metro

Fond Farewell

Oak Park JCC members hold parties to appreciate staff and end of an era.

I

Louis Finkelman

Contributing Writer

A

t first, it seemed that the Jimmy
Prentis Morris Oak Park Jewish
Community Center would close
without any ceremony. The official closing of
the facility, at first scheduled for the end of
May, had been extended to Aug. 31.
Then, close to the deadline, the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
announced an anonymous donor had com-
mitted to tearing down the JCC building,
except for the pool, and building a new, more
efficient building in its place as a center for
the Jewish community; but the building
would certainly close Aug. 31 and not reopen
until construction was finished.
The Committee to Save the Oak Park JCC
hosted a staff appreciation party Aug. 30.
"We wanted to thank employees for their
years of work:' said Aaron Tobin, a founder
of the committee. "They are a special staff
who really cared about the people there.
They were friends; they helped make the JCC
so special. They were family:'
Tobin said the committee will continue to
meet and be a voice of the grassroots Jewish
community to Federation, expressing what
the group would like to see in the building.
In a separate gesture, Joshua Lerner of
Huntington Woods, a JCC member and a
local attorney, also felt some sort of closure
was in order.
"It is important to have a formal goodbye
Lerner said. "We need to
say thanks to the staff.
And we need to say good-
bye to members, people
whom we may never see
again. Besides that, people
need to clean out their
I certainly do:'
rl lockers.
So
Lerner
sponsored a
Joshua Lerner
party for the whole JCC
exercise room membership. He provided
sandwiches, pizza, soda, tea, bananas and
cake for about 150 members who signed up
and showed up at his invitation. The hard-
working staff of the exercise room, Stella,
Matthew Cooper and Sue Miller, kept the
tables stocked with food and drink.
Cooper simply said, "[I'm] sad. I am run-
ning out of words:'
Miller said, "What we had here, we cannot
duplicate. We had a unique population, dif-
ferent cultures within our culture, and even
from outside our culture, all together. It is
hard to see it go:'
The members, incongruously eating pizza
as they stood around the exercise equipment,

10 September 10 • 2015

JN

The Committee to Save the Oak Park JCC honored beloved staff members: Leslee Magidson, assistant executive officer; Linda
Levin, customer service desk worker; Sue Miller, fitness director; Matt Cooper, assistant fitness director; Marc Front, member-
ship director; and Judy Front, aquatics/camp/sports director.

reminisced about their experiences at the
JCC, talked about their plans to find a place
for future exercise and bemoaned the deci-
sion to close the center.
Expressing nostalgia, Sharon Baseman of
Huntington Woods recalled that she got the
first locker in the women's locker room.
As for future workouts, one member said,
"I think I will just put an elliptical in my
basement"
Several members said they had chosen
the Royal Oak YMCA, which elicited some
kibitzing. Lerner recalled a friend had said,
"Gentiles went to the JCC; well, now Jews are
going to the YMCA:"
But when they get there, Glenn Gayer said,
"Perhaps they think they will find a heimish
(home-like) environment; it ain't going to
happen:"
Several members expressed bitterness at
the decision to close the JCC.
Jerry Lapides of Southfield called the
decision "a travesty:' Allan Stohl of Oak Park
called it "a shandeh [a shame]:' Ron Stoffer,
also of Oak Park, called it "the biggest let-
down of the Jewish community:'
Some talked about how that bitterness
would affect their future relations with the
Jewish community. One member said, "I will
still give to specific institutions that I sup-
port, such as Frankel Academy, but not to the
people who made this decision:'

❑

My Ode To JPM

I Deborah Hitsky

his is it: No matter what's built in
the future, tonight is my last walk
through the halls of JPM.
"Just a building?"
For those who never learned, JPM
was a jewel unlike any other Jewish
Center ever. It was
located in a very
diverse neighbor-
hood. Anyone who
came in the front
door and passed
the reception desk
was made to feel so
welcome and, yes,
Deborah
appreciated, always
Hitsky
greeted with a smile
by whoever happened
to be sitting there at that moment,
morning or night.
JPM was a place where I, a
Conservative Jew, danced with
Orthodox women, and we were one
community.
JPM was where I was blessed to
teach English to hundreds of immi-

T

grants, many of whom I saw after I

retired because they became members,
too.
JPM was where I was on 9-11 in 2001,
watching the unfolding of unthinkable
events on a TV moved to the lobby.
And we shared our tears and fears.
Innocence lost, but together in com-
munity.
To the Jewish Community Center
and to Federation: I will never see this
demolition as anything but a very sad
mistake. I hope, but am not very con-
vinced, that JPM II will be better than
JPM — but as the JPM community
begins to leave for the YMCA, Beverly
Hills Racquet Club and other fitness
facilities, as the JPM classes are relo-
cated to synagogues and senior hous-
ing, as the staff leaves for better jobs
or for JCC in West Bloomfield, it's hard
to smile, and I go from grief to anger.
Thank you, JPM, for the wonder of
true Jewish community. I will never for-
get you.

❑

Deborah Hitsky of Southfield is a longtime

Oak Park JCC member.