I am honored to serve as this year’s JCBA Annual Campaign Co-chair with Dianne Newman and I look forward to working with all of you to make a difference in the Akron Jewish community. Together we can support a vital and vibrant Jewish community both locally and worldwide.

My wife Molly, our four-year old son Benjamin, and I moved from Chicago to Akron a little over three years ago, to be closer to family. The community welcomed us with open arms and helped us root ourselves into Jewish Akron life. We’ve both had the privilege of becoming increasingly involved in the community. I currently serve on the JCBA Board and am the treasurer at Beth El Synagogue. Additionally, I am a Cleveland ADL executive committee member. Molly is graduate of the Jewish Leadership Initiative (JLI) and now serves on the JCC Board, as well as numerous committees, including ECE, JCC marketing, JCBA marketing and space committees, and she also served on Beth El’s Rabbi search committee.

CREATING A MATCHING GIFT We are grateful for having a program like J-Ticket, which helped us embed into the community very quickly as we transitioned to Akron. With a single, simple application, we became members of Beth El, enrolled Benjamin in the Mandel ECE and joined the Shaw JCC, thus making the campus central to our lives. It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet our $180 pledge as J-Ticket participants and because we believe in the benefits of this program, we wanted to find a way to give back. We created a match program, so that J-Ticket participants can double the impact of any increase they make to this year’s Campaign over their $180 pledge. For example, if you made a $180 gift to Campaign last year, and make a $360 gift to Campaign this year, we will match the $180 increase, so that your total gift this year would be $540. We hope that other J-Ticket families will take advantage of this and consider donating any amount above and beyond the $180 pledge so that this important program can continue!

THANK YOU in advance for helping us support the 2022 Annual Campaign.