Susanna Lachs Adler
Karen Kramer and Susanna Lachs Adler are two women who have served the Philadelphia Jewish community for decades through multiple volunteer roles. Since Sept. 1, these dedicated leaders have been working together as co-chairs of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s Jewish Community Foundation to ensure that the community thrives for generations to come.
Both women have extensive experience in the Jewish communal world. Kramer has been on the board of the Jewish Community Foundation since 2012, was named co-chair in 2024, and spent over 30 years volunteering at the Federation on various boards. The Temple Sinai member has also held roles at her synagogue and Abramson Senior Care among others.
Lachs Adler is new to the role of co-chair but has an equally impressive volunteer resume as a former chair and current member of the Federation’s board of directors. She’s also a former chair of multiple Federation committees, and represents Philadelphia on the board of the Jewish Federations of North America. She’s also a current trustee of Temple University and a former trustee at the University of Pennsylvania, and she’s worked to combat antisemitism at both institutions.
Karen Kramer
The Jewish Community Foundation manages approximately $400 million in endowment assets to support charities in Philadelphia and worldwide. The co-chairs are tasked with bringing in a new era of vision and leadership for the Philadelphia Jewish community’s endowment and legacy initiatives.
Lachs Adler explained that the endowments are vital to ensure positive long-term outcomes for the community.
“Growing endowments is the key to long-term financial security and can be tailored to an individual donor’s priorities or be given on an unrestricted basis,” said Lachs Adler. “We were fortunate to have endowments designated to provide emergency support to Israel, which we were immediately able to activate after Oct. 7.”
Being in positions of leadership for the Jewish community is something both women find personally important.
“I feel that at this stage of my life, both professionally and personally, that’s the way I want to give back to our community,” Lachs Adler said. “I want to train young people who will be our next generation of leaders. That’s very important to me, and I want to be the same role model for my daughters, who are now both mothers and had children, and I would love them to follow in our footsteps.”
“For me, it’s about having a voice in the community,” Kramer said. “I am very much a believer in the power of the collective and tzedakah, and the impact that you have today really needs to be able to help us sustain a future. So I feel it’s my responsibility and a privilege to be able to be the voice for that.”
Lachs Adler said her passion for volunteerism comes from her family background. Her father was a Conservative rabbi and tzedakah was an important family value that sticks with her today.
“I come from [volunteerism] because of my family background and my Jewish education, and because of the commitment that my parents instilled in me. And that has not diminished, if anything, it has grown deeper given current state of the world,” Lachs Adler said.
Kramer said her steadfast dedication to the community for over three decades is because she doesn’t know anything different. For her, volunteering and serving the community is the best way she can live out her values.
She added that her work at the Federation is very fulfilling and she sees no reason to do anything but keep up her efforts.
“My work at the Jewish Federation, though admittedly there have been years that have been more difficult than others, but as a volunteer, it fills me up, and as long as it continues to fill me up, and I can share that joy and that interest and that passion with my friends and my family and my community, I’ll keep doing it,” Kramer said.
And this opportunity to lead the foundation allows for both women to have an important role in increasing the endowment and annual campaign, engaging with donors, and compiling the resources required to meet the evolving needs of a changing Jewish community and larger society.
“We’re being given the opportunity through the Jewish Community Foundation to lead by example in our community. And that is really important. We’re doing the important work of our values and our tzedakah, and we’re passing that information on and giving everyone the opportunity to live their values, live their passion, and be part of fostering a culture of giving that will really ensure Jewish life for decades to come,” Kramer said.