David Harris
Adam Symson, Our 2017 Community Campaign Chair, Announces Start of New Fundraising Year
“My Time to Step Up and Say Yes”
On January 25, at a meeting of volunteers and board members, Adam Symson announced the launch of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati’s new fundraising year. The Campaign this year is comprised of a team of 76 volunteers who are committed to helping the Federation raise their goal, $5.6 million, for the Jewish community. Adam is serving as the 2017 Community Campaign Chair; this part of the annual campaign focuses on those who give $1,000 to $9,999. I sat down with him afterwards to learn more about him.
Adam, his wife Sherri, and their two children live in Montgomery and are members of Adath Israel Congregation. Adam is the Chief Operating Officer for the E.W. Scripps Company.
The Jewish Federation also announced that the new chair of Women’s Philanthropy is Renee Levy; Brooke Guigui will continue as the YAD (Young Adult Division) Chair.
Danielle Minson: What inspired you to make the commitment to become Federation’s Community Campaign Chair?
Adam Symson: Sherri and I have been for here for about 13 years. We relocated here from Los Angeles, through a couple of different places. Over the last year, it occurred to me that one of the main reasons why we’ve been able to call Cincinnati home—not just the place we were staying, not some part of a transitory life—is as a result of our engagement and involvement with the Jewish community. Our trip this past summer to Israel with nearly 500 others from Cincinnati reinforced how connected we feel to our Judaism, Israel, and Cincinnati.
I’ve really come to see how it is the Jewish Federation that serves as the connective tissue for Jewish Cincinnati. The Federation is critical both in caring for our most vulnerable who have real needs and in creating and supporting the kind of community I want to raise our children in.
When Debbie [Brant, Chair of the 2017 Campaign] called me about six months ago and asked if I would help run the Community Campaign, I was honored and it just felt like the right time for me to step up, say yes, and give back.
Let’s take a step back; can you tell us about your children?
I have two daughters, a ten-year-old and a seven-year-old, and I am proud that both are active members of the Jewish community through Rockwern and through Adath Israel. Both of these places feel like second homes to my children.
Can you talk about your connections to Jewish Cincinnati?
This has been a terrific place for us as a family to integrate into the broader Jewish community. When we started a family, we took advantage of the Mayerson Foundation’s Shalom Baby programs and got involved in Adath Israel. Our oldest daughter went to the JCC for preschool. And our younger daughter is in first grade at Rockwern. We’ve developed a really strong social network through all of these connections to the community.
Sherri has been on the board of the JCC and the Jewish Federation for several years and is Adath Israel’s religious school board chair. I’ve been on Adath Israel’s board for quite a while too. This community has made it easy for us to get involved and connect.
How do you compare the Jewish communities in Los Angeles and Cincinnati?
Los Angeles has a strong Jewish community and it has scale. LA is like New York in that Jewish is everywhere, you feel it passing the Israeli restaurants up and down Ventura Boulevard or walking by the packed kosher markets and bakeries on the Westside on a Friday afternoon. The good news there is it is easy to be Jewish, religiously, culturally, or ethnically. But that also means it’s easy to be complacent about your connection to the Jewish community. You don’t have to make an effort.
Cincinnati is much smaller, much tighter. To be around Jewish here, you just have to make a little effort. It’s easy to get connected and feel involved. We’ve seen that as a real benefit because it has led us to the kind of community connectedness I never felt in Los Angeles. I think that’s a hallmark of mid-size Midwestern cities in general, but it is especially true of the Jewish community.
And how did you become involved in Cincinnati’s Federation?
Sherri had been very involved with Federation for some time, especially with the Planning and Allocations Council. But this past year, we participated together in Hineini [a Federation leadership development initiative]. Hineini was instrumental in opening my eyes to my own desire to become engaged. That term Hineini [Hebrew for “Here I am”] called to me. I really felt it was my time to step up and say, “here I am.”
What are your goals for the campaign?
Obviously we have financial goals that are important to ensure the Federation is able to meet our communty’s needs. But beyond that, I’m hoping we connect the dots. A lot of people out there know of all the good work that the Federation does and how it supports our other community organizations. But I’m not sure that everybody always comprehends how the organization raises that money annually. My hope is that by working alongside Debbie and the rest of the team, we have an opportunity to connect the dots—to engage and educate.
Why is the campaign important?
A campaign pledge is a powerful and efficient way to support the most vulnerable among us, members of our community here in Cincinnati and abroad, and to strengthen our community.
One gift to the campaign not only provides life-saving support to Jews in Cincinnati but to Jewish people throughout the world. I want a healthy and strong Jewish community for my children and for others, and I believe a healthy campaign leads to a healthy community. It’s about the impact of the dollar and it’s a strong statement that we care, we’re doing our part, and we’re all in this together.
Is there a specific moment that epitomizes the work of the Federation for you?
I remember being at a parlor meeting where members of our community who had just come back from Israel during Operation Protective Edge shared their experiences. Their stories really drove home the very precarious line that Israelis—Jews and non-Jews—live on. Follow up a year later with what happened in Europe. The Cincinnati Jewish community and Jewish Federation have had an active role in supporting those Jews. So to me that reconfirmed the importance of living in a strong Jewish community, as well as always looking externally at the ties our community has around the world.
Adam Symson is on the Board of Adath Israel Congregation and is a volunteer for the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. The Federation’s annual Campaign raises money that is then distributed—through a collaborative, volunteer-driven process—to programs that help people in Cincinnati, in Israel, and throughout the world.
