Dan Lepow: The guy from Philly

There's one thing Dan Lepow will kill for. No, it's not fame. It's not fortune. It's not a ticket to the National League Championship Series to watch his beloved Philadelphia Phillies.

It's cheesesteak.

"I love a good cheesesteak," he says with a big grin and laugh.

The 64-year-old is the new executive director of the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d'Alene, and he's brought with him the wit, the wisdom, the attitude, the humor, and yes, the accent, of a guy born and raised in The City of Brotherly Love.

Yes, Philadelphia.

"I'd appreciate a little respect for a guy from Philly," Lepow says, smiling. "I talk funny. I have a funny accent. It's not my fault. My father had the same accent."

Oh, and he's Jewish, too.

"There's a website you should go to," he says, chuckling. "Old Jews telling jokes."

While Lepow is gregarious, quick to offer a few jokes of his own and loves talking sports, especially the Phillies and the Eagles, he's pointed and serious when it comes to human rights.

The son of Benjamin and Dina Lepow learned early to be passionate about life, to stand up for what is right, to stand against what is wrong, to stand up for others, too.

His father, a veterinarian who died when his son was 23 years old, left a legacy of hard work, dedication and love.

"He combined a job, a passion, and always time for me. He was passionate about his causes, but I never felt cheated for time. I always had time to talk to my dad. He always respected what I had to say and would listen to me. I'm sorry he died as young as he did."

His mom worked in schools, was involved in the union. Both parents were active in the Zionist movement, which called for the creation of a Jewish homeland.

One uncle, after fighting with the U.S. Army in World War II, later moved to Israel.

Dan Lepow, with a background in the world of high finance and fundraising for nonprofits, knows why he's in North Idaho, what he's here to do, and how he's going to get things done.

He mentions that he taught a fundraising course, and it had a one-world title:

"Listen."

"Listen to the person you're talking to. Listen to what they want to do. Listen to their goals and desires," he says.

You see, Dan Lepow, a worldly traveler with sons in Oakland, Brooklyn and Tel Aviv, has this strange, total, absolute belief that everybody is good.

Everybody.

"This is a philosophy I've lived my whole life. People are good, I enjoy people, I enjoy their differences. It's boring if we all sit around and agree with each other all the time," he said. "But it's an incredible world, and incredible country. If you go around and talk to people you really learn a lot of stuff. I think every connection changes you a little bit, because you learn a little bit from everybody, so you're always learning and growing."

What was it like growing up in Philadelphia?

Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods. You grow up in a neighborhood. There's the Jewish neighborhood, the Irish neighborhood, the black neighborhood, the Italian neighborhood. I didn't grow up in Philly. I grew up in Winfield. I grew up in west Philly. We lived in row houses, called townhouses today. It was funny, we used to stand on the street corner. My grandparents lived in my house, my nice, crazy neurotic sister lived there. You didn't have big rooms with TVs and computers. Your space was your street corner. You used to hang on a corner. It was social networking. Now we use Facebook and all those other things. The street corner was social networking.

Most people don't leave Philadelphia. It's a very strong community. Even though I left, I still have it in me. But it was wonderful.

Did you have racial problems?

I don't think we had the tensions and the racial craziness. You lived in your neighborhood and you appreciate the differences. We went to an elementary school that was in my neighborhood so everybody was Jewish. Then we went to the junior high. The Italians came, the blacks came, the Irish came, and it was really a melting pot. You really appreciate each other.

Any fighting at all?

There was no violence. There were no fights. We were street corner kids. Our best thing was what kind of ball you can play. Wire ball, step ball, punch ball. You could play all kinds of ball.

You know the stories that Bill Cosby says, you go down and make a left at the Chevy? We did that. In fact, I once was stabbed by a '58 Oldsmobile. I went to catch a ball and it caught me with the fin. Fortunately, they were small fins.

What did you do after graduating from Penn State?

I joined the Peace Corps. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru for two years where I was the business adviser to agricultural cooperatives.

I worked in a little adobe hut village for two years. I was a kid out of college trying to teach them how to do their books and organize their activities. But I think they taught me a lot more.

I was a 21-year-old kid right out of college, and these people taught me about life. And they taught me about living and what's important and about understanding and appreciating differences in people.

You go out of the United States with this idea of the world, and you realize the world is not what you think it is.

Why come here at age 63 to be the director of the Human Rights Education Institute?

I really want to make a difference. The one thing I would say, you get to a point in your life, you've done a lot of stuff, you've learned a lot of stuff, you get to a point and say, 'How do I use it to make a difference?' With all my other jobs I've had, I am at this point in my life, I have all these skills and experience and knowledge.

This is giving me that opportunity and I appreciate that. That's the key.

How do you see yourself?

The definition of a mensch is a good, solid honorable human being, and I see myself as a mensch. I see myself as somebody who wants to be able to use those skills and talents at this point in my life.

As long as I've got something to give, I've got to be able to give it. To find the place to do that is a blessing.

How are things going for you here?

It's going great actually. It's been very positive. It's been very good. One, it's an excellent organization. Its cause is just, its leadership is wonderful. It has been around and established itself in a community that I think appreciates human rights and appreciates human rights education. So it's a good situation to be in. Basically, when they talked to me, it was 'We really need to move to the next level. We need to increase our funding stream. We need to increase our income.'

Well, in order to get money, you really need to better define the organization, how to market the organization. So the pieces were here. It really enjoys a good reputation, but like all organizations, it really needs to plan out for the future. And really needs to kind of focus what it's going, where it's going, how it's going.

What plans do you have so far for the institute?

There are three things I've kind of identified.

One, the organization has been working with the schools and providing programs, I want to improve those relationships. I want to create a more interactive working relationship. It's not bad. I think we can do better. We've been effective. I think we can be more effective.

The second thing is diversity and tolerance training. Basically, we need to get human rights out of this building, out of the classrooms and on to the street. We need to get the appreciation of our differences out there, we need to increase tolerance, we need to reduce racial prejudice, but we need to get it out of this building and on to the street. How do we get it from here to there? Create teams of volunteers who can go and teach diversity, teach tolerance, lead workshops, teams that can go anywhere in the whole area.

The third is public awareness. Programs, participation, getting the public aware of events and activities, whether it's a human rights day, we can collaborate and work with all these other organizations.

What do you mean when you talk about human rights?

When we talk about human rights, human rights is for everybody. It's not race. It's not gender. It's about people who are mentally and physically challenged. It's people who are abused. Tall people, short people, fat people.

I spoke to a group the other day and someone said, 'What about old people?' Absolutely. Do we treat our older residents with respect? We need to be doing that.

I want to be able to take this organization and put it out that human rights is every single person who walks down the street.

What's the key to making it all work?

We have to be open to everybody. I would not participate in something that wasn't open to everybody.

I raise money, but I can only raise money for something I absolutely can believe in. And if I don't believe in it, I can't sell it, I can't talk about it.

Is North Idaho ready for a guy from Philly?

They've not thrown anything at me or yelled at me. For me, here I am in North Idaho and I'm happy about it. I'm delighted. I'm having fun. It's good stuff.