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 jcc cc
autumn 2008
.jcca.
5769
u`x
The Magazine of the North American Jewish Community Center Movement
JCC AssoCiAtion BoArdBrings support Andsupplies to CuBAn Jews
 Shalom
 
Havana!
 
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TechnoGym
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To help support the work of JCCAssociation and JCC Circle, pleasecontact
Fani Magnus Monson
,vice-president of development, at:
JCC Association
520 Eighth AvenueNew York, NY 10018tel: (212) 532-4958, x5136fax: (212) 481-4174e-mail: FaniMM@jcca.org
 jcccircle 
sponsors
The following sponsors have made this issue of
 JCC Circle
possible.JCC Association thanks them for their generosity.
contents
2The Glatt Kosher JCC5JWB Asks Rabbis to BeAll That They Can Be6Out-of-the-Box Fundraiser8A (Compact Fluorescent)Light Unto the Community10Never Forget, Never Again11Special Insert:JCC Israel Ofce15Let My Parents Go16Bridging the Gap: GenerationalDifferences in the Workplace20JCC Association Board BringsSupport and Supplies toCuban Jews22JCC Happenings
 jcccircle
Autumn 2008
www.jcca.org
5769 
u`x
Cover photo: Fani Magnus Monson
For address correction or Information about
JCC Circle
 contact info@jcca.org or call Alina at (212) 786-5096.
©2008 Jewish Community Centers Associationof North America. All rights reserved.520 Eighth Avenue | New York, NY 10018Phone: 212-532-4949 | Fax: 212-481-4174e-mail: info@jcca.org | web: www.jcca.orgJCC Association of North America is the leadership network of, and central agencyfor, 350 Jewish Community Centers, YM-YWHAs and camps in the United Statesand Canada, who annually serve more than two million users. JCC Associationoffers a wide range of services and resources to enable its affiliates to provideeducational, cultural and recreational programs to enhance the lives of NorthAmerican Jewry. JCC Association is also a U.S. government-accredited agency forserving the religious and social needs of Jewish military personnel, their familiesand patients in VA hospitals through the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.JCC Association receives support from the UJC National Federation/AgencyAlliance, local federations and Jewish Community Centers.ISSN 1065-1551
Chair
Alan P. Solow
Honorary Chairs
Edward H. KaplanAnn P. KaufmanJerome B. MakowskyMorton L. MandelLester PollackDaniel Rose
Vice-Chairs
Lisa BrillDonald BrodskyCheryl FishbeinGary JacobsVirginia A. MaasStephen R. ReinerToby RubinStephen SeidenPaula Sidman
Secretary
Shirley Solomon
Assoc. Secretaries
Enid RosenbergMichael SegalMichael Wolfe
Treasurer
Edwin Goldberg
Assoc. Treasurers
Stephen DorskyAndrew ShaevelDoron Steger
President
Allan Finkelstein
 jcccircle:
Sr. Vice-President,Marketing & Communications
Robin Ballin
Creative Director
Peter Shevenell
Communications Manager,JCC Circle Editor
Miriam Rinn
Design
Jeremy KortesDan Hertzberg
dear
 
friends
This issue of
 JCC Circle
reects the diversity and depth of the JCC Movement.Going beyond the view of a JCC as “just a gym,” or a preschool, or a camp (all ofwhich are signicant aspects of our mission), we feature the many other waysJCCs serve our communities that are not as well known:• We learn of several JCCs that serve ultra-Orthodox populations, providingspecialized services to more observant Jews who need the same programs,but within their own religious discipline.• We see a diversity of social-action projects and initiatives, where JCCs playkey roles in supporting important causes and issues, such as the ght againstAIDS/HIV and the push toward “greening” the JCC, which has become asignicant continental-wide JCC effort.• We focus on the special challenges of encouraging young people to build theircareers in JCCs, and how new lifestyles and technology have changed theworkplace.• We delve further into the critical JCC/Israel relationship, and lay out specicdirections for JCCs to bring their agencies and memberships much closer toIsrael, both at home and in the Jewish State. Our Israel Ofce stands ready towork with local JCCs on a variety of exciting Israel programs.• We hear again of the special work of our Jewish military chaplains,and the efforts of JWB Jewish Chaplains Council to recruit rabbis of alldenominations to continue to make these critical connections with Jewisharmed services personnel wherever they may be stationed.• We focus on the unique ways that JCCs educate their members and gueststhrough various media including art, photographic exhibits, and literature.Our continental board followed the Miami Biennial with an extraordinary visitto the Jewish community in Havana. This trip provided another perspective onJewish life for so many of us who had only heard about the situation in Cuba.It was a tremendous opportunity to do
tikkun olam
, and we brought much-needed medical supplies to special clinics at two of the city’s synagogues. JCCAssociation is organizing another trip to Cuba in November, and I encourageyou to take advantage of the opportunity. Several JCCs have also elded suchhumanitarian missions.As you see, there is much more to see, experience, and learn at the JewishCommunity Center. The beauty of the JCC is the opportunity to take part inprograms and services beyond those for “which you came.” We are proud of thediverse contributions that JCCs make to their communities, and the high level ofengagement of leadership in these efforts.
Allan Finkelstein
President, JCC Association
Sincerely,
 
2jcc circleautumn 2008www.jcca.org jcc circle3
children on outings to amusement parks and bowling. Theprimary obstacle to more programming, according to Rand,is inancial. Like many rum communities, the Breuer kehillais not wealthy—“The all-mighty dollar is not what they worship,” she says—and Rand is grateul to sponsors such asthe Jeannette & H. Peter Kriendler Charitable Trust, who undher program. “We’re not turning anyone away because they can’t pay,” she says.In Borough Park (usually spelled Boro Park by residents), alarge group o modestly dressed women, their hair covered by close-itting turbans or kerchies, exercise vigorously tothe beat o a pop tune in the Boro Park YM-YWHA. Onanother loor, a group o elderly Holocaust survivorslisten to a religious lecture, while little girls rom theBobov Hasidic sect answer their teachers in Yiddishin rented space nearby. “Boro Park is more and moreHasidish every day,” says Executive Director Ellie Kastel,who struggles to get the idea across to her community that the Y is more than just “gym and swim.” Sensitiveto the norms o her members, Kastel programs so thatmen and women are rarely in the building at the sametime. Programs are segregated by sex and by age, exceptor special community-wide events, such as a health airsponsored by a local hospital.Because o their devotion to Jewish learning,rum Jews aren’t looking or the kind o Jewisheducation that JCCs usually oer. Many o themdon’t participate in popular culture, and they takepolitical direction rom their leaders. Social andmental-health services also come rom the rabbis. The mixo JCC programming that interests them tends to be limitedto itness and practical skills. O course, there’s always theexception, and a group o women at the Boro Park Y werehappily expressing their creativity through oil paintings—still lies and portraits.“We are very alert and cognizant o their needs,” says AvaBlau, program and membership director. Still, Kastel knowsthat some o the local rabbis urge their ollowers not to usethe Y. They are earul, she says, that their children will meetkids rom other groups. Her goal is to convince them “thatwhat we do here is not
treyf 
.” This is not a small matter whenworking within an ultra-Orthodox community; anotherBrooklyn Y in Williamsburgh, also a Hasidic neighborhood,closed many years ago over mixed dancing among seniors.Boro Park is not a wealthy community, although Kastel saysthat the population ranges rom billionaires to paupers.According to the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty,an agency that advocates or New York’s Jewish poor, twothirds o the community lives below or near the poverty line. Thirty percent o residents below 25 have no high-school degree and the great majority do not attend college.Many speak English poorly, according to Kastel, and they work in small community businesses or as tradesmen i they can’t get jobs in the many yeshivas. The Y oers programsto help people get GED degrees, and has run some ESLand computer programs. Despite the widespread poverty,the ultra-Orthodox community has a well-established andpervasive tzedakah network and believes in taking care o its own, so Jews are ed and dressed and educated, whetherthey have money or not. But income level aects whetherthey can support their JCC, and whether they can serve onits board.“It’s very expensive to live a Jewish lie,” says Rina Shkolnik,the executive director o the JCC o the Five Towns inCedarhurst, New York, an aluent area on Long Islandthat has become increasingly ultra-Orthodox over the last15 years. Shkolnik, who is a native Israeli, describes hercommunity as very diverse, with “those who go with the skirtsto the knee and those who go with the skirts to the ankle.”Although she has several ultra-Orthodox members on herboard o directors, she understands that it’s hard or many to support the JCC. “Those who live in Far Rockaway can’tsupport like those who live in Lawrence. But as a JCC, weshould support everyone,” she says. Despite the area’s highincome level, Shkolnik says the JCC eeds 125 amilies romits ood pantry every week—“we’re talking about youngamilies as well as elderly”—including more than ity amiliesrom the ultra-Orthodox community.
N
ot surprisingly, most o these JewishCommunity Centers are in themetropolitan New York City area, wherethe mass o ultra-Orthodox Jews live.Two hundred and ity thousand
 frum,
 or highly observant, Jews live in BoroughPark, Brooklyn alone, the largestcommunity outside o Israel. Overall, theultra-Orthodox population in the United States is estimated ata hal million. Since JCCs are committed to serving the peoplewho live in their neighborhoods, as well as all Jews, those JCCslocated in rum areas work hard to understand the needs o their neighbors and how to satisy them.To the unknowing eye, rum Jews may seem all alike, but that’snot true. The community is varied, and includes Hasidim(those loyal to speciic rabbinic dynasties, such as Satmar orGer);
 yeshivish
(non-Hasidic, with an allegiance to a speciic yeshiva or school o learning); modern Orthodox gravitatingtoward the right and taking on the liestyle choices o the morerigorously observant; and people who move rom one groupto another, such as the businessman who works with womenduring the day and dons a Hasid’s
shtreimel 
, a lat hat trimmedwith ur, and a long black coat or Shabbat. Add to thesedistinctions ancestral geographic divisions, such as Hungarian,German, Polish, Bukharan, and more, and the general socio-economic eatures o education and income level, and youhave a real mix. JCCs serve all o these dierent groups,adapting to meet the needs o their individual communities.The YM-YWHA o Washington Heights & Inwood at thenorthern tip o Manhattan is located in a community intransition. “Up here, it’s like a mini UN,” says Cyndi Rand,the Y’s Jewish educator. In addition to a group o Holocaustsurvivors, the Y serves Hispanic, Arican-American, andRussian residents, as well as the Breuer
kehilla
or community.Not well known even in New York City, this ultra-Orthodoxgroup settled in Washington Heights when they let Frankurt,Germany in the 1930s, escaping the rise o Hitler. Seeking toreconstitute themselves, the new immigrants established theYeshiva Samuel Samson Hirsch, named ater the great rabbiwho ounded the original kehilla in opposition to the Reormmovement. “It’s a
Yekkisheh
(German) community,” Rand says,“very respectul, very proper.” The kehilla supports severalsynagogues and
shtiebelach
, or small prayer groups, as wellas a preschool, an elementary school, and the yeshiva. Randdevised a program or preschool and elementary-aged boys andgirls, which oers arts and crats, drama, sports, karate, andcomputers in same-sex groups. “It runs on Fridays because thekids get out o school at 12 o’clock,” Rand says, and mothersare eager or some ree time to prepare or Shabbat. The Rav, orchie rabbi, approved hiring non-Jewish counselors as long asRand could guarantee that the children would not interact withchildren who were not Jewish. Since these children are in publicschool on Friday aternoons, Rand could comply.Any JCC program or the ultra-Orthodox must be “totally ontheir terms,” she said, an observation echoed by all the JCCswho work with rum Jews. Rand emphasized that she mustcooperate with leaders o the community to be successul,which means in practical terms that she has to sell the rabbison the worth o any program she wants to oer. She believesthey recognize that children need social and recreationaloutlets. “You live in Manhattan, you don’t have a backyard.They don’t have television, they don’t go to the movies. Nocentral air conditioning.” Because she hersel is Orthodox andsends her ive children to day schools, she believes the rabbisand the parents trust her, and she’s been able to take the
Te Glatt Koser JCC:
How JCCs Serve the Ultra-Orthodox
by Miriam Rinn
Any JCC program for theultra-Orthodox must be
totall
on their terms
Think of the typical JCC user. Are you imagining a man dressedin a black suit and black felt hat in August? A woman wearingan ankle-length skirt, long sleeves, and a
sheitel
, or wig?Probably not. Yet there are JCCs that successfully serve theultra-Orthodox community, and upend common stereotypesabout JCCs and the ultra-Orthodox while doing so.
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