Centers
Of
Attention

Other cities have built up their JCCs
with mixed results.

-4

LONNY GOLDSMITH

StaffWriter

ulti-million dollar
fund-raising cam-
paigns produced
state-of-the-art
facilities for the Jewish
Community Centers in New
Haven, Conn., and Louisville,
Ky. in recent years, but yielded
very different membership
results.
New Haven's new building
brought more members, but left
no money for programs or opera-
tional support. Louisville's reno-
vation brought a record number
of families to the Center.
The differing results hold a
lesson for Detroit, where the
JCC leadership earlier this
month announced an ambitious
$25 million capital and endow-
ment campaign to renovate the
Kahn and Jimmy Prentis Morris
buildings.
In 1993, after seven years
without a central JCC building,
The soon-to-be-renovated Kahn JCC in West Bloomfield.
New Haven opened a $19 mil-
lion facility and saw its member-
ship rise by one third, to 2,400
rebuilding campaign that has brought
the situation there was bad," he said.
families. New Haven's Jewish popula-
in $4 million so far. That money, plus
Schultz moved to the JCC in
tion is estimated at 25,000.
$1.7 million from insurance, has
Louisville, where a renovation project
But the new building did not solve
helped to renovate the center and
that was already underway resulted in
the New Haven JCC's problems,
push it to a record 2,710 families.
nearly 400 new members. But two
according to Howard Schultz, former
"The difference between New
years later, a March flood damaged
executive director, because building
Haven and Louisville is like night and
almost half of Louisville's 110,000-
costs left no money to support opera-
day," Schultz said. "The Louisville
square-foot building.
tions. "I left at the end of 1995 and
community is behind the center and is
The commmunity launched a

FC

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6/26
1998

8

willing to put money in."
Detroit's capital campaign will allo-
cate $18 million for physical restruc-
turing and renovations — about $1.7
million at the JPM branch in Oak
Park — and $7 million for program
endowments for the day camp, library,
and special needs services, among oth-
ers.