ADL Board Member Adam Ross shares how hearing National Director Abe Foxman speak helped to spark a deep connection to ADL.

 

How are you involved with ADL?

I am an ADL Board member and also co-chair of the Robert B. Sturm Mountain States Leadership Fellows Program, and I serve on the education and development committees.

What do you do in your professional life?

I’m an attorney working at Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be an attorney.

Where were you born? From where do your ancestors hail?

I was born in Brooklyn, NY.  My ancestors are from various parts of Eastern Europe.

What’s your favorite holiday?

Thanksgiving.  Family, football, food – no presents.

What’s your favorite food?

True answer: Lobster

ADL answer: Matzo ball soup.

Do you have a favorite book?

The Lord of the Rings

What’s a special place you have visited?

I drove the length of the Dalton Highway, a 400+ mile dirt road in Alaska connecting Prudhoe Bay to Fairbanks.  We camped on the way in Gates of the Arctic National Park and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  With about 60 miles to go we blew our radiator and had to figure out how to patch it enough to make it to Fairbanks to get it fixed.  Needless to say, we had no cell service and no AAA.

What’s one thing every person should know or experience?

New Zealand’s Milford Track in the rain.

What teacher or class stands out to you the most in your education and why?

Mrs. Lerner, my high school moot court and mock trial teacher, gave me hope that I could be something better than what I was, and my college law professor, John Arthur, showed me how to know right from wrong.

What are you passionate about personally? What can’t you stop talking about?

My family, and my extended family – ADL – which is a fantastic organization that I’m honored to be a part of.

Where can we find you when you’re not working?

Hiking.

What would be impossible for you to give up?

My wife and daughter.

If you had to teach something, what would you teach?

Philosophy of law.

Tell me a story that immediately pops into your mind that was a defining or significant moment for you.

The first time I heard Abe Foxman speak really changed my life.  Prior to that time, I had no interest in community service.  Now I’m enmeshed in ADL, and it is one of the most rewarding things I do, and one of the things for which I’m most proud.

What is your earliest memory of ADL? How did you first become involved in ADL?

My colleagues invited me to the Society of Fellows Luncheon in 2012 where I had the honor of hearing Abe Foxman speak. His passionate oratory brought me to tears and moved me to volunteer.

Why do you choose to make a financial investment in ADL?

If you want to make the world better, you have to pay for it.  Investing in ADL’s mission helps create the world I want for my daughter – a world where she has every opportunity and does not have to live in fear because of her beliefs.

Complete this sentence: For me, the ADL is …

The last best hope for a world without hate.

If you had to write a six-word biography, what would it say?

He worked hard and never quit.