This blog post was originally written for the Jess Schwartz Jewish Community Day School newsletter, Aleynu.
Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and US President Barak Obama
As we honor this Presidents’ Day away from the normal routines of our regular work week let us take a moment to better understand the difference of our US leadership as compared to our former rulers, the British.
In the United States we have a system led by a President. The creation of this system was primarily created so as to not allow any one individual to possess so much power that he (or someday she) could lead at will, without any input and guidance from other elected and/or ratified leaders (in direct opposition to the concept of royalty and supreme authority).
This being said, the British (and many other European countries—Israel included) possesses a system of leadership led by a Prime Minister. In these countries, there is often another “State” leader and these Prime Ministers’ leadership roles are limited to “governing” their respective countries.
In short, in most countries led by a President, the people vote independently for this specific leader and then vote for representatives or district leaders using separate and secondary votes. However, in the countries led with a Prime Minister, the people typically vote for a party to “run” the country and then the party select their leader to take on the role of Prime Minister. In other words, the Head of State (The President) speaks on behalf of the country as compared to Head of Government (The Prime Minister) who speaks for his/her party’s leadership of the country.
Lastly, in some countries, such as is the case in Israel, we actually have both a Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) and President. (former Prime Minister, Shimon Peres).
This week, discuss these two different types of leadership with your child(ren) and ask them if they think one might be better, easier, more/less efficient than the other...enjoy!
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