Parental
Outrage

.

Los Angeles community stunned by
announcement that five JCCs will close.

Mn

TOM TUGEND
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Los Angeles

111

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4

ive of the seven Jewish
community centers in the
Los Angeles area are slated
to close next year because
of a $3 million deficit.
Compounding the bad news, the
Jewish Federation of Greater Los
Angeles, long the JCC's major finan-
cial supporter, is falling short of its
annual fund-raising goal and has
released about 30 of its 150 employ-
ees.
Recent world and national events
have aggravated the community's
financial problems, but their roots lie
in the sprawling size and the lack of
cohesiveness and tradition in Los
Angeles' 500,000-plus Jewish com-
munity, the second largest and sec-
ond wealthiest in the diaspora.
In a series of stormy meetings with
outraged parents last week, the execu-
tive vice president of the JCC, Nina
Lieberman Giladi, and Federation
President John Fishel detailed the
bleak situation.
Except for early childhood educa-
tion and after-school care programs,
all other services at the five JCCs,
including programs for seniors,
immigrants and teenagers, will be
discontinued by the end of
December.
Children's services will continue
through June 30, 2002, at which
time they, and the five community
centers housing them, will close
down.
In the first of a series of advisory
meetings at targeted JCCs, held at
the Silverlake-Los Feliz center, Giladi
and Fishel faced a barrage of criticism
from angry parents.

John Carogozian, holding an infant
baby, accused the administrators of
abandoning the goal of Jewish conti-

nuity.
"For many secular Jews, this is the
only opportunity they have to be
exposed to Jewish life," Carogozian
said. "We may not see it in one year
or five years, but 10 or 15 years from
now, that's when you'll see the mis-
take of what I've been hearing all
evening."
Some participants arrived with
copies of Internal Revenue Service
documents showing the six-figure
salaries of top JCC officials. In
response, Giladi offered to take a
salary cut.

Community Backlash

At the opposite end of Los Angeles,
many parents at the North Valley
JCC broke into tears when told of
the shutdown. The center was the
site of a shooting spree by a white
supremacist two years ago, which
wounded five children and adults.
"This center is a symbol of sur-
vival," said David Berlin, whose 5-
year-old son was on the premises
during the attack.
Robyn Glassman sobbed while
telling officials, "You're coming to us
at the 11th hour and you're telling us
there's nothing you can do."
The two centers to remain open ate
in the outlying western San Fernando
Valley and Conejo Valley, areas that
have seen an influx of young Jewish
families.
Giladi and Fishel blamed the bleak
financial picture on the downturn in
the economy and the after-effects of
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on
America.
For instance, the L.A. Jewish
Federation, which has been support-
ing the JCCs with an annual $3.2
million allocation, has raised only
$39.2 million of its $44 million goal
for 2001. Officials hope to close the
gap in a last-minute spurt.
However, there is a widespread

