those personal values and implement them professionally," he said. "Not a lot of people have that opportunity."