I was born and grew up in Manhattan. I have one sister who is two years younger than me. My mother was born in Israel, my father was born in the United States, and both of them grew up in Great Neck. The Ackerman side came over from Hungary two generations ago, and they ran a taxicab business here in the United States. Until a few years ago, you could still spot the Ackerman name on some of the cabs around the city. It was inherited over the years, but we don’t own the cabs anymore. My father was always in real estate.
“My parents got divorced when I was seven or eight years old. My father remarried and I lived with my mother. She and her father, my grandfather, were my role models. My mother, Dr. Mona Riklis Ackerman, was a psychologist. Sadly, she passed away 14 years ago, in her 60s. She was my hero, an incredible human being; she taught me everything. My sister and I always joke that our home was like a Jewish catering hall, because my mother would host every Jewish philanthropic organization that existed. She showed me the importance of giving back to the community.
“My grandfather, Meshulam Riklis, played a similar role for me. He taught me so many important things in life. His parents had moved from Odessa to Israel. He grew up in Tel Aviv, married very young and then immigrated to the United States after my mother was born.
“I went to a Jewish day school, a Modern Orthodox yeshivah. I wouldn’t call us particularly religious, but we would have Shabbat dinner and things like that. There is nothing I feel more proud of in my heart than being Jewish. I often go to synagogue on Shabbat, and I always go on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“Last year, my rabbi, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein at Kehilath Jeshurun, gave me a tremendous honor: he asked me to open the aron before Ne’ilah, and in his speech to the congregation, he praised my work on behalf of the Jewish people. That was very meaningful to me. When he first called to tell me he wanted to do this, I objected because I’m not that religious and didn’t think it was appropriate. Rabbi Lookstein answered, ‘No, Ari, you are religious. You’re just not as observant as some of us.’
“I was entrepreneurial from the very beginning. My sister and I used to set up stands on our block where we would sell whatever we could—lemonade, toys, books. I was about eight years old when I looked at the bookshelves in our home and thought to myself, ‘I could make money on these.’ I had no idea what they cost, yet I went through every single book, put a price on each one, carried them all downstairs, and set up a stand to hawk them. Whenever we got those mail offers to make money selling plants or seeds, I ordered them and tried to make it work, because that kind of hustle was always who I was.
“I began college at Duke University as an economics major but graduated with a degree in political science and a Judaic studies certificate. Until then I was not especially religious, but at Duke I became known as ‘Rabbi Ari,’ the guy everyone came to with their Jewish questions.
“My first real job was on Capitol Hill, working as a legislative assistant for Congressman Gary Ackerman, to whom I am not related. I do happen to have an uncle named Gary Ackerman, and the congressman has a son named Ari, so as a congressional staff member I had to sign all these anti-nepotism forms confirming that I was not related to him.
“I loved politics, and I still do, but I always saw myself more as an entrepreneur and a businessman, and I realized that being a career political operative was not going to work for me financially. I believe in following your interests, so I went to graduate school to earn an MBA. At Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, I majored in finance, marketing and entrepreneurship, and in my final semester I took a venture capital class taught by a great professor named Barry Merkin, who became a very close friend of mine.