Adam Grossman
Rabbi Adam Grossman’s career path into the Jewish non-profit world was non-traditional. From a radio station’s “man-on-the-street” to a concert promoter, marketing agent in a media-buying firm, and bartender and surfer in Australia, he was eventually led to the rabbinate. Ordained in 2008 from HUC-JIR, he is a social entrepreneur, who has been at the forefront of groundbreaking and nationally recognized initiatives to engage Jews with meaning, practice, and action. As an Associate Rabbi at Temple Israel in Memphis, Tennessee, his innovations, including an HGTV-esque “How To...” video series, the URJ Belin award recipient “Community Six-Pack,” and the TI Fellowship, which was selected for the Slingshot ’14-’15 guide, positioned Temple Israel as a global center for Jewish learning. Additionally, he co-founded Convue, an online system to help relationship-focused professionals enhance their customer connections. The uniqueness and creativity of these efforts lead to him to be selected as a Clal’s Rabbis Without Borders Fellow in 2013. Hired as the new CEO at the University of Florida in July 2014 to destruct, disrupt and reimagine the classic Hillel model, he continues to illustrate new ways to anchor Judaism in an individual’s lives including the creation of Career Up Now (www.CareerUpNow.org) and The Selling Factory (www.TheSellingFactory.com), both of which integrate Jewish relevancy with career advancement. The transformation of UF Hillel has recently been recognized as one of the most innovative organizations in North America by the Slingshot ’17-’18 guide. While passionate about innovation, he finds being a husband to his wife, Amy, and a father to his four children, most rewarding.