Steve Savitsky wants each of us to seize the moment for unplanned opportunities

Photos: Naftoli Goldgrab

You might know Steve Savitsky as a savvy, successful businessman, or as a longtime communal leader who’s been president of the Orthodox Union and chairman of a dozen other prominent organizations, but today, his mission’s focus is on the individual as much as the klal: He wants all of us to seize the moment when an unexpected chesed opportunity comes our way, and he even wrote a book to help us open our eyes

Steve Savitsky needs no introduction — the former president of the Orthodox Union and chairman of its board of directors has already received hundreds of them during his long-standing speaking career. Savitsky is a savvy and successful businessman who founded and serves as president of ATC Healthcare, one of the largest medical staffing firms in the country, but his public service and connection to the klal is where his heart is. He’s the past president (and the initiator, together with Rabbi Dovid Fuld, Steve Orlow, and Rabbi Peretz Steinberg) of the Kew Gardens Hills Eruv Committee, served for 20 years as chairman of the board of Partners in Torah and personally recruited hundreds of mentors, is a past board member of the Jewish Agency and the Mesorah Heritage Foundation, sits on the executive committee of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, holds board and trustee positions in at least a half dozen other organizations, has been a popular podcaster probing contemporary Jewish life, and runs a 800-member WhatsApp group focused on tzedakah opportunities.

But you also might be familiar with him from his Kan Tzipor book series (Feldheim publishers) — inspiring stories about regular people seizing the moment to do chesed when it just happens to come their way. True, he’s a visionary whose bold initiatives continue to impact the communal landscape. And yes, he’s a leader’s leader who brushes shoulders with presidents and kings the world over. But as much as his radar is tuned into policy, it’s also laser-focused on regular people.

And that’s why so many stories have come his way. He’s not shy about stressing a call to action — that if we’d tune in with just a bit more sensitivity to the opportunities that Hashem grants us, we’d turn everyday moments into something eternal. And he’s the first one to do it. Because despite his long and impressive résumé, he sees himself as the most regular member of the Jewish people. He just never stopped dreaming and acting, never waited for permission, and simply kept pushing forward. And somehow, by putting one foot in front of the other, he ended up having an impact on the entire Jewish world.

Steve Savitsky was born and raised in Brooklyn, attended Yeshivah of Crown Heights, earned a BA in Economics from Yeshiva University, and then an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College. After marrying his wife, Genie, the young couple moved to Kew Gardens Hills, where he involved himself in various business pursuits, and also had his first foray into the world of askanus. It was 1974, and he was a young dad who couldn’t take a Shabbos walk with his wife and carriage-bound baby because there was no eiruv. There had been talk of installing a community eiruv, but the discussions were considered politically sensitive and often met with opposition. That didn’t stop Savitsky, who in his trademark way, didn’t overthink and strategize — he just jumped right in.

He worked under the guidance of posek Rav Shimon Eider a”h, one of the American eiruv pioneers, and under the halachic authority of Rav Moshe Feinstein, whose written endorsement helped quell skepticism and served as a powerful stamp of legitimacy. The eiruv, one of the first of its kind in New York City, set a precedent by using existing utility poles and overhead wires to create halachic tzuras hapesach structures — minimizing cost while maximizing reliability and serving as a model for urban eiruvin across the United States.

For the young Savitsky, the eiruv wasn’t just a halachic boundary; it was a gateway into public service, where his knack for building consensus, navigating bureaucracy, and translating vision into action would become the hallmarks of his decades-long career in askanus. When he assumed a leadership position at the Orthodox Union, OU Kosher — long a flagship of the organization — underwent professional modernization. He pushed for marketing hires, branding research, and clearer public messaging. Kashrus wasn’t just a service, he believed; it was a relationship. And relationships needed trust, transparency, and responsiveness.

Another one of Savitsky’s proudest undertakings during his tenure at the OU was the launch of a sweeping initiative to support what he called “emerging communities” — vibrant pockets of Jewish life beyond the familiar strongholds of New York, New Jersey, and Los Angeles. (The OU community initiative program was even renamed the Savitsky Community Program.)

“I wanted to see what people needed, and so every other week, my wife and I would travel out of the New York area to visit communities across the US,” he says. “We saw wonderful communities who could use more people, while meanwhile, young couples were priced out of New York and needed more options to consider.” The result was the OU’s Home Relocation Fair, a national annual event in which affordable, growing Jewish communities across North America can showcase their housing, school, and job opportunities to young families looking to, quite literally, make a move.