An internationally recognized speaker and advocate for the Hispanic community, José C. Feliciano Sr. is chairman and co-founder of the Cleveland Hispanic Roundtable and an unrelenting champion for social justice. He was a partner at BakerHostetler for 32 years and is the recipient of the National Diversity Council’s Multicultural Leadership Award, three hall of fame awards, the American Bar Association (ABA) Spirit of Excellence Award for leadership in diversity and equity, and numerous other professional and public service distinctions.

An Early Calling to Advocate and Lead

Mr. Feliciano’s family heritage and childhood experiences gave substantive sway to the career path he would follow and the kind of man he would become. “I consider myself tri-cultural,” says Mr. Feliciano – Puerto Rican, American and Irish. Born in Puerto Rico, José Feliciano moved with his family to Cleveland’s west side when he was two years old.

His affinity for the Irish started at St. Patrick Catholic Church on the near west side and blossomed when he met and married a John Carroll University classmate. The story goes that Mary Colleen’s father sent her to the Jesuit college hoping she’d marry a nice Irish Catholic lad. “After she met me, she went home and told her dad she got two out of three.” The pair wedded, had a son, José Jr. (later married to Kellyann), and two daughters, Rebecca and Marisa. Rebecca, ironically, married an Irish Catholic boy, Paul McAvinchey, whom she met while attending graduate school in Dublin.

Before St. Patrick’s, the young Feliciano attended kindergarten and part of first grade at a Cleveland public school. Years later, when his wife taught at that same school, she discovered that her husband had been tracked “EMR” (educable mentally retarded) because he didn’t understand English. “That’s how I developed a sensitivity to language issues and became a proponent of bilingual education,” Mr. Feliciano says.

In the fifth grade, Mr. Feliciano served as an altar boy, acquiescing to the nuances of the Latin Mass. Because he lived across from the church, he was assigned 6:30 a.m. service. “I served more 6:30 Masses than any altar boy in the history of that parish,” he recalls. His work ethic was seeded there.

During his freshman year of college, Mr. Feliciano worked at the Spanish American Community, Ohio’s longest-operating Hispanic/Latino social services agency. “I helped find jobs for Hispanic kids,” he says. He was struck by the barriers that people had to overcome. “As a result of that experience, I wanted to be a social worker.” While his career ambitions evolved, Mr. Feliciano’s fervent commitment to helping underserved populations was unwavering.

Steadfast Devotion to Public Service and the Practice of Law

Mr. Feliciano earned his JD from Cleveland State University College of Law (1975) and later, his EMBA at Cleveland State University. He interned at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland. “These were the problems of the poor.… The demand was so great that I would come home and there would be people waiting for me at my house because they couldn’t get in at the office. There was an extraordinary need for Spanish-speaking services.”

As a full-time attorney at Legal Aid, Mr. Feliciano had the opportunity to try a jury trial and wanted more. He shifted to the Cuyahoga County Public Defender’s Office “doing street crimes … robberies, rapes, burglaries … a couple of murder cases.… I loved the idea of getting up in front of a jury and presenting the case … there’s nothing quite like it.”

“I remember the first time I tried a jury trial alone. I was representing a young African American who had been charged with aggravated burglary, which has a very significant penalty, seven to 25 years in prison, and it dawned on me that I was the only thing that stood between that kid and prison.… The enormity of the whole thing struck me.” As a result, Mr. Feliciano developed an early sense of responsibility and independence. “I could hardly wait to go to bed,” he says, “so I could get up and go to work.”

In 1980, at age 29, Mr. Feliciano was appointed Chief Prosecuting Attorney by then-Mayor George Voinovich. He was the first Hispanic to hold a major public office in Cleveland. Mr. Feliciano acknowledges the inherent politics in the court system but focused his energy on truth and responsibility. “I instituted law reform management and law reform programs into the system … developed a mediation program that diverted 15,000 cases out of the system and solved them.” His award-winning program was recognized by the Cleveland Foundation and the American Bar Association and influenced law reform on a national level. When he left office, more than half of the 20 lawyers on staff were African American and Hispanic. In 1983, he was named Public Administrator of the Year. In 1984, at the age of 34, he was named one of the 10 Outstanding Young Men in America, an honor given for community service and leadership – and also bestowed on John and Robert Kennedy, Henry Kissinger and Elvis Presley.

Mr. Feliciano served in 1984-85 as a White House Fellow under President Ronald Reagan. He was one of 12 selected from a pool of 1,300 applicants. As a Fellow, Mr. Feliciano represented the U.S. government in 18 countries throughout Central America, the Caribbean and Africa and was specifically assigned to evaluate the Caribbean Basin Initiative at the Department of Agriculture. The experience was extraordinary,” he recalls. And it had its perks. “I was born in the hills of Puerto Rico and I got to sit in the presidential box at the Kennedy Center.” He notes, however, “The objective of the White House Fellowship is to give people an experience at the highest policy level of the federal government and then go back and do something in their communities.” Mr. Feliciano also was inspired in his community service work by having had opportunities to meet seven U.S. presidents.

Si, Se Puede

Because of his illustrious early-career experiences, many people didn’t understand Mr. Feliciano’s shift to corporate law. “I told them I had three main reasons; their ages were 1, 3, and 5. Plus, (Baker Hostetler leadership) understood my commitment on civic engagement. They said, ‘We want you to keep doing it.’ They always gave me a lot of freedom. They knew what my interest was … raising my hand for my peeps. The Hispanic Roundtable’s motto is to serve and empower. That’s what I try to do.”

Mr. Feliciano is a founding member of the Ohio Hispanic Bar Association, a former president of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and a former member of the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association. He has been elected five times nationally to the House of Delegates. He has also served on the ABA’s Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary, where he participated in the due diligence review of Justice Sonia Sotomayor. He has chaired the Attorney Advisory Committee for the U.S. Northern District of Ohio.

In his capacity as a member of the Rule of Law Initiative of the ABA, Mr. Feliciano served recently as an instructor to prosecutors in the Justice Sector Support Program in Peru, as the country migrates from an inquisitorial justice system to the adversarial justice system. The initiative is chaired by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer and operates in 55 countries.

Mr. Feliciano serves on the Board of Trustees of Cleveland Clinic and is a Leader-in-Residence at Cleveland State University College of Law. He is a former board member of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, Commission on Economic Inclusion, Council on World Affairs, American Red Cross, Case Western Reserve University School of Law (chair of Visiting Committee), Cleveland Ballet, the National Conference for Community and Justice, John Carroll University, United Way of Greater Cleveland and WVIZ public television. Elected in 1985 to the American College of Trial Lawyers, he has been listed in Who’s Who in American Law, Ohio, Super Lawyers, and Super Lawyers in Business for Corporate Counsel Directory and Fortune 1000 Decision Makers.

A man of faith, Mr. Feliciano is “staying open to finding a ministry to Jesus Christ, a way to help people at the right time.” He fervently believes that “the Bible is God’s thoughts, God’s words, and they mean something.”

“You just can’t quit,” is something he tries to instill in his grandchildren – Ciaran, Aoibhe and Mateo – and the young baseball players he coaches. “It’s Sisyphus,” he says. “You push the rock up a little bit, it comes back down. You push it up even further.… You fall down seven times, you get up eight times.… You can’t get discouraged. Or, as they might say in Puerto Rico, si, se puede. Yes, we can.”

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As president of Cleveland City Council under five mayors (1974-1989) and a member of council for 26 years, George Lawrence Forbes has left an enduring imprint on the city he’s called home since 1953. His unapologetic priority always has been to advance Cleveland’s African American community. Retired from the practice of law, he is co-founder of the law firm Forbes, Fields & Associates, formerly known as Rogers, Horton & Forbes, which was, upon its founding in 1971, the largest minority-owned law firm in Ohio. He served as the Cleveland NAACP president for 13 years, the longest tenure in the city’s history. (Typical terms are two years.)

Nurtured and Duty-Bound to Promote Social Change

“I got it from a Black woman … my mama,” Mr. Forbes says of his character and ambition. “She had an eighth-grade education, but she believed that you should go to school and church. She instilled within us the concept of right and wrong, doing what’s right, and taking care of your family.”

The youngest of eight children, George Forbes grew up in the segregated city of Memphis, Tennessee, exposed to racial injustice from an early age. His mother, Elnora, and grandmother Eliza, “who lived across the street and was cut from the same tree,” instilled in him the importance of an education and working toward a future with broad options.

“I never forgot it and I always appreciated it,” Mr. Forbes says. “We were influenced by Black teachers who insisted that there was a better way of life. They encouraged us to get an education and to leave (the South) and go north where we had a better chance … so we didn’t have to be farmers and road workers.”

He tells the story of his youngest sister, the ninth Forbes child. Catherine Juanita Forbes would be 90 years old today if she were still alive. Her baby clothes and shoes are mounted and framed in Mr. Forbes’ home. Catherine died in a hospital before her first birthday. “My baby sister was buried in a cemetery in Memphis.… That cemetery was torn up. White folks went in and built a school for white kids. This is a cemetery for Black people. My sister was buried there, and the officials in Memphis decided that they would build a white school. So, there’s no grave for my sister. We preserved her clothes. That’s all that’s left of her. When I die … my kids (will) put those clothes in my casket so that she will have a final resting place.”

George moved from Memphis to Cleveland as a teen in 1950, where he lived with his older brother, Cleoford “Zeke” Forbes. After serving two years in the Marine Corps, Mr. Forbes enrolled in Baldwin-Wallace College (now Baldwin Wallace University). He earned his Juris Doctor in 1961 from Cleveland-Marshall (now Cleveland State University) College of Law.

A Visionary and Fervent Activist for Cleveland’s Black Community

While his eyes were at one time on the pulpit, Mr. Forbes will playfully admit his foul mouth kept him from choosing pastoring as a profession. Becoming a politician was not top of mind during his college years either, Mr. Forbes says. He chose law school so he could support his family – wife Mary and daughters Helen, Mildred (“Mimi”) and Lauren – and serve his community. Over time, he was inspired to pursue a political path as his older brother, Zeke, had done.

“I became a precinct committeeman and was involved in the ward’s Democratic Club.” In 1963, Mr. Forbes won the office of city councilman in Ward 27. Asked why he thought he won the seat, Mr. Forbes chuckled. “I was good.”

His legal background and reputation for advancing Black neighbors and colleagues were important to voters, he says. Also, “I was young and progressive, advocating that we (as Blacks) should be able to participate in the whole community.” He opened his original law practice on St. Clair Avenue in the Glenville neighborhood where he lived. In 1971, Mr. Forbes with colleagues opened Rogers, Horton & Forbes which later became Forbes, Fields & Associates Co. L.P.A.

Mr. Forbes was one of 10 African Americans in the 30-member council and later became the first Black council president. His leadership was instrumental during pivotal moments in Cleveland’s history. In 1967, as chairman of Operation Registration, a voter registration program targeting African American neighborhoods, he helped elect Carl B. Stokes, the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city.

“I was a Black official in a majority-white organization and I knew that I couldn’t get much done by just hollering ‘Black power,’” Mr. Forbes recalls. “I came to recognize that if you want to be treated right, you must treat other people right.” He understood that to make meaningful progress, it would take “a combination of Black and white people coming together.”

A Student and Agent of Change

In his civic service, Mr. Forbes enjoyed the rare distinction of serving under five mayors: Ralph Locher, Carl B. Stokes, Ralph Perk, Dennis Kucinich and George Voinovich. With those administrations, he helped advance African Americans’ economic status; balanced the city’s budget, bringing the city out of default; was instrumental in deciding to merge the city-owned Cleveland Transit System (CTS) with the new Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA); and influenced the formation of Cleveland’s Emergency Management System (EMS). Minority contractors have him to thank for passing one of the nation’s most comprehensive laws requiring the city to set aside a fixed percentage – 33%– of the city’s contracts for women and minorities.

New citywide housing, including Lexington Village, Nouvelle Espoir, Forest Hills Commons, University Circle’s Triangle, Riverfront Condominiums and Warehouse District apartments, was developed under his watch, along with recreational facilities Lonnie Burton, Forest Hills swimming pool and Camp Cleveland, later renamed Camp George L. Forbes.

The nationally renowned Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and several commercial and retail developments, including the Galleria, New East Side Market, Westown and Tower City complex, are other projects that brought jobs and improved Cleveland’s economy during Mr. Forbes’ tenure. And changing the skyline were the 45-story BP America building (now 200 Public Square) and Key Tower with its 57 floors.

In 1989, Mr. Forbes’ last year as council president, he won a property tax abatement for the then-LTV Steel, which, in addition to saving 6,500 jobs, returned $13.2 million in disputed property taxes to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. He also was on the team that established the 21st District Congressional Caucus, an organization that improved race relations within the Ohio Democratic Party.

Reflecting on what matters most, Mr. Forbes says it’s Martin Luther King, Jr. “All over the country, if you find an MLK Drive, it will be in the Black community,” Mr. Forbes shares. “I decided we were not going to do that…. I said, we are going to name East Boulevard, MLK Drive, and if you travel it, you find that it goes through the park, through the institutions out on the far east side through a progressive neighborhood. We had to fight to do that.”

Mr. Forbes acknowledges that Cleveland’s growth and successes during his active work and political career occurred with the help of many people. He especially credits mentors Charles Carr, James Davis and Mercedes Cotner for guiding him throughout his service journey.

“Charlie Carr. Very few people knew who he was. He was one of the original Black councilmen who said, ‘You’ve got to take care of Black people.’ He was there 20 years, but because of racism, he could never do it. He always pushed for Black people. Then when I got to be president, he said, ‘You must … see to it that they share in the glories and the things that they deserve,’” Mr. Forbes says.

“James ‘Jim’ Davis … was the presiding officer at Squire Sanders & Dempsey, the biggest law firm in the city at that time. He said, ‘You must make sure that Cleveland is taken care of.’ It wasn’t Black people only. You must make sure that you take care of the whole town. When you take care of the whole city, Black folks will be taken care of.”

Finally, his “great friend and co-leader” Mercedes Cotner served as the clerk of council. “Wise beyond her years,” offers Mr. Forbes. “She made sure that as we sat there every day that what I did was right. She wasn’t a racist. It was hard for her some days because she was a white lady dealing with this crazy Black man. But she advocated that you must do what’s right and take care of all the people.”

The lessons his mentors imparted are why, Mr. Forbes says, “I’m going to accept [the Cleveland Heritage Award] on behalf of those three people.”

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Ted Ginn Sr. is a nationally celebrated coach and leader with an abundance of compassion and respect for Cleveland’s inner-city youth. For more than 40 years, Coach Ginn has guided the lives and careers of young Black men in our city, first as an in-school security guard and volunteer football and track coach at his alma mater, Glenville High School; then, as a full-time salaried coach at Glenville; and finally, as founder and executive director of Ginn Academy, a public high school for at-risk boys. In 2008, Coach Ginn was featured in an Emmy-nominated documentary, “Winning Lives: The Story of Ted Ginn Sr.” His good works have earned the spotlight of ESPN, CBS, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times and The Boston Globe, among others.

Losses and Lessons in His Young Life Shaped His Values

Ted Ginn was raised by his grandparents in segregated Franklinton, Louisiana, until his mother won a custody battle that landed him in Cleveland at the age of 11.

“I was a little country boy,” he says, “always dreaming.” His grandmother and grandfather were devoted Christians and made an impression on him from a young age. “Everything I did was a sin,” he says with a chuckle. “I was mischievous … always creating things to do.” One Sunday after church services (just steps from his grandparents’ home), “The older people (were) on the porch talking … I came up from the woods and told my grandma, ‘I don’t feel good.’ You know what my grandma told me? ‘God is going to get you for killing frogs on a Sunday.’” He later learned he had measles. “She didn’t tell me that until I got a little older. She used it as a learning tool. Everything always goes back to how I was raised.”

The young Ginn made his first football from an empty milk carton. “We put rocks in it and we had a milk carton football. We’d play at recess.… I was the CEO of all that.” He also recalls doing a lot of cotton-picking and tending his cucumber patch as a youngster. “I sold my cucumbers. I was an entrepreneur then.”

A year after he moved north, his grandmother died of a broken heart, he says. He struggled with the transition and the loss. “But as I got older, I understood. They had to get me out of the South. It probably was the best thing that happened for me.” Eight years later, his mother passed; she’d had struggles of her own. Though just 19, Ted Ginn was permitted to remain in the two-family house he’d been living in. “I was paying the light bill, gas bill, rent.… Tragedy motivated me.” While working as a security guard and helping out with coaching at Glenville, he worked nights as a machinist, making airplane parts. “I never wanted to be hungry or homeless. I tell people sometimes that it took God taking my grandma and mother away for me to be successful. That’s how I see it.”

Ginn was named head coach at Glenville in 1997. Two years later, Glenville became the first Cleveland public high school to qualify for the state playoffs in football. The team went on to win 10 league championships under Coach Ginn, who led them to the state championship in 2022. In 2006, he was recruited to coach the U.S. Army All-American Bowl game.

“I think God gave me the assignment,” Coach Ginn says of his legendary coaching career. He is well known for raising money to take his football players, as well as kids from other schools, on college tours because he believed recruiters were overlooking them. During his tenure, Glenville’s football program has produced many college and NFL stars, including Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Troy Smith, former Browns Pro Bowl safety Donte Whitner, and New Orleans Saints cornerback and four-time Pro Bowler Marshon Lattimore. To date, coach Ginn has assisted student athletes with 300 scholarships to attend college (more than 100 of those for NCAA Division I schools) and sent 30 alumni to the NFL.

It Was Never About Football

Coach Ginn is grateful for the people who stepped up in his own life … neighbors, teachers and coaches. “My (high school football) coach pulled me in (after his mom died) and said, ‘Come here and show this boy how to snap the ball.’ I just obeyed. Then, I figured it out that he was going to make me coach. He’s going to make me stay close to him to keep me from going astray. Because he knew my world. That’s how I got into coaching. I didn’t ask. I was told to do it.”

Over time, he came to realize the impact he could have on children. “They thought I was the cool guy and I could motivate them to become somebody. I didn’t want anyone to have to live like I lived. God gave me that vision. It’s not about the sport,” he insists. “It’s about the influence you can have.… The power of mentoring is so strong. Football is a table. Track is a table. Ginn Academy is a table … where you can get information and you can give direction. That’s all. It’s a table.

“Every day, I’m in a war,” he laments. He expects his teachers to fight alongside him … “with consistency and love. We’re living in dangerous times. I’m fighting with kids every day not to blow their money.… I call that the pinhole in the cup. (Teachers and coaches) fill the cup up, but then a boy has to go home,” Coach Ginn explains. “His mama might be on crack. He probably doesn’t have anything to eat. Once he walks out this door and down St. Clair, he sees boarded-up homes, he sees (broken) glass, he sees people standing on the corner.… And you’re telling me, I can be something? His mama tells him, ‘Stay home (from school). Babysit the kid while I go try to work this job to get us some money.’ That’s real. You can’t blame them for where they came from or what somebody else didn’t do.”

All We Need Is Love

“It was necessary,” Coach Ginn says of his school for at-risk boys. Ginn Academy enrollment is approaching 400, up from 150 in 2007 when it opened. Graduates have earned over $2.7 million in college scholarships. At Ginn Academy, every student has an individual life plan. The goal is to address the specific needs of each student.

Always, his students and their families have understood that Coach Ginn would be there for them 24-7-365, often (particularly in the old days) welcoming them into his home – with full support and involvement from Jeanette Ginn, his wife of almost 40 years. “I had a kid stay in my house when I was 19,” he shares. “I took care of him. He was a 16-year-old alcoholic.”

Coach Ginn says of his Ginn Academy students, “They didn’t come here to play football. They didn’t come here to play sports. Do you know why they came here? (They came with the) hope we can make something out of them. And they know they’re going to be loved.”

Ted Ginn Jr., was a national champion in high hurdles on Glenville’s track and field team, and his senior year at Glenville he was named USA Today National Defensive Player of the Year for high school football. He went on to play wide receiver and kick returner at The Ohio State University and had a successful NFL career. “But the most important thing,” according to his dad, “is that he’s an example of hope for others.”

“I’ve got to keep working. I have to try to make the world a better place for my kids and grandkids. As long as I keep doing this and I know that God’s got me, I have hope.” One such hope is a Ginn Academy for girls. He’s hard at work on that now.

Through the Ginn Foundation, Coach Ginn provides salaries for youth support staff at Ginn Academy, college scholarships, college tours for Ohio high school football players, bereavement assistance, food drives, rent and utility assistance, and travel expense for college visits.

Coach Ginn is a former board member of what is now the Greater Collinwood Development Corporation, the YMCA and the National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities. Recently, he was inducted into the National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame. In 2014, he was given the keys to the city in recognition of his community impact. In 2006, a portion of a Cleveland street was renamed Ted Ginn Sr. Avenue.

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Arriving in Cleveland in 1974, Stephen Hoffman moved his way up the ranks of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland over a 44-year period, retiring in 2018 as president, a post he held for 35 years. He continues to serve Cleveland and the Jewish community as chairman of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. He also remains a persistent attendant to social justice, his faith community and the Jewish value of Kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba’zeh – all Jews are responsible for each other.

Shouldering Responsibility from a Young Age

Mr. Hoffman’s life appears to have followed a divine plan. He grew up in Philadelphia, largely influenced by his parents, his maternal grandparents and a Jewish youth organization that, Mr. Hoffman reflects, “unknowingly … shaped my career path.” That youth organization was BBYO (originally known as the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization).

During his senior year in high school, he was elected co-president of the Philadelphia division of BBYO, heading up the boys’ division, which had more than 800 members in approximately 20 chapters throughout the city. A serendipitous departure of the organization’s two professional staff members presented an extraordinary opportunity for the young Hoffman and his cohort at the B’nai B’rith Girls (BBG) group, which had about 1,200 members and 40 chapters at that time. The national office appointed a supervisor to monitor the high schoolers remotely, but “essentially what happened is that my co-president and I ran the organization as kids for a year and went far beyond what any previous occupants of those jobs ever did,” Mr. Hoffman reflects. “We ran conventions … including taking over a hotel in Atlantic City one long weekend.… We even ended the year in a surplus.”

While attending Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he worked at the summer camp program as a librarian and taught a BBYO leadership course. He also became highly active in the Jewish student organization, helping to “build it up from a very rudimentary organization to a very extensive organization,” he says. “Before I got there, there was no Jewish studies program. And when I left, there was a full-time Jewish studies professor. I helped advocate for that and raise funds to establish the chair for it.”

While he was deliberating whether he wanted to pursue further education in clinical psychology or law near the end of his senior year, Mr. Hoffman received a call from someone he had met at camp who told him about a scholarship opportunity for a new field of study being developed by the Council of Jewish Federations.

“In our world, your synagogue was the place where you were active in Jewish life … at least for my parents. We didn’t know what a Jewish federation was, but he said to me, ‘Basically, you’ll get paid to do what you’ve been doing as a kid.’’’ Liking what he heard, he jumped on a train to New York to interview for a spot in the program and secured a full ride, plus a loan for living expenses. At the conclusion of the program, he had simultaneously earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in Jewish studies from Baltimore Hebrew University.

A Humble, Impactful Leader for His People

“When I graduated, I was recruited by a number of places,” Mr. Hoffman says, “but I chose Cleveland on the advice of people in the field.… Cleveland was (and remains) one of the most important Jewish federations in the United States. Our reputation is worldwide.”

The Jewish Federation of Cleveland is unlike other federations, Mr. Hoffman explains, in that, “In Cleveland, they did cross training in community planning, fundraising, community relations … and they had a history of promoting from within,” so Mr. Hoffman stayed longer than he intended After a year in community relations, he was transferred to social planning and fundraising, where he was later named director of social planning.

He became president in 1983 at the age of 32.

As president, Mr. Hoffman encouraged the opening of the first group home for developmentally disabled Jewish adults; led the effort to resettle thousands of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Greater Cleveland; created the Public Education Initiative in partnership with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District; launched the Employment Related Supports Program to aid individuals who lost jobs during the Great Recession; assisted with the creation of Global Cleveland to attract more people to the area; was a partner in the formation of the Cleveland Chesed Center, which helps struggling families in the Cleveland Heights community; and much more.

“I had a tremendously good experience,” Mr. Hoffman says, attributing his success to two factors. First, the federation has a robust lay volunteer program. “We learned a lot from our volunteer leaders, and they will say that they learned a lot from us (the professional staff). There’s tremendous mutual respect … and pure transparency. And all the major leaders in Israel knew our volunteers. Our volunteer leaders were successful businesspeople and professionals and were well known nationally.” Secondly, he says, “I had a vision of what the organization should look like. I also got some help. I’m a big believer in bringing in other, smarter people.”

Embracing the Tradition of Tikkun Olam

As chairman of the Mandel Foundation, he championed major philanthropic investments, including a $50 million grant to The Cleveland Orchestra to bolster its financial position and establish the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera and Humanities Festival; an $18 million grant to DigitalC to focus on building an equitable digital future in Cleveland; approximately $15 million to support nonprofits challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic; and a combined $29 million to connect Clevelanders to enhance area waterfronts.

Mr. Hoffman and his wife, Amy, also personally support many Cleveland community organizations.

“I thought Amy was amazing within the first two minutes we met,” Mr. Hoffman says. She was “busy” the first three times he asked if she’d meet him for coffee, but “it was worth it.”. The couple has two daughters, two sons-in-law and four grandchildren—two boys and two girls.

Mr. Hoffman serves on the boards of the Mt. Sinai Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, The Cleveland Orchestra and Parkwood Corporation. He also is member of the board of governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel and a member of the executive committee of The Jewish People Policy Institute, co-founder and former co-chair of Secure Community Network, and a former board member of the David and Inez Myers Foundation and United Way of Greater Cleveland. While serving on the President’s Visitor Committee at Case Western Reserve University, Mr. Hoffman connected the university with The Temple-Tifereth Israel and Tamar and Milton Maltz to create the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center.

“Mort Mandel, who was a friend and mentor, frequently talked about raising the bar,” Mr. Hoffman says. “So while we have a very effective, well-organized Jewish community, that doesn’t mean we can’t raise the bar on engagement and outreach … encouraging people to participate in the life of our community, both as donors, but also for their own self-actualization, religiously or culturally or however they choose to identify Jewishly.”

In 1987, Mr. Hoffman visited the former Soviet Union, where he encountered teachers and students of the Hebrew language meeting in secret; he returned to Cleveland with renewed resolve to promote Jewish education and Hebrew language literacy for people of all ages and backgrounds.

““We can do a better job of educating our children,” he says. “We have to figure out how to do a better job … given the kind of environment that they are in today with social media and competing interests.”

Mr. Hoffman reflects on a traditional Jewish saying. “‘A person who saves another person saves the whole world.’ Tikkun olam, which means perfecting the world,” he says. “When you engage in philanthropy, when you engage in volunteer work, when you engage in helping your neighbor, you’re participating in that work of tikkun olam.”

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Sister Judith Ann Karam is a nationally recognized leader in health care, tirelessly advocating for homeless and uninsured people and championing the rehabilitative needs of recovering alcoholics. A member of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine for 59 years, she has served four different terms as its congregational leader and continues to serve in this capacity. She also is chair of the Public Juridic Person for the Sisters of Charity Health System and served as the system’s president and CEO from 1998 to 2013. Earlier, she served as president and CEO of what is now Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital in Canton; St. Vincent Charity in Cleveland; and president and vice president of what is now University Hospitals St. John Medical Center in Westlake.

Attributing Her Life’s Work to God’s Providence

“I was born to Lebanese immigrants,” Sister Judith Ann shares. “My mother died of leukemia when I was 7 years old. My brother was 3. The loss was significant, but people came … people came to help, people came to care, people came to love.… That was the community we experienced.” Her father did the best he could, commuting every day from their home in Lakewood to the restaurant he owned in downtown Cleveland. He remarried years later, but in the interim, “I had a lot of big sister stuff,” she says. “But I loved doing it. We went to my dad’s restaurant a lot, especially on weekends. We used to take chairs from the restaurant to Euclid Avenue to sit and watch the parades.” While attending St. John Cantius High School (now Cleveland Central Catholic), she would take a bus to the restaurant after school and help her father.

“My mother’s best friend was Aunt Mary,” Sister Judith Ann reflects. “I’m so grateful for her role as a mother figure in my life. Aunt Mary encouraged me to think about a part-time job when I was a teenager.” As director of volunteers at St. Vincent Charity Hospital, Mary learned of a job in the pharmacy. “Well, it was providential,” Sister Judith Ann remembers. “I started at St. Vincent’s in 1962 as a pharmacy technician while I was still in high school!” It proved a rich cultural and growth experience. One of the pharmacy employees was married to a Methodist minister, she says. “In addition to Catholics, we also had an Orthodox Jew and Christians.… I got to experience diversity at such a young age … and the giftedness of many, many people. My wonderful work community gave me a Bible when I entered the convent in 1964 with all of their signatures.”

“I’m a workaholic,” she admits, giggling. “All our sisters and everybody else will tell you that.” Sister Judith Ann attributes this trait to the responsibility she took on after losing her mom. Additionally, she says, after her mother died, she wanted to find ways to stay close to her, “which really cultivated my spirituality.” At the pharmacy, she met Sister Mariel. The two closed the pharmacy together many nights. “Sister Mariel and I would talk about religious life … and reflect and pray.” Sister Judith Ann entered the convent in 1964 after she graduated from high school. “The main thing that attracted me to the convent was a life of prayer, community and service … being able to give service to others … or in AA terms, loving service to others. Sister Mariel was my sponsor in becoming a sister.”

Upon completing her initial training to become a nun, Sister Judith Ann was asked what kind of mission of service she would want the Congregation to consider for her. “It was natural to suggest pharmacist or perhaps a nurse in Rosary Hall (the addiction treatment center at St. Vincent).” But the decision belonged to her congregation, and its choice was pharmacy. “I thought, please, dear God, help me get through the five years of chemistry.… It was a challenge, but I got through it.”

It took some time for her father to embrace her decision to enter the convent. “My dad was so angry and upset,” she remembers. “In the vow ceremony, I was given by the bishop a variation of my mother’s name. My dad couldn’t handle it emotionally. He walked out.” Over time, he understood and respected her calling. “Every visiting Sunday, he used to bring Lebanese food to the convent for everybody. He loved our sisters.”

An Uncommon Bond

As a pharmacy tech, Sister Judith Ann delivered medications to Rosary Hall. “I met Sister Ignatia Gavin, who did heroic work with the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous at our hospital in Akron, Ohio,” she reminisces, pointing to a framed photo and books she displays in her office. “I remember the first time I went to Rosary Hall, I thought, ‘What is this place?’ It was so different than the other nursing units. And then I saw some friends who ate at my dad’s restaurant,” she says, not hiding her amusement. “I knew they were thinking, ‘What is she doing here?’ When I give this talk in AA circles, they laugh … but I really believe it was providential … a sensitivity that I have to the alcoholic, to the treatment of the alcoholic, the recovery of the alcoholic. Alcoholism is not a curable disease.… You’re always in recovery, always working … to maintain sobriety. Later, when I went into health administration, I always had responsibilities for the departments that treated alcoholics.”

Sister Judith Ann is one of a select group of Class A trustees elected to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous of Canada and the United States. As Class A, she is a nonalcoholic trustee and a participant on the board. “In 2015, I stood up at the Georgia Dome (at the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous) with thousands and thousands of people … receiving the 35 millionth copy of the Big Book from AA to the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, the religious congregation of Sister Ignatia Gavin.” She was humbled.

Leading Positive Change in Communities

“When I began working at St. Vincent’s as a full-time pharmacist, I was given the opportunity to start a new clinical program,” Sister Judith Ann says. “Drs. Bishop, Tank and Suresky, neurosurgeons on staff, incorporated the clinical pharmacist onto their team. It was the first clinical pharmacy program in a hospital in the city of Cleveland. “

She also developed new joint venture hospitals, formed health care partnerships, started a nursing home serving 22 Catholic religious congregations and forged a business partnership with Nashville-based, for-profit Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation and became a member of its board. “That was unheard of at that time,” she says. “In fact, we were under significant scrutiny. Now, everyone’s doing it because of the changes in health care today. With the collaboration with Columbia/HCA, we received 50% of the value of the acute care hospitals … and that money enabled us to form three Sisters of Charity Foundations (the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Canton, Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland and Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina).” In January 2006, the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland joined with the Saint Ann Foundation to form a single organization focused on reducing health and education disparities all over Cleveland. Together, the foundations invest more than $10 million annually. The Sisters of Charity Foundation formed Promise Neighborhood, which is focused on the Central neighborhood with Promise Ambassadors to strengthen the quality of life of the residents. Another major initiative works at ending homelessness in Cleveland.

Sister Judith Ann, a 1986 graduate of Leadership Cleveland, is bolstered by the friendships and collaborations stemming from that experience. While president and CEO of the Sisters of Charity Health System, Sister Judith Ann was chosen to serve on the Cuyahoga County Executive’s panel of medical industry and business leaders that oversaw the Cleveland Medical Mart and Convention Center project. She is the recipient of many honors, including the Award for Excellence from Health Legacy of Cleveland; a Humanitarian Award from the Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio; distinguished alumni awards from The Ohio State University, Ursuline College and Walsh University; and the Distinguished Service Award from the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA). Inducted into the OHA Health Care Hall of Fame in 2018 for being a tireless advocate for compassionate, quality care and the preservation of human dignity, Sister Judith Ann is a Life fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, a former board member and chair of the Catholic Health Association of the United States and former board member of the American Red Cross (Cleveland Chapter), the Center for Health Affairs, Greater Cleveland Partnership and University Hospitals Health System, among others. Still, she maintains, “I have gained more than I have given in so many ways.”

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