Celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month: Meet Aaron Trauring, IT Senior Program Manager 

Soon after entering the NYCHA workforce over 21 years ago, Aaron Trauring joined the Jewish Employees Organization (Batei Tsibur).  

Learning there was an existing group of Jewish NYCHA employees who cohesively promote Jewish culture, acts of kindness, and community spirit, Mr. Trauring was pleased to become a member. 

“I thought it was a great opportunity to be part of a group that has those kinds of values,” recalled Mr. Trauring, a Senior Program Manager in the Information Technology (IT) Department. 

A native New Yorker, Mr. Trauring was raised in a multi-generational Orthodox Jewish family. Only months prior to the outbreak of World War II, his grandfather and then-3-year-old father were able to escape Nazi Germany in March 1939, later settling in Manhattan.   

As the nation commemorates Jewish American Heritage Month in May, celebrating the contributions of generations of Jewish Americans, Mr. Trauring is among those who have a deep devotion to their faith.  

“My Jewish faith is a central core of my life,” he stated. “It’s the nucleus of my day-to-day living, and everything else really springs out of that core.”  

Mr. Trauring and his fellow members of NYCHA’s Jewish Employees Organization are proud to celebrate their heritage at the group’s annual events for Hanukkah and Purim, as well as other functions throughout the year that have helped build camaraderie among colleagues.  

“Whenever there’s an opportunity to see my fellow members in person at these events it’s certainly encouraging and I look forward to it,” he said.  

Mr. Trauring began his NYCHA career in February 2003 as an Administrative Staff Analyst in the Office of Policy and Program Development. He later served as Assistant Director of the Office of Strategic Planning and Change Management before moving to IT to become a Project Manager.     

As a Senior Program Manager in IT, he oversees various programs and applications used by Central Office employees. Some of his past projects have included upgrading the Kronos timekeeping system, implementing the LegalStratus application for the Law Department, as well as improving resiliency/backup between NYCHA Data Centers at 90 Church Street and in Long Island City.   

“My role requires me to work with a wide variety of staff from different backgrounds, both within and outside of IT,” Mr. Trauring said. “I really enjoy the collaborative effort and what it takes to manage different pieces, different people and different departments, and bring them together as one team to reach our end goals. It’s good to know that what I’m doing behind the scenes is hopefully impacting the day-to-day lives of residents and making things more seamless from the IT perspective, and I’m happy to be a part of that.” 

Mr. Trauring’s spirit of collaboration on the job is also reflected in his passion for giving back to his community, traits which he believes are rooted in his Jewish faith.  

He and his family are active members of their local synagogue, where they volunteer for the food pantry by helping to clean, stock items, and make deliveries. The family is also committed to advocating for programs to support the special needs community. 

In the past, Mr. Trauring was inspired to take action on the athletic front after learning that his children and their friends were too young to join the local Little League. A former youth baseball player himself who had fond memories of playing catch with his father, Mr. Trauring worked to create a separate league to allow neighborhood children to play baseball for a season until they were eligible for Little League.  

“Growing up my family always stressed the importance of helping others; they instilled that in me, so I try to act on that and instill it in my children,” he said.