Jacob B. Handelman serves on the Chicago Advisory Council at Avodah.
He is a lawyer by trade and enjoys a passion for making communities safer and giving medium-income families a chance to own a home instead of renting. He loves inspecting dilapidated buildings and envisions how repairing them will improve problematic neighborhoods. For many years as an Assistant Corporation Counsel, Jacob prosecuted owners of drug houses, worked with the Chicago Police Department, aldermen and community groups to improve neighborhoods. Jacob later worked with the City’s Troubled Buildings Initiative and the Community Investment Corporation to turn around distressed condominium buildings. Since 2017, Jacob has renovated 48 affordable homes and as an attorney represented many corporate, family and individual clients. He is on the Board of the Dearborn Realtist Board and has helped teach over 300 members of the community how to be a City of Chicago court-appointed receiver.