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Improving Your JCC

D

wring this holy day sea-
son, it is customary to
reflect on the past and
plan for the future.
The Jewish Community Center
has a vibrant past:
"I literally grew up at the
Woodward JCC!"
"If it was not for the special
needs program at the JCC, my
child would never experience
summer camp."
"CDC [the Sarah and Irving
Pitt Child Development Center]
and the infant care program have
allowed me to continue working,
knowing that my child is safe
and cared for and loved."
"JPM [the Jimmy Prentis
Morris Building] is simply the
center of a thriving Oak Park
Jewish community."
How often do we hear these
statements? Just how many lives
has the JCC of Metropolitan
Detroit touched over the years,
and what impact on how many

people does it continue to have
on the Jewish fabric of our com-
munity?
Very often! Hundreds of thou-
sands! Tens of thousands annu-
ally. Significant and sometimes
life-changing!
The JCC's annual Book Fair is
the granddaddy of them all (the
oldest and largest in the coun-
try.) The Marwil Jewish Film
Festival sold more than 23,000
tickets last year. The Janice
Charach Epstein Art Gallery con-
tinues to be a shining star in the
art scene of Metro Detroit.
Add to these Shalom Street, the
Henry & Delia Meyers Library,
the Jewish Ensemble Theatre in
the Aaron DeRoy Theatre, the
Seminars for Adult Jewish
Enrichment with its 40 class
offerings and more than 400 stu-
dents, the 200-plus students
annually in the Florence Melton
Adult Mini-School Jewish educa-
tion program, special music

events and festivals, and clearly
the JCC of Metropolitan Detroit is
a Jewish cultural mecca.
Our past, however, is not just
filled with rave reviews:
"That Fitness Center is costing
the community a fortune; they
took away the racquetball courts
without even caring about us."
"They just do not listen to the
membership."
"They cannot balance their
budget and are not fiscally
responsible."
The fact is that the "fitness"
piece of our business actually
makes money and supports the
JCC mission-based work.
However, during this season of
introspection, rather than be
defensive, we must admit that we
have made mistakes! Although
we know that we cannot please
100 percent of the community all
the time, we know that we have
done things to make our mem-
bership and our community feel
less than welcome. We have made
decisions that we thought were in
the best interests of the commu-

nity serving the greatest good,
and they may not have been
the best decisions.
We are working very hard
to change these perceptions
and realities. We are partner-
ing with several Jewish com-
munal agencies to move the
JCC to the next level. We
Irwin Alterman and Mark Lit
will do everything in our
Community View
power to assure that "serv-
ice" at the JCC is first rate,
and that we listen to our
membership, which we are
program that has 1,200 children.
proud to say, now numbers
Scan our adult offerings for the
more than 10,000 individuals.
year. Attend any of the myriad
We are working very hard to
Jewish cultural events. Read the
balance our budget and launch a
quotes from the Talmud on our
new era of sustained fiscal
fitness center walls.
responsibility.
We create Jewish memories.
We are dedicated to keeping
This is "your" JCC.
our eye on our mission and pro-
With your support, this agency
viding first-class programs and
can and will be one of the great
events to meet the social, cultural JCCs of North America. Detroit
and educational needs of our
deserves it!
Jewish community.
L'Shanah Tovah to all. ❑
We are all about Jewish identi-
ty. Walk through the 200-plus-
Irwin Alterman is president of the
participant child development
JCC. Mark Lit is executive director.
center. Visit our summer camp

Ever-Higher Communal Goals

he work of tikkun olam,
repairing the world — the
work of our Jewish
Federation — is never done. As
we reflect on the new year 5766,
we are just now absorbing the
impact of recent events.
Cataclysmic events. Gaza. Katrina.
In the face of sweeping changes in
Israel and disaster here on our
own shores, we are called to
action. We are called to respond.
The great shofar has sounded.
In the wake of Katrina, we
have witnessed the strength of
the Jewish community across the
nation, doing what we do best:
answering the call and mobiliz-
ing our community resources.
Around the nation our collec-
tive voice has been heard. The
North American network of
Jewish federations collectively
has raised more than $8 million
for humanitarian rescue and
relief. Locally, our Federation,
United Jewish Foundation and
community members have
proudly funneled more than
$250,000 into the relief fund and
related efforts to support hurri-
cane victims in the Jewish and

T

102

general community alike.
In Israel, addressing the issues
of resettlement of uprooted pop-
ulations, our Federation will con-
tinue to allocate funds for pro-
grams to help provide humani-
tarian aid, social services and
educational opportunities for
families from the Gaza as well as
for olim, new Israelis from
Ethiopia and the former Soviet
Union, among other places.
Indeed, in the months and
years ahead, our voice will con-
tinue to be heard, asking for
more. Rescue. Relief. Caring for
those who are hungry, those who
are alone, those who are in crisis.
Building community. Rebuilding
lives, when circumstances
demand, wherever there is need.
This is what we do. This is
who we are. This is what our
Federation has always been
about.
With displacement comes
resettlement. With loss there is
recovery. With community there
is community building and
rebuilding. As one year closes,
another begins, as we continue to
go from strength to strength.

Federation's job is a delicate
balance, identifying our commu-
nity's priorities, advocating and
allocating support for our Jewish
agencies, our Jewish schools, our
frail elderly, our programs that
enhance Jewish identity, and our
security for the future.
As we launch Federation's 2006
Annual Campaign, we begin a
new year with hope and opti-
mism for our future. We have
challenges to meet. We must
respond to the growing needs of
families in our community, sup-
port the infrastructure of our
schools and agencies while
maintaining fiscal stability.
But we have reason to celebrate.
Building community, starting from
the core strength of our families,
we are finalizing plans for our first
Family Miracle Mission to Israel,
more than 700 strong. Our sum-
mer Teen Mission will likely be our
largest contingent ever. Our first
ever Women's Journey to Israel and
an Educators' Mission, bringing in
total more than 1,200 people to
Israel this coming year on
Federation-sponsored missions.
Building for our children, we

have exciting plans for our
Jewish Academy, establishing
its permanent home on the
Eugene and Marcia Applebaum
Jewish Community Campus in
West Bloomfield. Building for
generations, we continue to
reach for higher goals, growing
a community endowment to
secure our future.
Truly we might ask what is
our "capacity for giving?" Our
response must be this: We sur-
vive; indeed, we thrive, by
meeting our challenges.
What we ask from our
Federation is nothing more and
nothing less than the very best of
ourselves: building on our legacy
of philanthropy, building on
excellence in our schools, agen-
cies and programs, building on
our vision of a vibrant Jewish
community for the future.
Together, our voices resound, our
priorities become clearer and we
move forward, thinking, creating,
and adapting to change.
None of our success would be
possible without your support,
your commitment and your gen-
erosity. For this and everything

Peter M. Alter and
Allan Nachman

Community View

else you have done and will con-
tinue to do to make Detroit's
Jewish community one of the
great communities in North
America, we thank you and are
forever grateful.
L'Shanah Tovah. May the new
year bring you, your family, our
friends and family in the Gulf
Coast communities and in all of
Israel a sense of shalom, a sense of
peace, rebuilding and healing.

❑

Peter M. Alter is president of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit. Allan Nachman is president
of the United Jewish Foundation of
Metropolitan Detroit, Federation's
banking/real estate arm.

September 29 • 2005