WATCH

JCC from page 35

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more prudent. Renovations will
include a new Jewish Discovery Area,
a spruced-up cultural hall, more navi-
gable corridors, expanded child devel-
opment facilities, and enhanced fit-
ness and recreation facilities.
The 42-year-old Jimmy Prentis
Morris Building in Oak Park will get
a face lift, too — basic building
improvements estimated to cost $1.5
million.
Hugh Greenberg, whose legacy of
Jewish communal leadership spans
Federation and the JCC, is capital
and endowment drive chairman for
the JCC. He says non-members are
important to keeping use of the JCC
facilities high — he'd like to see total
annual visits climb from one million
to 1.5 million — and he's right.
But I can't help but think the JCC
should do more to recruit new mem-
bers. Current-membership is 10,000,
the vast majority of whom are Jewish.
That total represents just 10 percent
of Detroit's Jewish population. Mem-
bership not only generates dues but
also engenders loyalty, a high-value
promotional tool.
The JCC already has raised $7 mil-
lion of its $25-million goal. Construc-
tion will be phased over three years. It
will begin once building plans are
approved and funding is in hand.
No one is saying the Detroit Jewish
community is dependent on the JCC
to survive, but the two clearly are
intertwined.
We must always remember that
programming, not buildings, will ulti-
mately chart the Jewish Community
Center's course. Fortunately, JCC
executive director David Sorkin con-
curs.
As he perceptively put it: "Our
strength is physical education. But as
we've looked at other centers, our
program income is lower, even when
compared to smaller markets. So we're
getting program quality back on track
— and validating it through accredi-
tation. Staff input and development
also are priorities.
"At every turn, we're not forgetting
why we're here — to be the central
address of our Jewish community."
Time will tell if that continues to
be true.
But I, for one, am hoping it does.
The Detroit Jewish community would
be poorer without our Jewish Com-
munity Center. Cl

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Detroit Jewish News

37