Michael Friedman worked at the Jewish Board from 1968-1986. He started out as a child care counselor for adolescents—many involved in the city’s burgeoning psychedelic drug movement— at what was then called the Stuyvesant Residence Club and is now Kaplan House. He then transitioned upstate to serve as a therapist at Linden Hill School. Following the 1978 merger of the Jewish Board of Guardians and Jewish Family Services, CEO Jerome Goldsmith asked Friedman to serve as his Executive Assistant tasked in part with Government Relations. A few years later, Friedman took on the role of Director of Operations—effectively Goldsmith’s second-in-command. Friedman worked to ensure that the agency was maximizing both public and philanthropic funding sources, including Medicaid, UJA-Federation, and the first bond issued by a social service organization.
