As winners of The Associated’s Fred Walpert Young Leadership Award both Jessica Gorsky and Justin Harvey have shown their strong commitment to making a difference at The Associated. 

Yet that is not the only thing these two leaders have in common. They both point to their spouses as the inspiration for their initial involvement. And that’s not the only similarity they share. Read on, as we learn more about Jessica and Justin. 

Justin, your father immigrated to the United States and so did your parents, Jessica.  

Justin: My British father met my American mom while working on a kibbutz in Israel. They married, and he moved to the United States with her. My father’s family still lives in Great Britain. We visit them every year. 

Jessica: My parents are both from the former Soviet Union, specifically from Ukraine. My mom is from Odesa and my dad is from Kiev. My family immigrated to the U.S. because they were Jewish and couldn’t openly practice their religion in the USSR. Although they identified as Jews and were culturally Jewish, in the U.S. they faced a knowledge gap when it came to religious observances more commonly adhered to in the States.  

So then, tell me about your Jewish upbringing. 

Justin: I grew up in the Chandler suburb of Phoenix. My parents joined a Chavurah when they came to Phoenix, and that’s the core group with whom we celebrated most Jewish holidays together. We also belonged to a Reform synagogue. 

I was one of only about a half-dozen Jews in my high school so Hebrew school, synagogue and Jewish overnight camp formed my Jewish identity. I was a counselor at Jewish camp through college. 

For both of you, your spouse was the person who first got you involved in The Associated. 

Since then, together we co-founded the Couples Committee for the Young Adult Division (YAD) with Jen and Jake Lieberman, served as co-chairs of the Ben Gurion Society and will be the YAD Co-Campaign Chairs next year. Additionally, I have and will continue to serve as an Ambassador for The Associated’s Baltimore-Odesa Partnership as well. My first meeting with the Partnership was January 2022. Russia invaded Ukraine the next month, and my work with the Partnership then took on a new meaning. Because of my family’s background and the fact that we still had relatives in Ukraine, we were immensely. I was so grateful for how The Associated was helping Ukrainians defend and protect themselves. 

How did you learn you won this award? 

Justin: Eugene Poverni called me. I’ve known him for a while, as his wife Someya was part of the same Community Connector cohort with Stacy and me. I thought he was calling about a guys’ trip to israel 

I was very humbled by the honor. It gave me a lot of opportunities to reflect on how much Baltimore has become our home.  

Jessica: Chavi Abramson called me. I was so surprised. I wasn’t doing this work to be recognized. I was truly honored to be in the company of so many committed leaders. 

What is it about The Associated that really speaks to you? 

Jessica: The reach of The Associated is global. I’m not sure that many people in our local community understand just how many people worldwide are impacted by all that The Associated does. We support Jewish communities in need all over the world. We are there to make sure our global Jewish community can sustain itself and thrive.  Being able to help carry that mission forward for the next generation is an honor and a blessing. 

Justin: When I look at The Associated’s mission, the phrase “nurturing Jewish life by engaging and supporting community partners” speaks to me personally. Some of Baltimore’s longest standing institutions (independent schools, social clubs, certain neighborhoods, etc.) don’t have the best track records of inclusion. I’m pleased to see that slowly changing, but engaging with these institutions to help create a more welcoming space for the Jewish community is a particular passion of mine. 

What advice do you want to impart to your children? 

Justin: There is always the opportunity to make time for something important. Stacy and I lead busy, scheduled lives but we both want to help build a vibrant, proud Jewish community. So we find the time to volunteer. And we want our children to know to prioritize what is important to you and make time to do it. 

Jessica: I have three. First, I want my son to see women in leadership roles and in positions of power, particularly in male-dominated industries. It is my hope that this will help him grow into a man who respects women as equals. 

Second, I want him to understand that the world is bigger than him. We are not an island unto ourselves but part of a global community of Jews who need each other in order to survive and thrive.  

And finally, being Jewish is amazing. You are so lucky to have been born into this faith.  

If you could sit down with anyone, who would it be? 

Jessica: I’d have to say RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg). Besides being a trailblazing female attorney and Supreme Court Justice (which is inspiring and aspirational in and of itself), I would love to ask her how her faith informed her advocacy. She and I have more than a few things in common – both Jewish women born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants (her father was from Odesa just like my mom), both lawyers, both mothers and wives to Jewish tax lawyers.   

I would love to pick her brain and ask how she managed it all and her source of resiliency and strength. She’s been a long-time idol of mine and even just being in her presence would have been a dream come true for me. 

Justin: I’ve been thinking about Israel a lot lately. So, I would say I’d like to meet the former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. He came closer than anyone else to finding a Middle East peace solution. I’d like to ask him what conditions enabled him to make parogress in peace talks and how do we recreate the same conditions and incentives or a peaceful resolution today. 

What may people not know about you? 

Justin: Early in my career, I spent six months living in Japan. That experience of looking, speaking and having different social cues than most of the people around me, has significantly influenced many of the perspectives I hold today. It was also the first time I had ever prayed facing West. The first time I entered the synagogue in Tokyo was completely disorienting until I realized why. 

Jessica: I would say that many people don’t know that I was an artist for about 10 years of my life before venturing into law. I started studying at MICA when I was about eight years old and then was accepted into the Visual Arts Magnet program at Sudbrook when I was 11. In college one of my majors was Fine Arts so I got to split my time studying art history and drawing/painting in the studio. It was actually my art background that led me into my current law practice (but that’s a story for another time.