Bob Manekin has met some interesting people in the many decades he has been a pillar of Baltimore’s Jewish and real estate communities, one of them being the daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson; Lucy Johnson. When they met, she told him an interesting fact about being the daughter of the commander-in-chief.
“She said, ‘[Growing up in the White House] was interesting. Whenever I went out to an event, my father made me learn three things about every person I spoke with,’” Manekin said. “She looked at me and said, ‘For example, you’re from Baltimore, you’re married with five children, and you went to [University of] North Carolina for college.’”
Those three facts barely scratch the surface of Manekin’s story, but, all the same, they are integral to who he is. Johnson, in the same conversation, asked Manekin why he is located in Baltimore. After all, he spent time in the tropical paradise of Hawaii and his beloved college town, Chapel Hill. So, why did he come back to where his story started?
“I said, ‘Because it’s home. There was never a question that we weren’t going back to Baltimore,” Manekin said.
Bob Manekin will soon stand with other key players as the new Goldsmith Campus of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore is dedicated after years of hard work. He has logged thousands of hours in meetings, led a task force of volunteers and been a constant problem solver throughout the process. The dedication will be very, very satisfying, he said.
“I’m going to be feeling elation when people walk, drive to the campus, come into the building, when they see some of the things that we did,” Manekin said. “I’m going to be elated with the result, and I’m going to be elated with the fact that for me, the project has come to a successful completion. I’m going to be feeling really thankful and grateful, and that’s because so many people put so much trust in me.”
Manekin is currently managing director at JLL Commercial Real Estate, but the Owings Mills resident has worn a few different hats over the course of his professional life. His time in Hawaii was spent with the United States Navy. Manekin was a JAG lieutenant at Pearl Harbor for three years in the 1970s. He also worked in a program with the Department of Defense and Department of Justice as a special assistant U.S. attorney.
Manekin has led a busy professional life, but always finds time to work on behalf of the Jewish community in his free time.
“To an extent, it’s a bit of a calling,” he said. “I watched my father participate and serve in leadership functions, and it was something I always wanted to do.”
He’s been involved with the JCC, The Associated, the Jewish Museum of Maryland, Jewish Addiction Services and other organizations. Considering his many decades spent in real estate, he was a particularly important asset to The Associated during the recent Goldsmith Campus project.
“The one thing I learned is, if a space is going to work, the people that are working inside it need to tell you what’s important to them and what they want. In this particular case, we had not only The Associated, but the JCC, the Jewish Library and the Baltimore Jewish Council. All these people had to be considered and consulted,” Manekin said.
An unfortunate reality of the project that complicated design is the surge in antisemitism in the United States. Manekin and the rest of the team decided it wasn’t safe to have a lobby that encouraged hanging around, so beyond an information desk, the space is virtually empty. Instead, the space meant for congregation is all located behind layers of checkpoints, secure walls and bulletproof glass.
“There’s more security now than there was before. We pushed the entry of the building out 50 feet and created a vestibule. We put bollards along the entire elevation, where before somebody could just pull up a car virtually right next to the building,” Manekin said. “We have two guard kiosks in the parking lot to monitor who comes in and who doesn’t. We’ve got cameras strategically located everywhere, and it is substantially more secure than it was before.”
Manekin’s first financial support of The Associated came in the mid-1970s when he sent a check to Baltimore from Hawaii. He has been instrumental in helping shape the organization and its agencies over the years, but he is ready for a small break to turn his attention elsewhere — if he can manage it.
“I’m currently the president of the board of the Jewish Museum of Maryland, and we just finished a capital campaign … so I’m currently working on that,” he said, before joking that he’s “trying to keep as low a profile as possible at the JCC and The Associated for the next 12 months.”
Manekin thought for a second, and added that that might not work out how he thinks it will.
“I’m not sure they’re going to want to let me,” he said.
Whether it’s in real estate, with The Associated or elsewhere, Bob Manekin is working to further Baltimore and Baltimore’s Jewish community.
“For all our foibles, it is fundamentally a great community, so it has been wonderful to be able to give back to the community. It just makes me feel good, and it’s part of my DNA,” he said.
