DETROIT
JEWISH NEWS

November 20, 2008 / 22 Cheshvan 5769

ftbt — for teens by teens

a place
of our own

JCC's new teen center designed to be
THE hangout.

Shaye Winer
T2T staff photos by Jessica Polk

A

Left, front to back: Ethan Mendelson, 15, West Bloomfield; Erica Sachse, 16, Huntington

Woods; Leigh Grinberg, 16, West Bloomfield; seated: Hannah Moiseev, 16, Huntington

Woods; right, front to back: Jake Balbes, 16, Birmingham; Michelle Kappy, 16, West

Bloomfield; Lindsay Gordon, 16, Franklin; and Robbie Herman, 17, West Bloomfield

fter years of dreaming and months of planning and waiting for construction
to be done, the transformation is complete.
The former Holocaust Memorial Center at the Jewish Community Center
in West Bloomfield has been converted into the Beverly Prentis Wagner Teen Center.
With a soft opening in December, Jewish teens will have a place where they can go
after a strenuous day of school to kick back, relax and even work on homework.
This new state-of-the-art facility, at nearly 10,000 square feet, will be home to an
all-kosher snack bar, a movie theater with games, a study center, gaming caves, DDR
[Dance Dance Revolution video game] and many other electronic games — and the
whole place will have wireless Internet.
The Teen Center is for fun and games as well as a place to learn and study. Cu-
bicles for two will be prime spots for tutoring and group projects. Individual cubicles
with computers also will be available.
The goal of the Teen Center is basically to offer each and every Jewish teen the
best hangout place around.
When current JCC Executive Director Mark Lit was interviewed 3 1/2 years ago for
his job, he was asked what he thought about the JCC. He had this response: "Well,
this JCC is fabulous, but where do the kids hang out?"
Before Lit, former JCC board member Bruce Frankel pushed very hard for a teen
center, too. So Lit said he dropped a few hints; soon the JCC board was behind the
idea 100 percent. Board members say they want Jewish teens at the JCC rather than
at other places. They want the current teens to feel a strong connection to the Jewish
community and, hopefully, to raise their kids here, too.
This goal is important to the community. According to the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit's population study in 2005, more than 25 percent of our Jewish
population of 72,000 is made up of newborns through 17-year-olds, which includes
7,020 teens ages 13-17. The study also shows only 4 percent of young adults ages 25-
34, suggesting that many college students do not return to Detroit after graduation.
Regarding the statistics, Lit joked ; "I have done an intensive study of every impor-
tant Jewish leader and each of them was once a teen and influenced in some way."
Then he turned serious: "We have to start now; we have to start here, and we will be
that influence."
Involvement from teens in planning the center was important to its success. Since
February, about seven teen focus groups met to talk about likes, dislikes, what could
be cool and what teenagers needed. From those focus groups, teen co-chairs Erica
Sachse and Ben Goutkovitch created a steering committee made up of teens repre-
senting nearly every high school with Jewish teenagers as well as each Jewish youth

continues on page B3

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