Park Heights Avenue, a hub for Jewish life in Baltimore since the Park Heights Jewish Community Center opened in 1960, got even more central earlier this year when The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore moved its headquarters next door to the JCC. Andrew Cushnir, president and CEO of The Associated, said the area is now the epicenter for Jewish collaboration and all 22 of The Associated’s agencies.
“I’m a believer in Judaism is a contact sport, and Jewish community leadership is a contact sport,” Cushnir told Baltimore Jewish Times. “When we are all together, all kinds of things are happening. The brainstorming is better; the collaboration is better; the relationships are better.”
With only about 20% of the construction left to go on the building, most employees have moved in, and The Associated’s agencies are ready to call the new headquarters home.
“I think we’re better every day,” said Cushnir. “Once a week, I have the feeling of enhanced collaboration, of being here.”
This is not the first time The Associated has moved its home. The headquarters was originally located at 319 W. Monument St. in downtown Baltimore. Then, in 1980, The Associated, known at the time as The Associated Jewish Charities and Welfare Fund, moved to the Krieger Building on W. Mount Royal Avenue.
“I want to give particular credit to the leadership before I got here. I’ve been here about a year and a half, and the plans for the building and the fundraising for the building were done before I got here,” said Cushnir.
A challenge, according to Cushnir, was keeping the organization’s working processes in order during the move. Some employees have worked from home while the building nears completion.
“There was a period of five or six months when we were institutionally nomads,” he said. “In that window of time, it was hard to keep our culture together and keep our organization together, and particularly as a new CEO, I really missed that window of getting to know and getting to be with the full team.”
“The system [was] built on collaboration to begin with, and we think we can collaborate even more effectively in the new environment,” he added.
Cushnir said that, alongside the official grand opening of the building in the spring of 2026, there will be new programming announced.
“We had a meeting this morning here at the building,” Cushnir said. “We’re talking about some community programming and some community-needs things, and I think this property will allow us to meet those needs in a more holistic way, and it’ll allow our collaborations to be stronger on an ongoing basis.”
Cushnir explained that moving to a new headquarters and consolidating all the agencies into one central space required security upgrades, including the construction of a security command center for both the headquarters and the JCC.
“The Associated has always been concerned about community security, and obviously more so in recent years, after the Tree of Life shooting [in Pittsburgh] and with the increase in antisemitism post-Oct. 7,” Cushnir explained. “The execution of building this building was after Oct. 7, so we are highly aware of the unfortunate hate coming at the Jewish community, and we built this complex to make sure we’re secure and can respond to it.”
David Folderauer, director of security for The Associated, said the security team works hard to keep the building safe while maintaining an inviting feel.
“The biggest challenge, I would say, is you got to remember half of this building is a community center, so we wanted to be warm and welcoming and open, with the same time making sure they’re secure,” he explained.
“We’re really proud of the building because we have created a vibrant community center that is designed and effectively working to enable our agencies to collaborate even more than we have historically,” said Cushnir. “We’re also very proud of the fact that we’ve been a more secure campus for the Jewish community.”
