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.