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. 

