Yanowitz Award
This past week I was awarded the 2020 Bennett and Donna Yanowitz Leadership Award by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.
It was an honor to receive such a prestigious award from a family and organization that have done so much for the Jewish people in Cleveland.
Here are my remarks while accepting the award:
Thank you David and Alan. I’d like to start by saying thank you to both of you, the Yanowitz family, and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland for presenting me with this prestigious award. The Yanowitz family has provided unwavering support to the Jewish community. Donna and Alan, here with us today, and Bennet, of blessed memory, have been pillars of the Jewish community in Cleveland and around the world for decades, supporting many worthy organizations and causes.
In anticipation of today, I read about Bennet and all of the organizations he and Donna supported over the years - from Federation to Akiva High School, to what’s now JCPA, JESNA, JTA, JFNA - all of the J’s! and support for Soviet and Ethiopian Jewry. Bennet lived an amazing life of service!
In Donna’s words: “I think the Federation is the most efficient and best way to serve the whole Jewish community. I give elsewhere in the Jewish community and the general community, but the Federation covers so many of the important agencies, and this way I know my money is going to the right places, where it’s most needed.” As someone who has grown up in a Federation family, from Super Sundays to the Saltzman Youth Panel, and from YLD’s board to JFNA’s National Young Leadership Cabinet, the Cleveland Federation has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
Surrounded by Jewish traditions and values from a young age, I’ve never taken my Judaism for granted. But there are so many of my generation who grew up Jewish and it is no longer part of their life. We need to build more bridges to reconnect these people back to our community by being more inclusive.
A bridge for me was JDC Entwine. After traveling with the JDC to Cuba and China I wanted to step away from work for a “gap year” to volunteer with a community in need somewhere around the world. My parents, on a Cleveland Federation Mission through Poland and Germany encouraged me to look closer at Krakow, Poland. I was very fortunate to serve as the Roslyn Z. Wolf Cleveland-JDC International Fellow at the Jewish Community Center of Krakow. Working with Jonathan Ornstein and the team at JCC Krakow was a life-changing opportunity and one that will impact me for the rest of my life.
As unlikely as it may sound, there are lessons from Krakow’s Jewish community that I learned. In Krakow, the Jewish community was decimated during the Holocaust and then driven underground during Communism. 1.1 million Jews were killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps, just 50 miles from where I lived and worked for 18 months. The community is now a small fraction of what it once was, but people are finding out they have Jewish roots and they are breaking down the door to reconnect to a past that was severed from their family.
Today, Judaism in Krakow and in Poland is significant given the 1,000 year history of Jewish life in Poland. Despite what you might think when you picture Poland, it is safer to be Jewish there than in many places around the world. The Krakow Jewish Culture Festival began in 1988 and is one of the oldest and most widely attended in the world. I witnessed so many people, young and old, participating in the Jewish community in many different ways. The Krakow JCC serves as a defacto Federation for the community, offering language classes, Torah study, holiday gatherings, Shabbat dinners, and social services for Holocaust survivors and other people in need.
Some of these community members have just one Jewish grandparent, regardless of whether it is matrilineal or patrilineal, they are considered to be Jewish. Why is it that in the year 2021 if I were to marry someone who isn’t Jewish, my children would not be considered Jewish here in America? We need to understand that though the composition of our community may look different today than years ago, it may cease to exist if we don’t do a better job of making everyone feel welcome and engaged. Programs like Honeymoon Israel, supported by our Federation, are promoting inclusion over exclusion. We, the next generation have to envision and build a more inclusive future.
Through travel with my family and National Young Leadership Cabinet, I’ve seen Jewish communities in countries like Morocco, Spain, Russia, Mexico, Poland, Germany, and more. The value that I see embraced in so many places, that makes me proud to be a Jew is Tikkun Olam, working individually and collectively to repair the world as best we can. My volunteer work gives me a sense of duty and purpose that I hope to pass on to my children one day like my parents have passed to me. I value the mentorship, friendship, and growth that I’ve gained working with so many exceptional people.
My parents, Suellen and Larry Kadis, my sister Samantha, brother Alex, and girlfriend Jackie serve as inspiration each and every day.
Jonathan Ornstein, Kasia Leonardi, Rabbi Avi Baumol, Sebastian Rudol, Agnieszka Giś, and the team of staff and volunteers at JCC Krakow remind me of the resiliency of the Jewish people.
Nancy Levin, Harvey Siegel, Jared Isaacson, Shelley and Adam Gimbel, Gregg Levine, and the staff and board of the Cleveland Hillel Foundation make me proud that we are doing our best to connect with the next generation of Jewish leaders.
From the Federation, I’d like to thank Jessie Bruder, Michelle Hirsch, and Jason Wuilger for encouraging me to join Cabinet.
There are countless others who have been instrumental in my development over the years and I am thankful to all of them as well.
Thank you again for this very meaningful honor.
