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Lasting Inspiration
Michigan BBYO will honor former
adviser Andy Gutman.
Q New to Metro Detroit
Laura Berman | Special to the Jewish News
A
ndy Gutman was the quiet
adult adviser in the corner for
a generation of teen boys active
in two AZA chapters, yet he left an indel-
ible mark.
“He was just so good at it,” recalls Eric
Hoffman, a former Shapiro AZA presi-
dent and now principal at a New York
investment firm.
“He made us all better people,” says
Jordan Brackett, a Marx chapter alum
now the COO of the 14th Street Y in
New York.
While better known as president and
CFO of Farbman Group, the real estate
firm, Gutman achieved near-legendary
status as a BBYO adviser for 11 years:
Former AZA chapter members remem-
ber him as someone who gave them
confidence, helped launch their careers
and inspired their current management
styles.
Shelly Rubenfire, outgoing chair of
BBYO Michigan Region, sees Gutman’s
success as a marker of the importance of
BBYO advisers — an unsung, volunteer
position whose rewards are many, even if
most are intangible.
Because their teen members lead
BBYO chapters, the most successful
advisers are mentors who attend events
and offer direction and guidance, while
subtly motivating and reinforcing their
best instincts.
Gutman remembers being a shy high
school student who didn’t thrive as an
AZA member.
“He didn’t have a great experience
himself but he wanted to help us have
what he didn’t,” Brackett says.
He and others say Gutman provided
rewards — unexpected pizza, for exam-
ple, and the courage to let young leaders
try and fail, sometimes in chaotic argu-
ments that, nevertheless, provided useful
experience.
Gutman circled back to the organi-
zation in his 20s, as an adviser to the
(Groucho) Marx and Singer chapters,
and stayed for 11 years. He says the stu-
dents he mentored inspired him: Their
enthusiasm, intelligence and energy kept
him going. When he tried to quit — and
he did, a couple of times — members
somehow pulled him back in.
For Eric Hoffman, Gutman’s leader-
ship was life-changing.
“If he wants to help someone, he goes
all out. Teaching you, prepping you,
IF YOU ARE
Q Becoming a bar or bat mitzvah
Q
Newly married
Andy Gutman
being available night and day,” Hoffman
says. His AZA experience, he says, rein-
forced his identity as a Jew in ways he
only now appreciates.
Jordan Brackett remembers Gutman
“as someone whose style of leadership
was to help each person be the best they
could be, but to help them figure that out
for themselves. I can barely remember
him speaking.”
The strength of Gutman’s legacy will
be demonstrated Sunday, June 5, when
many of Gutman’s former advisees will
be among those honoring him as the
2016 BBYO Michigan Region distin-
guished alumnus at Bacco Ristorante in
Southfield.
BBYO advisers fill a special role.
They’re mentors and models rather than
group leaders, on hand to advise but not
to run the student-led chapters.
“They’re really creating the leaders
of tomorrow by helping them plan and
invent programs, delegate responsibil-
ity, and motivate other members in
their chapter,” says Rachel Ellis, BBYO
Michigan executive director.
In his first stint as an AZA adviser, a
small group of six guys from Huntington
Woods and Oak Park headed for the
national convention, Gutman recalls.
“It was a big underdog story, David
and Goliath. There was a quiz bowl event
and these young, uncertain guys just
kept winning,” he says. “It made me feel
so good about what the organization
teaches you. It taught them they could
do anything.”
*
For more information about Sunday’s event, visit
www.bbyo.org/event/honorandygutman, email
Jennifer Frank at jfrank@bbyo.org or call (248) 432-
5687. Laura Berman serves as a BBYO commissioner.
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2104510
June 2 • 2016
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