Gitta Kaplan, Esq. serves on the Ocean Township, NJ Council, acts as General Counsel at leading apparel company Mamiye Brothers, and juggles it all while raising 3 children.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Taking an 85% pay cut to create work-life balance while rebuilding her career
- Her unexpected journey from behind-the-desk attorney to campaigning for public office
- Gitta’s systems for juggling multiple high-level roles without burning out
Enjoy!
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Transcript
Gitta Kaplan: I slept in the office overnight on a jacket on my floor while I was pregnant and I said, “This is not for me.”
Victor M. Braca: You are a councilwoman in Ocean Township. You do in-house counsel. You are a mom. You’re on the board of Propel, the board of Hillel Yeshiva. How do you do it? Every young woman should hear this.
Gitta Kaplan: So, I had to run for office this past November, which was a harrowing experience. My biggest advice to everybody is just to…
Victor M. Braca: You know how everyone says you can’t have it all? Yeah. Well, I’m convinced that my guest today, Gitta Kaplan, might just be the exception to that rule. She’s an in-house counsel for a major apparel company, serves as a councilwoman in Ocean Township, New Jersey, and sits on the board of two organizations, Hillel Yeshiva and Propel, all while raising a family.
In this episode, we break down how Gitta navigated the jump from Columbia to Rutgers after facing anti-Semitism on campus. How she landed her dream job by cold emailing her cousin with a bold ask, and how she ended up running for public office but as an introvert with zero political experience. We also get into the realities of balancing ambition with family life, the pressure young people feel to figure out their careers early on, and the systems Gitta uses to juggle it all without burning out.
I’m Victor Braca, and Momentum is where I dive deep with exceptional leaders to uncover the key decisions, defining moments, and lessons that propel them to success, and how those insights can inspire your journey forward. So, if you’re curious about building a meaningful career on your own terms, making an impact in your community, or how to advocate for yourself in work, politics, or life, you’re going to love this episode. It was really such a fun conversation. Gitta and I had a great time. You’re going to love it. Enjoy.
Gitta Kaplan, welcome to Momentum.
Gitta Kaplan: Thank you for having me.
Victor M. Braca: I’m great. Thank you for having me. Beautiful home. We’ll jump right into it. So, the first question I’d like to ask each guest is as follows: tell me a little bit about you. Who are you and what do you do, both in the professional sense and in the giving back sense? Give me the high level.
Gitta Kaplan: Okay. So, my name is Gitta Kaplan, as you know. I grew up here in Deal. I live here in Deal now. I wear a lot of hats. So I am, in no particular order…
Victor M. Braca: By the way, no particular order.
Gitta Kaplan: No particular order. A mother, I’ll say first. A wife. I’m an attorney. I’m on the board of Hillel Yeshiva. I’m on the board of Propel. And since last year, I’m on the council in Ocean Township.
Victor M. Braca: Okay. Tell me a little bit about your early days. You know, I hear from a lot of professionals that their early days—maybe it might be their first job or even like their high school or college experience—shaped who they are today. So tell me about that for you.
Gitta Kaplan: So I’m the oldest child—typical oldest child, type A overachiever. My siblings—you can relate—my siblings make fun of me that that’s who I am. Like there’s a picture of me next to “type A” in the dictionary. But I grew up in Deal. I love school. I was the kid who would go to the library and take home eight books on a weekend.
Victor M. Braca: I could see all the books in the back.
Gitta Kaplan: I love them. And I have trouble throwing out books. I’m totally like an organizer except for books, and I keep them all.
Victor M. Braca: I love it. I can’t take out books from the library. People tell me I should take out books from the library instead of ordering them on Amazon, but I need to own them all. I need to have them because I like to build up my library of the books that I’ve read and have them. You know, I fold the pages, I take notes sometimes, so I can’t take out library books. It sounds like you’re the same way.
Gitta Kaplan: I like both, but the library has… I have a different problem because I tend to keep books longer than I should and there’s a little bit of a “wanted” poster in the library with overdue fines.
Victor M. Braca: Arrest her next time! Wanted type A person.
Gitta Kaplan: Exactly. Exactly. But that’s how I grew up. I loved high school. I was the note-taker. School was my jam. After high school, I wanted to do… I’m a very competitive person and I want to do the best. So, I went to Columbia. It was my dream to go to Columbia, and that dream didn’t really work out as I wanted. And that, I think, shaped who I was.
Victor M. Braca: What do you mean by it didn’t work out?
Gitta Kaplan: So, in high school, obviously, you pick your top choices where you want to go to college. I said, “I want to go to an Ivy League.” I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to go to graduate school. But, you came down my block today, you said, “Oh, this is so quiet.” This is where I grew up in the Deal area, New Jersey. And going to the city and living there and dorming there, right? When the most I did was sleep by my grandparents in Brooklyn or a friend’s house… it wasn’t something that came easy to me. Right.
Victor M. Braca: Most importantly, lifestyle shift. Yeah. Go on.
Gitta Kaplan: Yeah. So most importantly, I think I was the original anti-Semitism target. I went to Columbia. You know, you’re in a class with all these people from all over. I had a professor that drew a map of Israel on the board and said, “This is Palestine. Everybody listen to me when I tell you the atrocities that the Prime Minister at the time—it was Ariel Sharon—is committing.”
Everybody in my class was listening and I’m looking around like, you know, I want to tell my side of the story but I can’t. And then I had a roommate… she hung a Palestinian flag on my wall. So I’m a Jewish girl from Deal, New Jersey.
Victor M. Braca: Did she know you were Jewish?
Gitta Kaplan: She knew I was Jewish. And there was a flag hanging on my wall. I don’t know. I think a lot of times these days, students don’t understand the reasoning behind what they’re doing, the history, all the background that comes—talk about unpacking. Oh, another great podcast, Unpacking Israeli History. Yes, it’s a great one.
But they don’t understand it, and I don’t fault anyone for their opinions, but in this environment, I was 18 years old. It just wasn’t a place I was comfortable, right? And I felt like I had all these hopes riding on me. Everybody thought that, oh, the valedictorian, the smart girl, she went to Columbia and now she’s leaving. But I left. I went to Rutgers. I loved Rutgers. And when I was in Rutgers, I kind of took time to take a step back and figure out what I wanted to do with my life.
Victor M. Braca: So, you didn’t always know that you wanted to pursue law.
Gitta Kaplan: No, I just knew I wanted to go to graduate school, be something, be something important. And it’s who it is who I am in my essence. I’m a writer, a reader, and I love to argue with people. So, it’s the perfect career for me and I love what I do.
Victor M. Braca: You always knew that you wanted to work, though.
Gitta Kaplan: I always knew I wanted to work. My parents never told me there was a difference between my brothers and me. So, I have a sister, I have two brothers, I have additional siblings, but when I was growing up, my parents said, “All of you, you’re all going to be professionals.” My father’s a doctor. He tried to get me to be a doctor. I get woozy at the sight of blood. It was for like an hour once I considered it.
But, you know, I think because of them, I always wanted to do something. My grandparents also pushed; they were just inspiring in who they were. My grandmother was the first chairwoman of the SCC in Brooklyn. And I just felt like I wanted to do something with my life in the image of my parents and my grandparents.
Victor M. Braca: Nice. And you chased that. You saw all your friends dropping out and not pursuing law or starting to work whatever way it comes out in other people, and you said, “I’m going to pursue this.”
Gitta Kaplan: Yes. My husband—I actually met him in high school. I was a senior on seminar and he was an adviser. He’s two years older than me. I got married in between college and law school, and I say my husband came along for the journey. He really did. He went to law school too.
Victor M. Braca: Oh, nice.
Gitta Kaplan: He didn’t actually, but it’s like he did.
Victor M. Braca: Oh, you’re saying he went with you.
Gitta Kaplan: He went with me. He experienced it all.
Victor M. Braca: Nice. Nice. So, when did you decide that you wanted to do law? You were in Rutgers when you made that decision.
Gitta Kaplan: Yeah, I was in Rutgers. I took a class called Law and Public Policy. And I said, “This is fun.” I liked arguing—or debating, we’ll call it—about the issues of the day professionally. And really reading and writing are what I do best. You can see I’m a reader. And that’s the advice I have for anyone that wants to go to law school: just read, read, and write. That’s really what I do every day. You know, I’m focused on business also, but a lot of what I do is reading contracts, negotiating them, and that was the next thing that I thought would be the right thing for me.
Victor M. Braca: Right. I think I want to point out that it was when you were in your undergrad that you decided that you wanted to do law. So, I can tell you people my age, even high school students, are stressed out that they don’t know what they want to do. Do people have to know what they want to do at that age?
Gitta Kaplan: No. Especially for law. I majored in psychology for a hot minute. I said, “I’m going to be a psychologist.” And then I would go to the classes—because the classes are very interesting, right? I think I was in abnormal psych. I came home and I diagnosed everyone that I lived with in my house in Rutgers and everyone in my actual family. “You have narcissistic personality disorder.” And my sister would be like, “Stop talking to me. Stop talking to me.”
But at the end of the day, I decided to go in the direction of law. I just thought it was the right path for me. But you don’t have to decide so early on. I think if you do medicine, it’s something you have to decide early on. You need all those pre-reqs, those pre-med classes. But I think the most important thing that I realized over just looking back is that it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay to pick one thing and switch it. It’s okay to pick colleges and switch them. And it’s okay to go slow because no matter what, you’ll get where you want to go.
Victor M. Braca: Nice. I like the message. So, what did your journey look like after graduating from law school?
Gitta Kaplan: Well, first I’ll just talk about law school, please.
Victor M. Braca: Please.
Gitta Kaplan: So I went to Rutgers and then just to see where I wanted to go—I was getting married—I decided let me see what school I want to go to. I wanted to stay local in the city. And so I applied back to Columbia. I applied to NYU. I applied to Harvard. I applied to all the Ivies. Ultimately I decided to go to NYU. I think I’m the only person that ever cried tears of sadness when I got into Harvard. I’m not going! I’m not going!
But I went to NYU and I loved it. And I really thought NYU was a great place for the exchange of ideas and for different types of people. There was a big Jewish community there and it really was something that I truly valued and I really liked going there. So, I want to give a shout out to anybody who wants to go.
Victor M. Braca: Shout out to NYU Law School.
Gitta Kaplan: NYU Law School. Nice. When you’re in law school, you interview to be a summer associate at a law firm, and I interviewed and chose to be a summer associate at a firm called Proskauer. I worked there in the summer and it—really, when I say work, it’s not really working. It’s working, but they take you to the NBA draft. We went to the Tony Awards. We went to…
Victor M. Braca: Okay. Yeah. Law school doesn’t sound so nice.
Gitta Kaplan: They try to woo you so that you come back after you graduate and you work there full-time. So I joined their firm after I graduated.
Victor M. Braca: They got you.
Gitta Kaplan: They got me. I joined their real estate department and there, the experience—as anyone will tell you—going to a big law firm as opposed to being a summer associate there, it’s almost like an about-face. Now you’re working long hours. You’re expected to hit a certain amount of billable hours and it’s a little bit of a steep curve in terms of learning.
Victor M. Braca: Right. So, you’re an associate. You took the full-time offer and that’s where you were after law school. For how long?
Gitta Kaplan: I was there for two years. As an associate, it’s a little bit of a hierarchy. So you’re a first year, second year, third year, and then there’s the partners. I used to be terrified to talk to the partners. “Oh my goodness, they’re so important. How can I be in the same room as these people that just know all these things about the law?” And over time you get used to that.
And I realized that they’re humans. They’re humans too, just like you. And I happen to have loved the people in my department. The hours were very long. I lived for six years in the city when I was in law school with my husband, and then we moved to Brooklyn for a little while. But I’d come home at midnight and my husband would have dinner waiting for me and, you know, I think I gained 20 pounds when I lived in Brooklyn because we’d take it out from all the local places. We don’t—Deal, there’s nothing here. So we don’t have as many kosher restaurants. We’re improving, but we’re not Brooklyn.
But the vibe there is very work hard, play hard, and I was doing very cool things. I was involved in, I think, the most interesting deal I was involved in when I was at Proskauer was the sale of Wrigley Field and the Cubs. It was awesome. It was really great exposure.
The training they give you is amazing at a big firm. You’re learning just how to interact with people—just the basic stuff, soft skills—in addition to the technical stuff. And at the time that I was working on that deal, I was pregnant with my first child. I slept in the office overnight on a jacket on my floor while I was pregnant and I said, “This is not for me. It’s time to move on.”
Victor M. Braca: Wow. So how long—I mean that was for a couple months?
Gitta Kaplan: Yeah, I mean I was on that deal for a couple of weeks, but the work-life balance is not there. And I knew that when I gave birth in a few months that I wanted to really take a step back and figure out the next step because this was not… I didn’t think that it was the right thing for my growing family.
Victor M. Braca: And you had already gotten that experience from the big law firm. So, you said, “You know, I got the experience. I took a lot of what I need from it. I’m about to have my first kid. You know, this might not be for me for the rest of my life.”
Gitta Kaplan: It’s a very hard decision to turn down money, though, because the money at a big firm is so good. And you’re saying, “Maybe I can make it work.” And I’m a person that just, I’ll keep going. I’ll do whatever I can to make it work. Maybe I could go part-time, maybe I can figure out a way to live in the city with my kids even though I knew I eventually wanted to move back to Deal. But ultimately I decided to move back home.
Victor M. Braca: That’s a leap to take. I think that you have to take a look at your life and be intentional with what you’re about to do in order to make that decision. How’d you do that?
Gitta Kaplan: So it’s funny because we moved back home. At the time I wasn’t sure—you get like this amazing maternity leave policy—I wasn’t sure if I was going to go back after the summer. When my son was six months old, I found that I just… that was when I said, “This is not for me. I can’t do it.” And so we decided to stay here for the year and see how we liked it, and we’re both from here so it was kind of like an easy transition. And I said I’m going to take time to figure out what I want to do next.
But my son slept a lot. There was not… I was bored. I’d go to the library—and the library was one of my favorite places, obviously.
Victor M. Braca: And they’re not—you’re not one of their favorite guests.
Gitta Kaplan: No, I’m not one of their favorite guests. I was in the library and I remember taking out—this dates me—but I was taking out DVDs to watch at home while my son slept and I said, “This is not what I want to do either. I need to do something in the middle.” And at that point I said I need to figure out the thing that’s right for me that might not be that anyone else does it, but I have to figure out the thing that’s right for me.
So I came home, I emailed my cousin, who is one of my biggest mentors, my cousin Adam Sultan. He’s also an attorney. He worked at the time for a video game company in Edison, New Jersey. And I said, “I know I have two years’ experience and that’s it. I know that I worked in a real estate department, not a corporate department, and I know it’s a little awkward hiring your family member, but I need you to hire me. But I need you to hire me only three days a week, and I’m going to work two days from home.”
So, he said to me, “Why would I do that? Like, you’re smart and you’re my cousin, but why would I do that?”
Victor M. Braca: A step too far.
Gitta Kaplan: But I said, “Just try. Let’s try it.” And we did. And he taught me. He showed me the ropes. It was really the most fun job that I… I won’t say it was a fun… it was a very fun job, we’ll call it. There were testers playing video games in the hallway, bouncing basketballs, playing Zumba. It was a great experience and he taught me everything I know.
He moved over to the business side eventually and I grew in on the legal side to become Deputy General Counsel, but I also took, I think, like an 85% pay cut to do that. And one of my proudest moments was kind of clawing myself back to get to the salary that I left at the big law firm. But it allowed me to have that work-life balance that I wanted. I was working, I was doing challenging fun stuff, but I was also two days a week home with my kids and able to have that schedule where I was getting home at 5:00 and not at midnight.
Victor M. Braca: You made a big ask of your cousin. Were you nervous to ask?
Gitta Kaplan: I was nervous, and until he emailed me back, I was nervous. Now he’s one of my closest cousins, one of my best friends, and we laugh about it. We give each other legal tips and advice. He’s 10 years older than me.
I think in terms of a lesson for other people, you never know where your connections are going to come from. For me, I was always the one who sat behind the desk and I’d just do my work. I don’t need to go and shake hands with everybody in the office. And that was one of the things that Adam taught me: to network, to always be willing to talk to people, make friends, and see how you can help each other. In this case, I never thought… I wanted to go to the best school, I wanted to work at a big law firm, I wanted to make connections that way. I never thought the connection would come from my family, but it did. Funnily enough.
Victor M. Braca: Right. I mean, you did have to take that—I wouldn’t say take the leap—but you had to swallow your pride to ask for a job like that with those terms.
Gitta Kaplan: Yes, definitely.
Victor M. Braca: And what he taught you about interacting with people—I’m sure if you put that in the context of your role today as a councilwoman, like that’s for sure not dated itself.
Gitta Kaplan: No, it’s definitely a good lesson and it’s one that I think about often: putting myself out there in a way that is not necessarily so comfortable for me.
Victor M. Braca: Nice. Okay. So you worked for your cousin and you’re raising your kids. What’s that like?
Gitta Kaplan: So I had a very regimented schedule and it works when it works. It was the same as in law school. You wake up at a certain time. One of the books that I really loved and I would encourage everyone to read is a quick tiny little book called What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. So take time to yourself, but also… I can find it somewhere on here.
Victor M. Braca: Okay, we’ll find it at some point.
Gitta Kaplan: We’ll find it later. I also organize this by color. So that could also help.
Victor M. Braca: That’s cool. Wow. Okay. So even with your books, you are organized.
Gitta Kaplan: A little too much. But in any case, when it came to raising my family and working, I would wake up very early, do some things in the morning. And I would always make sure to be ready by the times my kids needed to be ready. I would get them ready, take them to school. And I would always make sure to be home by 5:00 or 5:30 to make sure that I can feed them, bathe them, spend quality time with them. And on the days that I wasn’t working—because I was home on Tuesdays and Fridays—I always made sure to spend quality time with them on those days and it just worked. and it still works to this day. It’s my schedule even now.
Victor M. Braca: It’s tough to maintain, I’m sure, but it works.
Gitta Kaplan: Well, it works until the minute that your kid gets sick or something happens where you have all these balls in the air and one of them falls down and you’re juggling and then they all fall down. Thank goodness my husband is amazing in terms of being a great partner, and I encourage everybody to live near your parents so that they can help also. So, thank you moms!
Victor M. Braca: For sure. Mom and mother-in-law. For sure. So, you’re working at this video game company that you had to ask your cousin for the job. What was the next step for you?
Gitta Kaplan: So, I loved it. I was there for four years. They weren’t doing so well financially and eventually I saw the writing on the wall and we all decided it was time to kind of look for something else. And that’s the worst feeling when you know, “I’m so happy with what I’m doing. I get in the car at the end of the day and I say I’m so lucky.” And I said, “I’m never going to find something that I love as much as this.” And also in a place that works for me because I live in a geographically challenged location like Ocean Township, New Jersey. It’s the best place on earth, but it’s not that close to the city, right?
So, I was talking to a close friend who worked for the career services network at SBH, and she said, “Just give me a resume. Let’s see what happens.” I gave her my resume. A few weeks later, I got a call from Haim Mamiye, who is the president of Mamiye Brothers, saying, “Come in for an interview. We got your resume. We’re looking for a General Counsel. You came highly recommended from somebody who’s the president of the video game company, Majesco, that I was working for.”
And I said, “Okay, I guess it’s in the city. I don’t really see myself doing this, but why not? You never know what could happen.” I was also pregnant at the time with my third child. So, I walked into this interview with the Mamiyes, who are the best people and my bosses to this day. I think I was six months pregnant. And I sat down. I told them my skills. I was very open and upfront about: “You know, I live in New Jersey. I would have to commute in. I’d need my hours to be adjusted so I could get home in time for my kids. But I’m the hardest worker that you’ll ever find. I’ll always be responsive no matter what time of day or hour, or weekend or weekday.” And that’s true to this day.
I think that that’s a very important lesson for people: to show them, to prove to them that you stand behind what you preach and you just be a responsible, reliable person and it takes you very far. And so at the end of the interview, we both said, “Okay, let’s see if this could work. I think we liked each other. Let’s do it for a trial period. Let’s see how it goes.” Fast forward 10 years later, and here I am. For a while, I was commuting into the city for maybe five years. And then after that, we opened an office in Metropark, New Jersey, where now I’m based out of that office.
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And how did you get into public office?
Gitta Kaplan: Oh my goodness. So, my life was really full, as you can tell. I do a lot of things. In addition to just working, I’m also very involved in Hillel and Propel. Anyway, my minutes are very… a lot of them are taken. But I am also somebody who believes in contributing and giving back to the place that you were born and live. And so after talking to some community members about what we’re missing in our community—we’re so good at business and we’re so good at philanthropy and we’re so good at so many things, but politics, we’re not really involved. And it’s something that we need to be because it’s so important in terms of keeping and getting the things that are important to our community. In terms of anything from our schools that are in Ocean Township and also just in terms of where we live. I want to be able to go outside and fix the traffic issue and walk on the sidewalk and let my kids ride their bikes to the park and all these things that I thought were important to me, my family, my community.
Victor M. Braca: They’re personal issues.
Gitta Kaplan: Personal issues, things that affect me and my neighbors every single day. So, after talking with a few people—close friends and advisers—I said there was an open vacant seat for somebody that was elected to a different higher office and I interviewed for the position. Before that, I was on the zoning board and the planning board. I got involved in those things first. Then there was the vacant seat. I decided to interview for the position.
It was actually… the interviews were over winter break. So, I was in Punta Cana with my family. Similar to this interview, I kicked them all out. I said, “Go to dinner.” I put on my closest thing to business casual I could put on in Punta Cana. It’s like a jacket over my beach pants. I zoomed in—we’re lucky for Zoom. Thank goodness. And it worked. I was appointed to the position. But because it was an appointment, eventually you have to be elected. So, I had to run for office this past November, which was a harrowing experience.
Victor M. Braca: Wow. Wait, tell me about that. I’m very curious.
Gitta Kaplan: So, I’m up for anything. I’m up for a challenge, but it’s not easy to campaign. It’s not the actual work; I don’t mind. It’s the knocking on doors, interrupting people, and saying, “Hey, I want to introduce myself. Here’s a flyer about me.” It’s very different for somebody that likes working behind the desk. Coming out from behind the desk is a step that is a little bit different. I had to debate my opponent—it was on Zoom, but it was a debate.
Victor M. Braca: Yeah, that’s so interesting.
Gitta Kaplan: It was fun, actually. It was fun, but it was an eye-opening experience. And not everybody likes you, and I really want everyone in life to like me. So that was the hardest part. Seeing social media comments having nothing to do with me personally—they know nothing about me but just about the things that I stand for—it was different than what I’m used to.
Victor M. Braca: And did your law experience—did your campaign build off of your law experience with public speaking and getting to know people and shaking hands, like you said?
Gitta Kaplan: Definitely. Definitely helped to just have that experience of being a lawyer, of working, of just interacting with people. And also in terms of the things that we do every day. So I’m on the council. The council is four people and the mayor, and we pass laws that govern the town. So it really is right in my wheelhouse in terms of what I do. That’s not to say you need to be a lawyer to be involved in politics. The mayor is a teacher. My fellow council people are—one of them’s a doctor. It’s all kinds of people, just people that care about the town.
Victor M. Braca: Nice. That’s great. Did you ever know that you were going to run for public office?
Gitta Kaplan: Never. Never. Never. I could have never imagined. But I also had the most amazing support system. My family totally got behind me. My friends, they made car magnets. And so one day, Shabbat, I’m cooking for Shabbat dinner and I hear all this honking down my block. I walk outside and my friends have all these car magnets full with my slogan driving around my block.
Victor M. Braca: That’s awesome.
Gitta Kaplan: And so I think it’s important, no matter what you do, to always have a great support system and I do now also.
Victor M. Braca: So you do in-house counsel for Mamiye Brothers, you are a mom, you’re a wife, you are a councilwoman in Ocean Township, you’re on the board of Propel, the board of Hillel Yeshiva. How do you do it?
Gitta Kaplan: I think people underestimate what they’re capable of. And I think there’s a saying: if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.
Victor M. Braca: Yes. I love that. I love that.
Gitta Kaplan: So, the truth of the matter is, I just do it. You wake up in the morning and you do it. I try—the hardest thing is to be present in the thing you’re doing at that moment, when you have so many things going on in your head.
Victor M. Braca: Exactly.
Gitta Kaplan: I’m like a computer with a lot of browsers open. So, I try to focus on the thing that I’m doing at that time. So, if I’m home with my kids, I try to put my phone down for the time that I’m eating dinner with them. It’s not easy. When I’m at work, I try to focus on work, obviously. And the same goes for the rest of the stuff that I’m involved with.
But I do notice—and this is really like a gift from God—that things, your priorities shift. But also sometimes things are very busy in one area, and that’s usually when something is less busy in the other area. I found that two things are never going on fire at the same time. So it’s not as hard as it looks. And when it’s hard, you manage, especially when you’re somebody who takes on so many things; it becomes part of your personality.
I will say that Saturdays, you will find me from 1:00 to 4:00 sleeping every Saturday. My kids know: Mommy’s sleeping. Mommy’s taking her nap.
Victor M. Braca: Okay. Right. Right.
Gitta Kaplan: So you have to find “me time.” One of the things that I do just to decompress—and it’s the place that I get my best ideas—is I’m a runner. So I run, and that’s where I kind of figure out: “Okay, this week I’m going to do this, this, and this. I’m going to plan my dinners. I’m going to take my kids here.” And it’s going to work.
Victor M. Braca: I’m going to do a podcast.
Gitta Kaplan: I’m going to do a podcast!
Victor M. Braca: I don’t know how I fit into your schedule, but I have to tell you, it works. I could hear the systems popping out of how you get by. You think of ideas on runs, or you make sure you’re laser-focused on whatever you’re doing, or you have your Saturdays or you have your alone time. These systems… it sounds like it’s what keeps you going.
Gitta Kaplan: For sure. And that’s not to say I don’t have fun. It’s possible to have a social life. I have a very strong group of friends. I have a very connected family and I take time to enjoy the things that I have, that I’m lucky to have.
Victor M. Braca: Also, it sounds like you enjoy everything you do—from your many roles, from the many hats that you wear. So, I want to ask you for people in the community, young people who are worried about chasing their passion, because everybody hears the saying nowadays, “Chase your passion, follow your passion.” My question is… you were able to do that successfully. Would you tell every young person to follow their passion, or is there a blend of doing what you’re good at versus what you love, or what’s going to make money? What fits in?
Gitta Kaplan: Right. So, I also always wanted to make money. My parents made fun of me: “We gave you everything you needed. Why are you so focused on making money?” But…
Victor M. Braca: Why were you?
Gitta Kaplan: I don’t know. There’s always that fear that it won’t be there. I don’t know. I always wanted to have a cushion. And look, there are times that you need it, times more than others. And it’s hard to send kids to yeshiva and pay all that tuition; it’s a lot. And I’m thankful to be able to contribute to that.
But from an early age, I just knew that I wanted to do something that made money but also that I love to do. It’s not easy to marry those two, but I do think that there’s a way to make money doing what you love and you just have to find what that thing is. For example, one of my sisters is a very good singer and she’s going to school for music therapy. So find something you love and chase it, while at the same time being mindful that you are going to have to put time in, in a way that might not be monetarily beneficial to you early on.
Victor M. Braca: But make that investment.
Gitta Kaplan: But make that investment. And no matter what you do, there’s always that apprenticeship period where you’re kind of putting in your time. So don’t pick something because it’s less school or it seems like it’s less work, because no matter what, you’re putting it in. Whether it be me working for two years in a law firm where I didn’t see the light of day, or a doctor having a residency, or working in a job where you have to work your way up to the top. I think no matter what you do, there’s always going to be that learning period where you’re maybe going to have to swallow your pride and do something that’s a little bit less than the top thing.
I tell my daughter—she was doing a report the other day talking about goals—and I told her goals are like a ladder. You want to get to the next step. Maybe your long-term goal is up here, but you have to kind of get there and no one actually jumps up to the top of the ladder. You have to get to the next step and then to the next step. And maybe there’s a landing where you kind of have to take a breath, but you always… all you have to do is get to the next step.
Victor M. Braca: It’s important for people like me to hear that because it’s so easy to look at somebody who’s in a position who seems to enjoy life and seems to enjoy their job and seems successful, and you have to realize that they didn’t just get there.
Gitta Kaplan: Exactly. It wasn’t just one fell swoop.
Victor M. Braca: No, no, no. There’s missteps along the way.
Gitta Kaplan: And sometimes you have to step down. You have to step down, right? You have to step down and then maybe you take two steps up and then maybe you take two steps back. But at the end of the day, it’s okay because you’ll still get there. If you keep your eye on the prize, no matter what the prize is, you’ll get there.
Victor M. Braca: And consistency is key. Throughout your career, you’ve stuck to a couple of main things and you were laser-focused on whatever you were doing at the moment, and it sounds like that put you ahead more than other things.
Gitta Kaplan: Yes. I think as long as, like you said, as long as you stick to something… I think it’s easy also, especially for a woman, to kind of take the exit. So, I had two little kids, I was pregnant, and I was in between jobs. I was looking to switch. A few people said to me, “Is now the time that you’re going to maybe take a break?” And I said, “No, I just want to keep my feet in the game.” And so, I actually interviewed at cool video game companies like Take-Two, and I could have moved back to the city and done fun things like that, but it wasn’t the best thing for my family. But I stayed no matter what. I always made sure to keep a foot in the game.
Victor M. Braca: Why?
Gitta Kaplan: Because I always knew that it’s harder to get back in once you leave completely. So no matter what, always try to keep the momentum going.
Victor M. Braca: Keep the momentum going. I love that. That was very smooth. Good segue. I want to shift into… I mean we touched on your public service, which is a form of giving back. Is it a volunteer position?
Gitta Kaplan: Yes.
Victor M. Braca: Wow. Okay. So that’s no small feat. That’s really nothing to shy away from. But I want to touch on: how did you get involved in Propel, in Hillel Yeshiva, and tell me what you do there that fuels your fulfillment?
Gitta Kaplan: So I was very close with my grandmother. I mentioned she was chairwoman of the SCC. My grandfather was one of the founders of Beth Torah, and they really inspired me. My Aunt Barbara also—she runs Reach for the Stars. My aunt and uncle were also very involved in SBH. So I come from a line of charitable people.
But when my grandmother passed away, I decided that I wanted to do something in her memory. I wasn’t involved in community service before that. I didn’t think there’s an opportunity to be when you’re so young, or at least I thought that, but there is. I called up the people that were president and involved in the Board of Directors of Hillel and I said, “I went here my whole life. I’m sending my kids here and I want to give back.” So they said, “Sure, start volunteering and we’ll see where you get.”
So I did that. I was proactive about it. I started volunteering through the alumni association and over time I became more involved in the day-to-day of what goes on in the school. My thing is: if you see a problem, volunteer to fix it.
Victor M. Braca: Like you did with your council position.
Gitta Kaplan: Like I did with my council position. One of the first things I did when I got to Hillel—because I was a working mother—they didn’t have an after-care program or a before-care program. And so when the schedule is 9:00 to 3:00 and my job starts at 9:00 and it’s an hour away, I’m not going to get there in time. And so I spoke to the director of the early learning center and I spoke to the people on the board and I said, “If you’re educating your women to go get these careers, then we have to support them when they are working.” And so I was able to help implement a before and after-care program at Hillel.
And that was one of the first things that I did. But over time I became more involved. I was invited to join the Board of Directors eventually and now I serve as the Vice Chairperson of the Board of Education of the high school. So it’s really something so special. The board is such a special group of people that might not see eye-to-eye on every issue but always come together to do something for the greater good.
Victor M. Braca: For the greater good. I love how particularly for you, you were proactive in that you asked them—you told them you wanted to volunteer. I think people put board members on a pedestal—that you have to be super successful and you have to be a multi-millionaire and you have to have a recognizable name in order to be on the board. But meanwhile, you were proactive about it. You told them, “I want to volunteer. I want to get involved.” They didn’t just approach you, which I think is important for people to realize. Even for myself, you look at the board members of organizations and you’re like, “One day…” meanwhile it could be today if you just start and start doing something that speaks to you.
Gitta Kaplan: For example, I’m not a fundraiser, but there’s so many young men… Sammy Saka, bless him, is one of the best fundraisers in the community and has a heart of gold. And he takes kids—I’m pointing because he lives around the corner—but he takes eighth graders. Last year eighth graders raised money to support Israel after October 7th. And now some of those kids and older alumni and high school kids now fundraise with him in the summer drives, and it’s really the most special thing. And that’s just fundraising. Let’s say you have an idea in terms of education—just volunteer to get involved and eventually you build this knowledge base that makes you valuable to assist in bigger ways.
Victor M. Braca: Nice. And tell me about your involvement with Propel.
Gitta Kaplan: So Propel really speaks to me from a female perspective. It’s an organization that I think is so important for our community in terms of supporting women in having careers. Dr. Gayle Kassin is the president. I work with her in Hillel and I started the same thing, helping in a few little projects here and there—their contracts, help certain women who wanted to speak to me about their potential careers—and eventually I also got more involved and joined the board there.
Victor M. Braca: And they recently named the National School of Public Service the Gitta Kaplan National School of Public Service.
Gitta Kaplan: Yes, I was so honored. Thank you to Ezra Gindi for doing that, putting that together. I just think it’s important because more women should be involved in public service—whether it be from an actual career because the hours are good and because the benefits are great and because they can make a difference in the places that they live. It’s really a very meaningful job. And also from just a volunteer perspective, it helps make the place that you live better for your family, for your town, for your community. It really is a meaningful goal.
Victor M. Braca: I love it. Every young woman should hear this. It’s amazing. Really, it’s really great and it’s great advice. So, as a lawyer, it’s a very people-facing business. Same thing with your public office position and you’ve worked with so many people helping with their careers, and you’ve worked with kids in Hillel and fellow board members and parents and constituents. What I want to ask you is: what are some skills that you’ve noticed in successful people—maybe some consistent themes that have popped up—and how can people like you and I replicate those in our lives?
Gitta Kaplan: So, I think the most important thing and something that I’ve tried to follow over the course of my career is: you do what you think is best for you and your family. And don’t look to your side about what everyone else is doing.
Victor M. Braca: I like that.
Gitta Kaplan: I think that’s important. I think it’s also important to, like I mentioned before, just be a reliable person, be somebody that people can count on. If someone is looking for an answer, respond. Even if you don’t do it right away: “Yes, we’ll do.” Someone that I worked with at Proskauer taught me that early on. Just be responsive. And especially if you want to do something where you’re not face-to-face all the time, it’s important to always be responsive. So that’s just something that I learned.
I think also you have to get comfortable talking to people even if you’re not. In today’s day and age, I find even my own kids… they’re on their cell phones, they’re scrolling, they’re watching an electronic device, and I think it’s so important to pick your head up and talk to people, even if it’s not the first thing that you’re comfortable with. Make yourself comfortable. I used to be scared of the partner at the law firm, and now I can talk to pretty much anybody. Just a superpower: swallow your fear. Everybody has the same fears and insecurities. So, try to get past your own anxiety and try and really do something that’s good for you, good for them, and always be helpful.
Victor M. Braca: Nice. I love it. So, we have a lot of books behind us, and I can tell from your library and that you’ve told me that you’re a big reader. I want to ask you some of your favorite books that you think have put you ahead in life, whether it be the advice they gave or a mindset shift that came after it.
Gitta Kaplan: Okay, so my favorite kind of self-help book is probably Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. I think it’s on my bookshelf. Let’s see… it is, it’s right there. Also next to it, the most important thing is a great investment book also. So, I… anyone who wants to come over and read my books… just talking again about getting a seat at the table and always don’t be afraid to speak up.
But I will say that I’m not a non-fiction reader. The thing that I like to read is fiction, and I’ll read anything. Anything, anything. For example, I once had a class at my house and one of the rabbis was giving a class and he said, “Wow, you have so many books.” He said, “Twilight? You have Twilight on your shelf?” I said, “I just read everything. Don’t let that be what you focus on. Focus on one of the bigger ones.”
But I always… my biggest advice to everybody is just to read, read, read. I tell it to my own kids who are young and I tell it to people who are older also. No matter what, no matter what, read anything. Read the newspaper. Every day I read the Wall Street Journal, the Times of Israel, the Coaster, which is our local newspaper. I think it’s important to stay involved in current events, but also just to kind of decompress, read anything. It’s more enjoyable than watching TV. As crazy as that might be for most people, it’s more enjoyable than watching TV.
Victor M. Braca: I think there’s a quote that I heard which is that the hardest part is in the beginning. The hardest part of anything that you want to do is going to be in the first 5, 10 minutes or first 5, 10 years depending on what the thing is, right? So you sit down to read a book. “I don’t want to read a book now. The TV’s right there. Let me just turn it on.” But 10 minutes in, you get into it and then you’re in the groove and you feel better about yourself also.
Gitta Kaplan: Yes. And also pick the right book. No one ever said you have to read, I don’t know, a business book. A business book or a fiction book, right? It depends on what you’re in the mood for and what you like. Read a comic book. Read Sports Illustrated. I just read something. So I think that’s important.
Victor M. Braca: Nice. I’m a big reader, so I could relate to a lot of what you’re saying. I want to ask you about your Momentum Moment. We call the show Momentum because we want people to be able to take small steps that are going to compound in their life. Like I mentioned earlier, people’s early experiences—their first job, the first company they started—really pave the way for them. So I want to ask you: what was your Momentum Moment? The moment where you realized that things were turning around for you. It could be a small moment that led to a big realization, or it could be the most important thing that happened to you in your life.
Gitta Kaplan: So, I think my Momentum Moment was really standing in that library taking out that Desperate Housewives DVD when I was in between Proskauer and my next job saying, “What am I doing? What am I doing next?” I put down the DVD. Literally a moment. I went home and I said, “This is my plan career-wise.” I also said at the time, “I need a hobby. I can’t just be doing work and taking care of my kids. I need a hobby.” And I started running. I ran the New York Marathon a few years ago. I really got into it. And this is from someone who never exercised a day in their life until they were 26 years old.
So in terms of my career, that Momentum Moment was deciding what I want to do next and what would be good for me in terms of the work-family balance and how I was going to get there.
Victor M. Braca: Sounds like in terms of your whole life.
Gitta Kaplan: In terms of my whole life. You know, I moved back here and I couldn’t find my way in terms of what I wanted to do next. And once I did that, it really set me up to really be oriented towards what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to work. I want to have a balance between work and my family. I want to be involved in charity and I want to be able to balance it all. And that’s what I try to do every day. It’s not easy, you know, but you wake up in the morning and take it day-to-day.
Victor M. Braca: Exactly. And it’s not just like… I don’t want people to focus on the zero to 100. It’s a ladder like you said.
Gitta Kaplan: It’s a ladder. It’s small steps. One step momentum. Build up the momentum.
Victor M. Braca: Anything you think we didn’t cover?
Gitta Kaplan: No, I think we covered it all. I think the more that you do, like you said, it builds up speed. And I never expected that anyone would want to interview me for a podcast, but people then approach you and then you could help others. I think the thing that I’m most focused on now is helping other people who want to be in my positions or are looking for guidance on where to go and how to get there.
Victor M. Braca: Amazing. Okay, Gitta, thank you so much.
Gitta Kaplan: Thank you so much for having me. A lot of fun.
Victor M. Braca: I learned a lot. Great hearing your story and I’m confident that it’ll reach a lot of people who need to hear it.
Gitta Kaplan: Great. I hope so. Thank you very much.
Victor M. Braca: Thanks so much for listening until the end of this conversation. I really enjoyed it. I hope you did as well. Here are my top three takeaways from this episode.
First: don’t be afraid to pivot. Gitta’s decision to leave Columbia, switch career paths, and restructure her work life shows that changing directions isn’t failure, it’s growth.
Second: create your own opportunities. And this is something I’m personally very passionate about. Whether it was cold emailing her cousin for a job or volunteering her way onto the Hillel Yeshiva board, Gitta’s story proves that initiative opens doors. Take initiative and you’ll find the doors opening up for you in your life.
And third: you can do more than you think. Between raising a family, building a legal career, serving in public office, and sitting on multiple organization boards, Gitta is living proof that being busy isn’t a limitation; it’s a strength. If you want something done, ask a busy person.
Okay, I’m going to add one more tip—a bonus tip. Always keep a foot in the game. Even when Gitta had young kids and was between jobs, she refused to take an exit ramp from her career. She understood that maintaining momentum, even at a slower pace, is better than having to start from zero later on.
If you enjoyed this episode, you would love my conversation with Lori Kassin. If you haven’t seen it yet, Lori, when she was just 17 years old, took a $3,000 investment, bought a couple of pieces of jewelry, and went door-to-door selling them. Fast forward to today, and she has three thriving retail locations with a customer base that grows every day. In our conversation, Lori opens up about her entire journey—the ups, the downs, everything in between. She also shares her advice for ambitious young people who are afraid to take that next step. To listen to that episode, you can click the link in the show notes or search “Momentum Lori Kassin” on any podcast platform. Google it, YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify.
And with that said, guys, thank you so much for watching this episode. In case you didn’t know, Momentum is on every platform—Spotify, Apple Podcast, YouTube—we’re on Instagram as well, anywhere else you might get your podcast. Please give us a five-star rating wherever you’re watching. And leave a like, a comment. Let me know if you enjoyed this episode. And if you did, share it with a friend who you think would enjoy it. If you didn’t enjoy this episode, share with someone who you don’t like. You know, if you thought it was a waste of time, you could waste their time, too. No. But in all seriousness, thank you so much for watching. Be sure to subscribe. We have so many great episodes coming up. If you have any feedback for me, please leave it in the comments. Send me a DM. I read every one of those. Thank you so much. Until next time.
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