Jill Z. McBride
Jill Z McBride grew up in Florida and moved to Cincinnati in 1998. She built a successful career in marketing, including running her own marketing agency, which she sold in 2016. She currently lives in Denver, CO with her fiance and runs a food/lifestyle blog (www.grownupdish.com). Jill was raised in an unaffiliated, secular Jewish household. She felt a strong cultural identity, as her parents emphasized Jewish culture by celebrating the holidays and Jewish values through social action. As Jill was raising her two sons, Congregation Beth Adam played an integral role in their family’s life. Jill is still a member, despite moving out of state. She made a legacy gift because she recognizes what the synagogue and local Jewish community did for her family, and wants to keep that going for others.
Beneficiary organizations- Congregation Beth Adam
I hesitatingly visited Beth Adam soon after my arrival in Cincinnati, and decided to try it out. It stuck.
I discovered there was a way to be authentically Jewish without the baggage I had identified with traditional Jewish beliefs. I also found a community—a tribe of people—who thought and felt like I did, who I connected with on a deep level, and who I walked through life with. I feel forever grateful to the synagogue community for giving me a spiritual home and shaping my and my family’s life.
What I want for my kids and future generations, is for them to embody and to learn the concept of “evolving Judaism.” Nobody has to practice or think the exact same way. Questioning the status quo IS a Jewish value. If you identify as Jewish, and if that identity means something to you, that’s enough. Beth Adam promotes that concept, and that’s what I want to support moving forward.
I believe in the old Jewish saying, “You don’t have to complete the task [of tikkun olam, or "repairing the world”], but you are not free to desist from it.” I believe everybody needs to do what they can (whether that’s donating time, money or both). This gift is part of what I am doing to support my Jewish values and make the world a better place.
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