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Editorial

Repurposed JPM Shows Value
In Working Together

C

losing the Jewish Community
Center's Jimmy Prentis Morris
Building (JPM) in Oak Park
next Monday as a budget cost-saver, unset-
tling as that prospect is, opens the door to
a compelling new way of doing business at
the site — long a popular gathering spot for
the surrounding Jewish community, even as
membership and usage fluctuated.
A similar fresh business model also is
needed at the JCC's larger, newer D. Dan &
Betty Kahn Building in West Bloomfield — a
campus that also contributed to the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit's
long-growing debt.
With Federation, in collaboration with its
real estate/banking arm, the United Jewish
Foundation, announcing this week that an
anonymous donor will drive JPM repurpos-
ing through the strictures of a major finan-
cial gift, JPM prospects are suddenly upbeat.
This, of course, hinges on the quality of the
planning, including the Jewish component,
matching the generosity of the gift.
The Detroit Jewish community will con-
tinue to own the Oak Park site, which will
retain the JPM name.
Continuing Jewish access to a pool,
exercise facilities and classrooms remains
an important target as Federation and JCC
leaders develop JPM repurposing to seam-
lessly serve Jews in Oak Park, Southfield,
Huntington Woods, Royal Oak, Ferndale,
Berkley and other nearby areas.
Driving or shuttling to the West
Bloomfield JCC shouldn't be the only option
for JPM members, and now doesn't appear
to be. Our top communal leadership under-
stands that JPM repurposing will have a
greater chance of Jewish acceptance if the
revamped infrastructure includes a contin-
ued Jewish role of some sort.
Such acceptance also depends not just on
maintaining, but also on expanding Jewish
programs and services both at the new
JPM site and in the neighborhoods beyond.
Satellite sites, some featuring partnerships
with other Jewish organizations, continue to
be identified.

Helpful Counsel

The Committee to Save the Oak Park
Jewish Community Center, an impressive
grassroots alliance of more than 200 Oak
Park JCC supporters led by Ron Aronson,
pulled out the stops in gaining the respect
of Federation and JCC leaders — and
thereby gained a say in the direction of the
Request for Proposals (RFPs) as well as in
the visioning of the next-generation Jewish
communal facility in Oak Park.
That's significant because those same
Federation and JCC leaders didn't invite
open feedback before receiving a JCC
Financial Oversight Committee recommen-
dation to close JPM to slash a Metro Detroit
JCC debt that has fallen, thanks to controls,
from $6 million to $2.3 million.
The Metro Detroit JCC is one of
Federation's largest constituent agencies and
also has a substantial private donor base. In
January, the boards of both agencies voted
to close JPM, which has struggled with an
annual operating deficit of nearly $1 mil-
lion; the West Bloomfield JCC has fought a
nearly $200,000 annual operating deficit.

With Federation announcing a major
anonymous donor will drive IPM repurposing,
JPM prospects are suddenly upbeat.

The RFPs were intended to help JCC and
Federation leaders find the right third-party
property manager to "maintain an inclusive
community facility that continues to serve
the Jewish population in the area with
programming by the JCC and other Jewish
communal organizations." That's a noble
goal in the context
of strategizing for a
21st-century Jewish
communal facilities
model that propels
serving the neighbor-
hoods now using
both JCC campuses.

Oak Park and Southfield amid the construc-
tion of 1-696 as well as demographic changes.
The Orthodox community also has played
a key part in stabilizing a Jewish presence in
those two cities; Federation has responded
by generously supporting the Jewish day
schools there. Huntington Woods, Royal
Oak, Ferndale and Berkley, of course, have
attracted lots of young Jewish families.
At communal meetings and discussions
where the subject of closing the Oak Park
JCC drew the glare of public scrutiny, a com-
mon theme emerged: the sense of communi-
ty that JPM has nurtured by welcoming Jews
of all ages and religious stripes was at risk.
As Federation and JCC leaders repurpose
JPM and reimagine the West Bloomfield
JCC, both toward the end result of a reinvigo-
rated, dynamic Jewish communal facilities
model, the ground rules remain clear: be
open, be transparent, be proactive, be daring
while thoughtful.
And always be up front in inviting and
encouraging people who care about the JCC
— not just its bricks and mortar, but also its
mission — to join the dialogue of reassess-
ing, recalibrating and, ultimately, reinventing
the agency that, in many ways, is the com-
munal neighborhood address for Jewish
Detroit. ❑

Dry Bones

DEATH TO AMERICA!
DEATH TO AMERICA!

Teamwork
Matters

In difficult financial
times and given their
pivotal umbrella roles
in shaping the texture
of Jewish Detroit,
neither Federation
nor the JCC can
afford to alienate
the diverse Jewish
community served
by JPM. In 1986,
Federation unveiled
the Neighborhood
Project to retain a
Jewish presence in

0•••"*".

OWN

1

THE IRANIANS WERE QUITE ENTHUSIASTIC IN
SNOWING APPROVAL OF THE AGREEMENT.

DryBones.com

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August 27 • 2015