EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

Shabbat Dilemma

113

very penny the Detroit Jewish community saves
Subsidies Over Scholarships
on its supplemental grant to the Jewish
Rabbi Reuven Spolter of Young Israel of Oak Park and Rabbi
Community Center is a penny that can go toward
Elliott Pachter of Congregation B'nai Moshe made com-
higher priority needs, including school-based education,
pelling arguments to the JNagainst opening the JCC on
senior needs and social services. So I hope 2005 is the year
Shabbat morning ("Shabbat Fitness," Dec. 17, page 20).
when the added subsidy drops thanks to continued spend-
They questioned why the JCC would do it and, by exten-
ing controls and increased income from top JCC revenue
sion, why Federation would allow it.
streams — the Center Fitness Club, the Center Day
In 1959, at the height of the controversy surrounding the
Camps and the Pitt Child Development Center.
JCC opening in a limited way on Saturday afternoon, JN
There's a belief that Federation's Annual Campaign no
Publisher and Editor Philip Slomovitz wrote, "The most
longer should earmark a $200,000 supplemental grant on
sacred Jewish institution — the Sabbath — must be pre-
top of a $1.6 million allocation to the
served. It should be protected, respected and hallowed."
JCC. Let the JCC make the hard cuts now
He urged that it not be desecrated and called on the JCC
to balance the budget, the thinking goes.
board to "reverse a decision we view as unwise and harmful
More people think this way than we as a
to our communal unity."
community care to admit. I'm not as hard
I respect the rabbis immensely. And I grew up in awe of
line.
the wisdom that Slomovitz shared each week in the JN.
I believe it's time the JCC, in coopera-
But when you look at the issue with a longer, more focused
tion with Federation, develops a strategic
lens and against the backdrop of what's ultimately best for
plan that erases the supplemental grant
our community of 96,000 Jews today, what shakes out is this
ROBERT A. within three years. A JCC board forecast
burning question: If we don't allow the Center Fitness Club
SKLAR
that projects the budgetary picture three
to open on Saturday morning to stay competitive, are we
Editor
years out would go a long way toward
ready to further subsidize JCC operating loses at the expense
convincing skeptics that the JCC is not a
of student scholarships, senior support and aid to Jewish
financial black hole.
Family Service?
A $1.6 million allocation, covering almost a third of
I'm not.
JCC costs, should be plenty if JCC revenue kicks up. The
For me, the most urgent matters confronting Jewish
Federation no longer can be there for every Jewish agency
Detroit are Jewish learning opportunities for our kids and
that's hurting. It no longer has the
decent living opportunities for
same pool of mega-philanthropists
the elderly. It matters not whether
to draw from.
kids are in a Jewish day school or
The religious arguments opposing
a synagogue school; many need
the JCC decision to open the
scholarships and we'd better be
Fitness Club at the Kahn Building
there to provide them if we want
in West Bloomfield on Saturday
to help them keep their Jewish
morning are salient. It's tough to
identity against the swirling
argue that expanded Saturday hours
winds of assimilation, intermar-
don't somehow dishonor Shabbat.
riage and apathy. As for the elder-
On another level, fitness is certainly
ly, the poorest, sickest and loneli-
a Jewish ideal; it's possible to work
est among them often get lost in
N.
out and go to Shabbat services if
the communal shuffle. Don't
Jason Golnick, at the West Bloomfield JCC.
you so choose. It's not a case of one
shun them. Revere them, not
or the other.
only for all the good they did in years past, but also for the
Whatever your feeling about this first expansion of JCC
wisdom they still can share if only we let them.
Shabbat hours in 45 years, JCC and Federation leaders
essentially assured the move five years ago when they
Make Pennies Count
approved major Fitness Club improvements. It's no secret
As David Sorkin moves on in 2005 to the Staten Island
that Fitness Club dues help pay for an array of other pop-
JCC, his successor as Jewish Community Center of
ular programs and services at the JCC, including Jewish
Metropolitan Detroit executive director will have to be a
cultural programming like Shalom Street, Book Fair and
wizard of sorts with an innovative business model to lead
SAJE (Seminars for Adult Jewish Enrichment).
the 78-year-old central address for Detroit Jewry. Even the
At a time when a hard decision had to be made about a
United Way is cutting back, jeopardizing its 5 percent allo-
370,000-square-foot building, designed in the 1960s and
cation toward the JCC's $10 million annual budget.
built in the 1970s when there was no health club competi-
From Day One, Sorkin's successor, working under
tion, Jewish Detroit leaders decided to compete head-on
President Hannan Lis, will need to draft the blueprint for a
through a state-of-the art Fitness Club at the JCC.
reliable long-range vision statement capable of weaning the
Given the competitive realities of 1998-1999, this deci-
JCC from Federation dependence. He or she also will need
sion placed the economic survival of the JCC even more
to know how to navigate the briar patch that affects access
on the financial b'ack of the health club and its aging
to applicable grants, foundations, funds and donations.
membership. As the JCC faces deficits and competition,
For its part, Federation, working under President Peter
the Center Fitness Club must be positioned to compete. It
Alter, would do well to show the community how pennies
wasn't too many years ago that the JCC actively recruited
saved from the JCC because of more Fitness Club member-
non-Jews to join the Fitness Club, a strategy that drove
ships can add up and not only expand lifelong Jewish learn-
away some Jews who supported the JCC out of a sense of
ing, but also benefit deprived or ailing seniors.
obligation, not because they used it.
That funding shift would be a mitzvah.

II

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12/31
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