Tell Zelenskyy: 'Shtadlanut' works in quiet

A certain Jewish skill gets pronounced obsolete—right up until institutions seize up and diplomacy turns rigid. The skill is “shtadlanut,” Jewish intercession: the disciplined ability of a trusted person, operating outside the spotlight, to gain access to decision-makers and quietly shift an outcome before positions calcify and failure becomes inevitable.

Shtadlanut depends on one condition: silence. It works only when negotiations are shielded from spectacle, attribution, and public pressure. Once the process is pulled into the open for applause, leverage, or narrative advantage, the work is...