Michael Ritter: Facilitating Jewishness with a Keen Eye on JFED Sarasota-Manatee’s Bottom Line

By Sylvia Whitman  |  Photo by Nancy Guth

Michael Ritter was president and board chair of the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee (JFED) from 2018-2019, and he recalls with a laugh being introduced in his new role to an elderly woman from another Florida city. “Oh,” she quipped, “so you’re the president of the two Jewish people in Sarasota.”

Hardly. During Ritter’s tenure and at his instigation, JFED commissioned a comprehensive community study by Brandeis University. The headline: Since 2001 (date of the previous study), the Jewish population in Sarasota-Manatee increased by 86%. Of the more than 35,000 individuals within JFED’s purview, a growing number are under 50, including 3,700 children. More young families mean more year-round households, a 112% leap. 

Although the Gulf Coast numbers don’t rival Southeast Florida’s half a million, the study confirmed what JFED leadership suspected: that the Sarasota-Manatee Jewish community is thriving. That information should interest all our area’s nonprofits, Ritter says, with a smile, “because the Jewish community supports so many of them.” They also contribute in many other ways to Sarasota’s civic life. 

Originally a snowbird from Cleveland, Ritter settled full time in Sarasota around 2014—largely because of all his nonprofit activities here. For three years he chaired the board of The Perlman Music Program/Suncoast before JFED became his primary commitment. He also serves on the international board of the Israel Tennis & Education Centers.

Ritter considers the population study a highlight of his JFED presidency because it raises Jews’ visibility within the broader community. As the data revealed, there’s nothing monolithic about the local Jewish population: only 16% report a local synagogue affiliation, and nearly half of married couples include a non-Jewish spouse. “JFED needs to serve diverse households,” says Ritter, “and we need to get people to better understand what we’re about.” 

He also points with pride to other ongoing projects that advanced during his presidency: engaging more lay leaders and developing JFED’s 32-acre campus on McIntosh Road. In 2017, the board debated whether to sell or keep its landhold and decided to invest in creating The Larry & Mary Greenspon Family Campus for Jewish Life. One cornerstone will be the Hershorin Schiff Community Day School, relocating to JFED grounds in June 2021. The school will bring to campus about 300 students, who currently represent 38 nationalities and 10 different religions. About half of the students are Jewish.

“We think it’s a very healthy environment, Jews and non-Jews learning together,” says Ritter. “And the parents are cross pollinating.”

Enlarging the performing arts center will similarly invite the broader Sarasota-Manatee community, as well as tourists, onto the grounds to share art, music, social and cultural activities imbued with Jewish values. Just as JFED runs programs to educate Jews and non-Jews alike about Jewish history and culture, Ritter anticipates more Holocaust remembrance events and Israeli exhibits on campus. Children’s activities, with sports, and book and film festivals will also drive traffic.

This expansion is taking place at a troubling time of rising anti-Semitism in the United States. So, with its transition, JFED is also beefing up security for its campus and the broader Jewish community. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have walked the grounds, and JFED is hiring a full-time security director, who will also confer with other Jewish organizations around Sarasota and Manatee counties. “We’ve already given several grants for security improvements,” says Ritter. Recipients must match the grants and undergo mandatory employee training. 

“We see many needs in our community, and we’d rather spend on that,” Ritter says. But no one questions the necessity of the new safety measures.

Contributing to Continuity

Unlike a White House occupant, a JFED board president doesn’t get to fly off in a helicopter at the end of a two-year term and lay low. As immediate past president, Ritter is assisting with new president Randon Carvel’s transition. He’s also diving back into committee work. A retired CPA and senior partner at Ernst & Young, he has often been asked to serve—surprise!—on finance, audit, and fundraising committees, at JFED and elsewhere. Ritter says he has no qualms about asking others to give money “because I really believe in the organizations I support.” 

Donor expectations have changed, however. Ritter’s parents’ generation modeled generosity, but giving mostly involved writing an unrestricted check. Now many donors “want to be very specific” in allocating their gifts, Ritter says. JFED also benefits from significant donations of time, with a cadre of more than 400 committed volunteers. 

“There’s some sentiment that a nonprofit should be run strictly like a business,” says Ritter. But with different goals than for-profit companies, the “soul of the organization” carries more weight. That creates a “healthy tension,” he says. “We’re still trying to use resources in the best way, in accordance with our mission.”

Leadership, something Ritter has pondered for decades, matters as much in nonprofits as in businesses. Both leaders and managers need to be intelligent, organized, and committed; however, leaders must also inspire others and be very focused on bringing new resources into the organization. JFED has hit a sweet spot, according to Ritter, in large part thanks to JFED CEO Howard Tevlowitz— who is “very talented” and has a knack for employing and engaging “talented people.” 

On December 25, for instance, the staff organized a sold-out Fiddler on the Roof sing-along that played with the trope of Jews spending Christmas with Chinese takeout and a movie. JFED showed Fiddler in its theater, inviting ticket holders to come dressed in “shtetl chic,” and served a Chinese buffet during intermission. 

On a more somber note, both Ritter and Carvel were out of town when Tevlowitz and crew quickly organized a solidarity rally just two days after the 2018 murder of several Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. About 2,200 residents turned out in a “show of cross-faith unity.” Building those bridges with the non-Jewish community—looking for common interests, affirming similar values—is part of JFED’s mission, Ritter says, as well as “facilitating Jewishness” among those who identify in their own way with the Jewish faith or culture.

Even without the top job, Ritter intends to stay deeply involved with Jewish Federation activities. “I just find it very rewarding,” he says, “doing for others because you can.”

For More Informationabout Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee visit jfedsrq.org or call 941.371.4546.