Boxes. Andrew Cushnir is constantly surrounded by boxes. Can’t seem to get away from them.
It’s late March, and boxes are everywhere he turns – at his new office at the Park Heights headquarters of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, and at his new residence in the North Baltimore neighborhood of Guilford that he shares with his wife, Sharon.
In fact, since moving to Baltimore in April of 2024 to become the federation’s seventh president and CEO, Cushnir says he’s primarily lived amongst boxes, even during his transitional time in a rental dwelling in Mount Washington.
But that’s all about to change, and for the 61-year-old Cushnir, a sense of permanence can’t come a moment too soon.
“Our whole life is in transition, and I can honestly say I’m tired of boxes,” he says. “I moved [into his Associated office] within a week of when I moved into our house. It felt like a good way to celebrate a year in Baltimore.”
A native and lifelong resident of the Los Angeles area, Cushnir says he’s more than ready to set down roots in his adopted hometown of Charm City.
Cushnir succeeded Marc B. Terrill, who served as the top professional leader of The Associated from 2003 to June of 2024. Before coming to Baltimore, Cushnir served as executive vice president and chief development officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. He led that organization’s efforts to raise funds through its annual campaign, strategic philanthropy priority projects, and planned giving.
Cushnir came to the L.A. federation in 2004. Before entering the Jewish communal field, he practiced law at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP and SunAmerica Inc. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, he received his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in San Francisco.
A big fan of the L.A. Lakers, the UCLA Bruins and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Cushnir is also an avid gardener and has been a vegetarian most of his life.
Jmore recently sat down with Cushnir, the father of two adult children, to talk about his plans for steering the federation into the next chapter of its 105-year existence, as well as his thoughts about Baltimore’s Jewish community and the region in general.
As a lifelong Californian, why did you want to relocate here?
I deeply believe in the federation system and what federations do for their communities. And I think The Associated, now that I’ve been here for a year, does it better than any other federation. Even when I was interviewing, I was drawn to The Associated by how well it coordinates with the community. When the opportunity came up to do it, I said to my wife, ‘This is really interesting.’
It’s an incredible opportunity to be in a great community with a great organization doing important work.
Were you looking to leave L.A.?
I never thought I’d leave Los Angeles. In fact, anyone who’s known me my whole life is kind of shocked. But The Associated and Baltimore’s Jewish community were that compelling to us.
My wife and I were at the stage of our lives where we were ready for a new adventure. This is a very thoughtful community that engages on every Jewish issue and punches above its weight in terms of leadership in the global Jewish network. It’s just a really interesting place to do this kind of work.
What makes The Associated different from other federations?
Baltimore Jews don’t realize what a fabulous Jewish community this is. There’s a feeling here sometimes of, ‘Well, we’re not New York, we’re not Los Angeles, we’re not somewhere else.’
But Baltimore is a great place to be Jewish. And I think The Associated is part of that. The Associated plays a more centralized role in the network of agencies than other federations do in this era. So we do most of the coordination of fundraising and planning. The reality of the closeknit community and a strong Associated feed into each other to strengthen the Jewish community.
Los Angeles is a very dis-integrated community. The federation there struggles to play a central role and does some really great work. But here, The Associated’s role as the center of Jewish life is absolutely clear and it makes a huge difference in terms of how the community operates.
Do you find L.A. and Baltimore to be very different communities?
For sure. L.A.’s federation serves the largest geographic area of any federation in the country, and the psychology of Los Angeles is very spread out. Meanwhile, the psychology of Baltimore is very centralized. They’re very different, and for me that’s been the fun of discovering Baltimore. I’m not used to this type of community, and I love it.
Do you see similarities?
All Jewish communities, particularly in the context of October 7th, are going through similar challenges and trying to figure out how the Jewish world relates to the [overall] world, and how to maximize their feelings of engagement and support. So in that way, I think they’re similar.
But Jewish Baltimoreans are very proud of being Jewish and live a very sincere Jewish life that I did find in Los Angeles but was more rare there.
Have you found Baltimore to live up to its reputation of being provincial and rather cliquey?
For me and my wife, Baltimore has been incredibly warm and welcoming. I don’t know if it would be different if I weren’t coming in with my job, but our experience has been a warm and welcoming community.
I don’t think Baltimoreans are provincial. I think they – we – are very wide-eyed and sophisticated and thoughtful. In terms of sophistication and commitment and connection, we’re rock solid with anybody.
I will say when I meet people who tell me they moved here more than 30 years ago and still don’t feel part of the community, it makes me chuckle. But it’s a much more mixed community than people give it credit for. I think historically the tradition was if you weren’t born here, then you weren’t an insider. I think that’s faded, but the narrative continues. It’s something we have to work on. The sense of belonging that people want from a community should be a priority for all of us. I think Baltimore does that better than we give ourselves credit for.
Do you feel Baltimore’s large Orthodox community is a community unto itself?
No, it’s not a separate community, but it’s sometimes falsely perceived to be. I spend time moving back and forth between all the different denominations and affiliations. Certainly, people choose to do things differently and do Jewish in different ways, but the Orthodox community’s overlaying integration into the Associated and the larger Baltimore community is quite noticeably strong. I think it’s a beautiful thing.
The way the Orthodox community here engages in Jewish communal life is in a more systematic, consistent and thorough way than the way the Orthodox community does in Los Angeles. That’s a noteworthy difference. In Baltimore, everyone engages in Jewish communal life.
What do you view as The Associated’s biggest challenges ahead?
The challenges are similar to those around the country. October 7th changed everything for the Jewish world and we’re grappling with what that means to support Israel, which is core to who we are, and also how to support our community when we’re feeling antisemitism more strongly. The Associated is launching a center to respond to antisemitism — more news coming on that shortly.
We have the challenge of raising the funds to sustain this vibrant system. Every community has that challenge. And we have the challenge of being the best citizens of Baltimore as well. Baltimore is a complicated town, like every urban community that faces real challenges. I’ve enjoyed getting to know it. The Associated can and will play an even greater role in Baltimore. We have to find a way to work together to address the challenges.
I also think we’re sitting here in an era when the State of Maryland has a budget deficit and the federal government seems to be changing its funding model to support the nonprofit sector. Those challenges will be enormous. The change in governmental approach to nonprofits will absolutely impact our system. The Associated system, as a whole, receives about $15 million a year in government grants. We’re obviously working with our network of agencies to track all of this and see what happens to all those grants. Most of that is in the unknown category right now, and there’s a lot of fear that government cutbacks will be significant and hurt our clients. We just don’t know yet.
Are you nervous about the future?
I think the Jewish community needs to focus on staying together and staying strong, even in uncertain times. Generally, Jewish communities don’t do well in times of chaos. I’m nervous about societal chaos and about government funding for our network, but overall I’m not nervous. I think our strengths outweigh our challenges.
I’m confident if we need to generate additional funds to compensate for possible government cutbacks in social services, our system and donors and community will rally to do what we need to do.
What changes do you envision for the Associated?
I think the Associated and the whole system are pretty lean and effective and client- and community-focused in a way that they should be. If we have to deal with significant funding changes resulting from government adjustments, we’ll do what we need to do. But I don’t see a system that is bloated or overstaffed. I see a system of quality, hardworking professionals working in partnership with volunteers that’s strong and lean, and we’ll find a way to get through these challenges.
The one thing I do want to do, both internally in the Associated and among the agencies, is to increase collaboration as much as possible. We’re all in this together. We need to do what needs to be done in as efficient a way as possible.
Do you feel you were hired to be a change agent?
I think I was brought in for both my deep federation experience and fresh eyes. I do expect to bring evolutionary change to The Associated and, hopefully, to the whole community in the time I’m here. I don’t think the system is broken; I just think we have to give it a tune-up.
Change is coming to every community in the country in lots of different ways, and we have to be forward-looking. Every federation is going through changes right now as far as how we raise money and how people connect to the community, how institutions are viewed. We’re all going through a process of finding new ways of connecting with people and creating a sense of belonging and raising money to make them feel a sense of accomplishment with how their money is being used.
Is it getting harder for federations to raise money from communities these days?
Sometimes, people look at Jewish community fundraising and look at one piece of the pie and say it might be harder than it used to be. That may be true regarding the annual campaign. But there’s a lot of dynamic, interesting Jewish philanthropy happening in Baltimore and around the Jewish world. When you match the donor’s passion to the work you’re doing, you can raise more money. It’s our job to inspire the newer, different kinds of funders to support the work we do. Creative nonprofits that know how to speak to community members and stakeholders and donors will do fine in the new world. Our best days are ahead of us.
(Photo by David Stuck)
With the changing fiscal landscape, do you envision The Associated changing course on overseas programs, such as Baltimore’s relationships with Ashkelon and Odesa?
We’re enormously proud of our partnership with Ashkelon and our work in Israel and our longstanding partnership with Odesa. There is no way, even in a constrained budgetary environment, that we’d ever back out of those partnerships.
Programs change and grow and shrink, and new ideas come and things are done differently. But we will never abandon those partnerships. They’re foundational to who we are.
What’s been the reaction so far to your new headquarters here in Park Heights after more than a century downtown?
Baltimore is a community of communities and a community of neighborhoods. So there are people who are thrilled we’re in Park Heights and people who are missing us downtown. The opportunities for us being in Park Heights now are extraordinary and we can do even more with the Park Heights community, and we’re a little closer for most people from a communal perspective. This building will be hopping when it’s fully operational.
Since you arrived at The Associated, has there been a lot of turnover?
There’s been normal evolutionary change. Marc was here, if you total it up, for almost 30 years and was a phenomenal leader, and I spent a lot of time learning from him. He’s been a great mentor and friend.
I think there’s naturally turnover in an organization our size. We’re having normal amounts of turnover. I think from an employment perspective, a community engagement perspective, we’re still in an adjustment phase from COVID and the crosscurrents of October 7th and being in an era of change. So people will move from one organization to another. I don’t think we’re in a moment of particularly high transition.
To be blunt, I haven’t let anybody go and I don’t plan to. That’s not the kind of change we’re talking about.
Some people think of The Associated’s CEO as the unofficial “mayor of Jewish Baltimore.” Would you agree?
As someone who’s only been here for one year, I feel to claim to be the mayor of Jewish Baltimore would be quite foolish. I hope by the time I leave, some people will call me the mayor of Jewish Baltimore.
In my role, I get a lot of questions and angst about the strategies to address Jewish problems. I think that’s appropriate. People expect us at The Associated to roll up our sleeves and make a difference on issues that matter to them. I love it when someone comes up to me and asks a question about who we are or what we’re doing and how we’re responding to the moment. That’s evidence of our central role in the community.
Do you hear a lot of kvetching?
I am most profoundly a people person. The conversations I have when people complain a little bit about their dreams and desires are conversations I love. It’s why I love being a Jewish communal professional.
What can we do about antisemitism and all the anti-Israel vitriol out there?
The best way we can address it from a macro perspective is by sharing the truth, and from a micro perspective by building relationships. The fight against antisemitism is a person-to-person conversational kind of thing, and we’re building some structures at The Associated that we’ll be sharing with the community shortly in ways to really do that. We also have to ensure our education systems open people’s eyes to the problems of antisemitism and hate.
What about Israel?
I’m a proud Zionist and the Associated is a proudly Zionist organization. That doesn’t mean we can control what happens on the ground in Israel. Israel has a right and need to defend itself. Sometimes, that is viewed in the world critically, but we will stand by Israel and make sure it receives support from the American Jewish community to stay strong. …
Israel is complicated like everything is complicated. In Israeli society itself, there is a broad conversation about what Israel in the future should look like. Most people I talk to want Israel to be the best place it can be. The question is, how do we get there? The conversations about Israel that we have in this community are intense because people want the best for our people.
Will The Associated remain an apolitical organization?
We are an apolitical organization, and we really exist to serve the whole community. We have to find ways where we’re in dialogue with the whole community. For sure, there are people on different sides of issues that often come at me and want us to say or do certain things. But our north star is to make sure we’re strong enough to lead the community. We’re not political in the sense that we take sides in political battles.
How does the community reach and engage the next generation of Jews?
As a father and community leader, I think Jewishness, as a whole, is made for this moment. We need to take people on a journey of meaning and purpose. That’s what this generation wants, and what every generation wants. If we can find ways to share with this upcoming generation that feeling and passion, we’ll be fine.
But since October 7th, we’ve seen a lot of hostility toward Israel, some of which has come from younger Jews.
The flow of information and the way people get their news about complicated issues like the Middle East and Israel is a challenge for a lot of people. If you’re living in a TikTok world trying to understand a complex, nuanced situation, it’s just not going to work.
It’s our job to make sure people have the information they need to make informed judgments and reach their own conclusions about the moment we’re in. It troubles me that young people look at what’s happened with Israel since October 7th and only see one side of the story and don’t understand Israel’s need to defend itself. It’s a product of this crazy social media world we live in. People don’t do complexity very well anymore, and that scares and saddens me. If we are open and honest with people about Israel’s challenges, there’s room to bring people to the table.
In my career, I’ve enjoyed the honor of taking non-Jewish community leaders to Israel. When you take someone who’s not Jewish to Israel, the moment you know you’ve been successful is not the moment they say they agree with everything Israel is doing. It’s when they say, ‘I had no idea it was this complicated.’
What personally turned you on to being Jewish as a young person?
I was incredibly fortunate to be part of a great United Synagogue Youth chapter at my synagogue in Northridge, California. That experience launched me to Jewish life and leadership. We all have a responsibility to everyone growing up in a Jewish community to help them find their place where Judaism comes to life.
For me, it was youth group. For someone else, it might be day school or summer camp or a trip to Israel or experiencing Shabbat for the first time.
Did you grow up in a Jewishly observant home?
My house wasn’t particularly religiously observant. My parents, at one point, were on the board of a Conservative synagogue. But it was not a home where Jewishness was thought of the first thing every day. It was a home where I learned to connect with the power and beauty of Judaism, and that’s what we’re trying to provide to everybody.
But you didn’t initially plan to be a Jewish professional.
I’ve always carried multiple passions. I’ve cared about civic issues and Jewish issues. I kind of knew even from a young age I would somehow bring those two things together.
During my lawyer years, I probably spent more time volunteering with the Jewish community than I did working – please don’t tell my former bosses. When I talk with people I knew in high school, they’re not surprised by the career I chose.
Was your route to becoming a Jewish professional an unusual one?
In this Jewish communal era, people are finding their way to the profession through a lot of different experiences. There are still a lot of great professionals in Los Angeles and Baltimore who have degrees that focus on Jewish life, but a lot of us learned to be Jewish communal professionals by being Jewish communal professionals.
In my case, I’ve had experiences of being a volunteer leader in Jewish communal programs and as a professional that have enabled me to see the playing field of Jewish life and make a difference. I think you can come from a lot of different perspectives and do that.
Does having a legal background help you do your job?
At its core, the Associated is a community-serving organization, but we’re also a large business. We have a roughly $50 million budget, and we hold and manage assets of over $1 billion. So being a lawyer enables me to see things, particularly the business side of our house, in a thoughtful way and lets me take on issues with an understanding of the ramifications of things.
Do you feel The Associated still has a stereotype of being a country club of sorts?
The Associated, unfortunately, does still have a bit of an image of being a place for other people to engage in, instead of whoever’s being asked. But I think the truth is we have a broad, diverse crowd of people serving at the agencies and within the Associated itself, some of whom might have high resources and belong to a country club, most of whom do not. It’s something we still need to work on, in letting people know there’s lots of room for community leadership, regardless of whether you were born in Baltimore or belong to a country club or even a synagogue. We need the Jewish community as a whole to engage with us so we can be stronger.
Is the annual campaign still a cornerstone of The Associated’s mission?
The Associated and the Jewish community of Baltimore are absolutely dependent on everyone stepping up and engaging in Jewish life in lots of ways, including financial support. I do think when people make a donation to The Associated, they’re making a statement as well as a gift. We want as many people as possible to do that.
I also think people now make philanthropic decisions differently and not on autopilot, so we have to earn every gift we get from the community, and that’s something we’re working on doing.
What about attracting the next generation of Jewish philanthropists?
Newer philanthropists don’t automatically make Jewish investments in the same way their parents and grandparents might have. But I think what we’re doing in the community puts us in a place where we can compete in a philanthropic marketplace with anybody. If you care about people having a safety net, you should support The Associated. If you care about sending people out on Jewish journeys, you should be supporting The Associated. If you care about connecting Jews to the larger Jewish world and to Israel, you should be supporting The Associated.
If we can convey those messages, I have no doubt we’ll continue to have strong support from the community.
What would people be surprised to learn about you personally?
I think something that seems noteworthy about me to the people I’ve met around town is that I’m a vegetarian. I hate to go there, but it seems to me that Baltimore and vegetarianism don’t go together that well.
I’m also a backyard gardener and I’m excited that the new home we have came with some raised garden beds. I look forward to learning how to grow things here in Baltimore because it’s very different than Los Angeles. One wonderful thing about coming to Baltimore is that it has four seasons. L.A. really doesn’t. I love spring in Baltimore when life comes bursting out of the soil. I’m very excited about that.
The Jillian and Lindsay Wiener Short-Term Rental Safety Act requires rental companies to conduct annual fire inspections in Baltimore City and every Maryland county.
Reproductions of the murals, previously believed to have been lost, are now part of the Jewish Museum of Maryland's new permanent exhibition.
The donation will be directed to help foster research conducted by faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and to advance innovative treatments.
Scholar Izabella Tabarovsky will speak at the “Generations of Courage” program on Apr. 26 at The Associated's Goldsmith campus.