20 | APRIL 9 • 2020
COURTESY OF JCC FACEBOOK
T
he Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan
Detroit has temporarily
laid off over 95% of its staff,
effective Sunday, March 29.
This decision came as a result
of Michigan Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer’
s “Stay Home, Stay
Safe” order, which requires
non-essential businesses to close
their doors.
JCC CEO Brian Siegel told the
Jewish News that since the state
required the closure of health
clubs, sports facilities, childcare
centers and other places where
people congregate, it effectively
shuttered all the JCC’
s reve-
nue-producing building opera-
tions.
These operations include the
Pitt Child Development Center,
the Florine Mark Health and
Fitness Center, Kenny Goldman
Basketball and the Inline Hockey
Center.
“Unlike the majority of agen-
cies in our community, the JCC
relies fundamentally on the
earned income generated by
these programs,
” Siegel said. “It
was incumbent upon us to take
all cost-saving measures possible
so we can return to our role as
a critical engine for building
Jewish community in Detroit by
collaborating to create world-
class education and engagement
programming as soon as the
current crisis abates.
”
Siegel would not give a num-
ber of how many employees
the layoffs affected, but internal
sources give an estimate of more
than 200 people.
With the temporary layoffs,
employees from the JCC are
able to apply for unemployment
benefits, both from the state and
under the CARES Act from the
federal government.
The CARES Act, or
“Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and
Economic Security Act,
” was
passed by Congress on Friday,
March 27, to provide emergen-
cy assistance and health care
response for individuals, families
and businesses affected by the
2020 coronavirus pandemic.
“We are heartened by the fact
that the CARES Act passed by
the legislature, when coupled
with the State of Michigan
unemployment benefits, will
provide meaningful financial
support to our affected staff,
”
Siegel said. “The few employ-
ees remaining had meaningful
reductions in their salary.
”
Employees will not have to
re-apply for their positions once
the JCC re-opens, according to
Siegel.
CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER
The organization made the temporary move
in response to state’
s stay-in-place order.
JCC Lays Off 95% of Staff
The Jewish Community Center.
Jews in the D
COURTESY OF JACOB BLUMENSTEIN
W
ith Michigan schools
closed due to the
coronavirus pandem-
ic, parents may be struggling to
find free educational resources.
Jacob Blumenstein and his sib-
lings are determined to do their
part to keep kids’
minds sharp.
Blumenstein, 18, of Bloomfield
Hills, is co-founder of
KidsRead2Kids, an organization
which provides free video-audio
books to students struggling with
dyslexia and ADHD. After the
state went into lockdown, Jacob
began brainstorming ideas with
his siblings and co-founders,
Ben, Alana, Julia and Reuben,
on how to use their platform as a
resource.
“This is a difficult time for
everyone, and it can be very iso-
lating. It’
s so important for kids
to maintain not only their educa-
tion, but also their connection to
other kids like them,
” said Alana,
who is 20. “Our nonprofit is run
completely by kids, and we can
emphasize with them and hope-
fully provide that connection.
”
The Blumensteins came up
with the idea of offering free
online lesson plans for one of
their favorite abridged classic
novels, Peter Pan. There are lesson
plans for each chapter of the
book, providing vocabulary les-
sons, critical thinking questions
and chapter recap quizzes.
The lessons plans are geared
toward elementary school stu-
dents but can be used by any
student looking to improve their
reading comprehension. The
Blumensteins wrote the lesson
plans themselves and focused
on what they believe would help
children improve their reading
comprehension.
“We read and listened to the
book, and then we analyzed what
words would be challenging for
that age group,
” Jacob said. “We
found key moments in each
chapter and wrote questions to
test listening comprehension.
”
Alana, a creative writing major
at Oberlin College, took on the
creative writing prompts of the
lesson plans. She hopes these
prompts will allow students
to demonstrate what they’
ve
learned, while using their own
imaginations.
As of now, they are only offer-
ing a lesson plan for Peter Pan but
are hoping to continue imple-
menting more options soon.
“We hope our lesson plans
provide some relief to teachers.
We know many were given very
short deadlines to create brand
new lesson plans, and that’
s a
really difficult position to be in,
”
Jacob said. “We hope these les-
son plans are an enjoyable way
for students to keep learning.
”
You can check out the Peter
Pan lesson plans on their website,
KidsRead2Kids.com.
CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER
Siblings develop free lesson plans to
engage students with remote learning.
Kids Helping Kids Learn
The Blumensteins
relax with Peter Pan.