Cornerstone Bank has supported Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel in the building of a new student center–the first of its kind in Lawrence, Kansas–designed for Jewish students at KU. Recently, we had the pleasure of speaking with Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, Chabad at the University of Kansas, about how working with a community bank like Cornerstone offers a deeply personal banking relationship, rather than the transactional relationship that you typically experience at a larger bank.

“My name is Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel. I have the opportunity and privilege of being a leader in the Jewish community in Kansas. We have had the great joy of being partners with Cornerstone Bank now for around six months. We’ve worked with many different banks in the long history of our non-profit organization, and we’ve never had an experience with a bank who treats you not like a transactional relationship, but a bank that is all about the people, and about the impact, and about the community.

We’ve had an incredible experience working with everybody, from the executive leadership down to anybody on the team, for any issue, whether it’s minor or significant, that we’ve ever encountered. One of the biggest differences about this bank is that they are people who care.

In our history working with different financial institutions, it was always about the dollar sign. It’s about “what’s the bottom line,” “profit for us,” “we’re in it for the money.” Everything else is background noise. And with this bank, Cornerstone, we’ve come to learn that they’re in it for the impact. They’re in it for the partnership. They’re in it because they truly view you as an important part of their community — of their family, I would even say. And that’s a feeling that we get not only from the presidents and the management, but even from individuals that are helping us with a small issue with a transfer.

There’s always that extra dose, extra mile, of showing us that they care. One of the ways that we see it is proactiveness. I’ve never had a bank where they reach out to us and say, “You need anything?” “Is everything okay?” I’m used to banks where you have to call three times so you can finally get a hold of someone to talk to you.

So this has really been, for us, an incredible gift. And we’re right now about to complete a tremendous building project of a brand new building that’s a first building being built in the state of Kansas for Jewish students. And from the get go, this entire process and the entire journey with Cornerstone has been an incredible experience for us and for our entire community.”

Additional Sources: Chabad Info, The Lawrence Times