>> ... Next Generation ...
Natural Leader:
NEXTGen president has mountains to climb.
d
ill eet Jay Hack, 37,
Downtown Detroiter,
community activist, exec
board member of ADL and
Orchard Children's Services, natural leader
and new president of NEXTGen Detroit.
First impression: he's tall. At 6-foot-
4, Jay easily stands out in a crowd, an
outgoing confident young fellow with a
ready smile. And yes, you might follow
his lead up a mountain ...if you were so
inclined.
A professional mountain guide turned
financial adviser and rising star with
Raymond James & Associates, Jay has
been both prudent and bold in his career
and volunteer choices. In his new role
as president of Federation's NEXTGen
Detroit, Jay brings a wealth of experience.
Since his return to Detroit eight years
ago, he has been active with numerous
organizations including Cranbrook and
Jewish Federations of North America.
A seventh-generation Detroiter, Jay
grew up in West Bloomfield and attended
the Cranbrook Kingswood School before
earning a bachelor of arts in political
science from Emory University and an
MBA from American University's Kogod
School of Business. Upon graduating, Jay
joined Hack Wealth Management — a
partnership of Raymond James.
For a guy well-acclimated to spending
the nights horizontally pitched on a
mountainside and who claims a favorite
pastime is climbing frozen waterfalls
in northern Michigan, Jay at last has
found the comforts of home on the 17th
and 18th floors of the Broderick Tower
in Downtown Detroit where he enjoys
stunning views overlooking Grand Circus
Park.
If he's smiling even more than usual
these days, no doubt it's with thanks to
Federation's NEXTGen associate Tara
Forman. Jay and Tara plan to be married
next year. He recently sat down to answer
some questions.
Q: Jay, your family has a long history
in Jewish Detroit. How so?
J: It's a little-known fact, but
somewhere in the halls of Federation
there exists a plaque with the name Esther
Ruth Prussian. Esther was my great-
aunt on my mother's side of the family.
In 1924, she was hired from Boston
as assistant director of what was then
conceived as a new "federation" of social
services. They used to call her "the face of
Federation," and she remained a dynamic
24 July 3 • 2014
VIVIAN HENOCH I SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
On Opportunity:
The NEXT Big Thing
Q: In the eight years you've been
active with Federation, what changes
have you seen? And what will be the
focus of your term as president of
NEXTGen?
Jay Hack at the Masonic Temple
and masterful assistant to the director into
the 1960s.
Then there was my great-grandfather
Nathan Agree, who founded the
Downtown Synagogue and named it
after my great-great-grandfather, Isaac
Agree. So you might say Jewish Detroit is
certainly in my DNA.
Q: Why Emory?
J: At the time, I wanted to pursue a
degree in race relations and thought that
the South was an ideal place to study
civil rights. My dream was to be on the
President's Council of Race Relations. But
when I learned that it was an appointed
position, I changed my major to political
science.
I went on to American University in
Washington, D.C., to study business
with the hope that I might catch a little
"Potomac fever" and get involved in politics
as well. As it turned out, I really enjoyed
business school and stuck with that.
Q: Where did your mountain
experience fit in?
J: Rock climbing and ice climbing were
sports I picked up early as a kid. I always
loved the challenge of climbing — the
sheer beauty of it and the camaraderie
of it. Between Emory and graduate
school, I moved out west and worked
for an Internet marketing firm, and
on the weekends and even at night, I
spent my time climbing. I was climbing
at every opportunity I could get until a
spot opened up for me as a guide with
the American Alpine Institute. That was
a dream come true. My favorite pastime
became my vocation. I've been a guide
1:When I joined YAD (Federation's
Young Adult Division), we weren't nearly
as actively engaged as we are in NEXTGen
today. It used to be difficult to fill seats
on the board. Now people jump at the
chance.
Certainly, we were doing good things
back then, but over the last few years
I we've built momentum. First with the
CommunityNEXT initiatives and some key
programming to attract and retain young
talent in Michigan — and, more currently,
with the resurgence of pride in Detroit,
up Mount McKinley in Alaska, the highest
we've doubled and tripled the number of
peak in North America. I've spent winters
donors. Today NEXTGen is about 5,000
guiding in the Andes, living in the desert
young people strong with nearly 3,000
and working with clients. Mountain
donors per year.
climbing is a lifestyle, and I believe that
Now that we've "opened the funnel,"
experience has influenced the work I do
my vision is to become more inclusive in
today.
reaching out and welcoming interfaith
On Community Involvement
couples, the LGBT community, immigrant
communities — all streams of Judaism.
Q: You have a long resume of
I would like this year to be our "Year of
community work. What got you started?
Inclusion" — our most welcoming year ever.
J: Actually, I was relatively late in the
In terms of the Annual Campaign, I
game. I grew up watching my parents
would like to see NEXTGen reach past its
volunteering. My father, Paul, was the
$1 million mark. I think we're capable of
president of Hebrew Free Loan. And
doing so much more.
my mom, Francine, was president of
And another big opportunity I see is to
Hadassah. I started volunteer work
tap our strength for advocacy. This year
in graduate school in D.C. when a
we're going to respond to the vehement
friend encouraged me to work with an
anti-Semitism expressed in the Boycott
organization called Food and Friends,
Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.
which was a local meals-on-wheels
We're going to do that through education,
service for people with HIV living below
through advocacy and through activism on
the poverty line. That was my first entry
college campuses and in the community at
into the volunteering world and I loved it.
large.
By the time I moved back home, most
of my friends had moved away. In classic
"mom-fashion," my mother suggested I
Q: Why Detroit, why now?
call the Jewish Federation. One step led to
1: I've lived in a lot of places. But in my
another, and my volunteer activity just sort
mind, Detroit always has been my Big City.
of cascaded.
The arts and culture, the restaurants, the
Q: What brought you back to Detroit?
J: Honestly, I missed my family. My sister
was married, I had a new nephew, and I
thought it was time to move back. And
when my dad said to me, "Why not work
for me?" I stopped to think how cool that
would be. Up until that time I had never
even considered it, but then I thought,
"Hey, why not?" And it's turned out to be
the best career move I've ever made.
sports and entertainment, the energy and
opportunity, the entrepreneurial drive and
the spirit of reinvention — it's all here.
And to have friends moving Downtown
and meet them on the street — Detroit is
exactly where I want to be right now at
this point in my life. ❑
Vivian Henoch is editor of myjewishdetroit,
where a longer version of this interview first
appeared.