Adinah Swiatycki, 30, is proving that you don’t have to choose between working in the Jewish community and the business world.
Swiatycki and her family moved to Baltimore from Denver when she was 7. Here, Swiatycki went to Bais Yaakov of Baltimore. After graduating, she attended seminary in Israel for two years and received graphic design training and kiruv training.
Now, Swiatycki works at a marketing firm called Better Co. as the director of operations. She also has her own freelance graphic design business called Creative Magnolia LLC. Her firm services many different communities including Toronto, Baltimore, New York, Denver and Jerusalem. In addition to these jobs, Swiatycki works at Etz Chaim with its young professional department.
Swiatycki and her husband Shaya Swiatycki live in Pikesville with their three children. The family belongs to Ohel Moshe.
What do you like about working in two different professions?
I find the balance between being in the business world and being in the Jewish education world very beautiful because they’re very different worlds. They complement each other. If I was only in the business world, I would feel like I need the inspiration from somewhere. If I was only in the Jewish education world, I would feel like I’m missing the structure of the professional business world and also the skills. When you’re in the business world, you learn a lot from interacting with all the different clients. Most [of my clients] are [in] health care. It helps me when I’m going to events and interacting with Etz Chaim students. The young professionals are entering the business world. I’m coming from the same world as them.
What’s your favorite part about working with young professionals?
They value the relationships that you’re building. When you’re in school, you don’t need to think. When you’re in school, you don’t fully appreciate what people are doing for you because you’ve always been in the taking position. As a young professional, you just shifted into a world where you’re the one caring for other people. I think that to have a certain appreciation for people giving up their time and interested in a relationship, they value that, and they’re looking to connect and to grow.
My favorite part is the Shabbos meals that we host. We have between six to 12 young professionals at our meals every week. They’re coming from all different backgrounds and different personalities. It’s not the same people every week. It’s always exciting to see what every Shabbat is going to turn out like.
There’s one of our guests who has a dog, so she’ll bring her dog to the meal. That’s always fun. Events used to be more based in Pikesville, and recently we switched it to being downtown. Once we made that shift, a lot more young professionals started to come because we were in their area. It wasn’t such a commute, and it also wasn’t such a foreign location. It felt more familiar to them. When we started doing events downtown, we went from having seven people at our events to having 30 people at every event. It really grew. We work as a team. We’re a small team, but we’re all working together, so there’s a lot of communication between us. We have the same voice when something needs to be done.
What’s something someone would be surprised to learn about you?
How big my family is. My mother’s one of 15 and my father’s one of 11 or 12. I’m one of nine. Between all that, usually when people hear how big my family is, their eyes open wide.
How would you describe your relationship with Judaism?
Real, authentic, growing. I love learning. I like to take whatever I’m learning and apply it to real life in a way that works with me. I try to avoid feeling guilty or feeling the pressure that I have to be a certain way. If there’s something stopping you, let’s explore that and figure out what it is that’s stopping you and help get over that.
Shira Kramer is a freelance writer.
