JCC Association
Relocates Headquarters to Accommodate Growth in Staff, Programming
NEW YORK, NY, OCTOBER 12, 2006 – In
a move that signals not only a need for expanded facilities,
but its growing role as a catalyst for positive Jewish identity
and for Jewish community throughout North America, JCC Association
announced that it will relocate its central headquarters in
Manhattan to 520 Eighth Avenue. The agency provides critical
services for JCCs that welcome two million people of all ages
each year across the continent.
The new address increases square footage by about ten percent.
This includes three new centers of excellence: The Mandel
Center for Jewish Education, the Mandel Center for Excellence
in Leadership and Management, and the Merrin Center for Teen
Services. In addition, growth in the JCC Maccabi Experience,
including the JCC Maccabi Games® and the new JCC Maccabi
Artsfest®, have added to the need to move. The move will
be completed by Monday, October 23rd, with the space fully
operational a day later. JCC Association’s current landlord
at 15 East 26th Street is converting the building to luxury
condominiums, said Robert Dietz, senior vice-president, finance
and administration, who is overseeing the relocation details.
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The JCC Association Board of Directors meeting on Sunday,
October 22nd at 3:30 p.m. will be held at the new location
and include a Hanukkat Ha’Bayit, Dedication of Our New
Home, and a ribbon-cutting opening of the Jerri-Ann and Gary
Jacobs Family Conference Center. Also on the afternoon program:
an address by Scholar-in-Residence Prof. Deborah Lipstadt,
Upon the Doorposts of your House: Meditations on Entering
a Renewed Home and a Renewed Covenant, and a reception and
tour of the facilities.
A year ago, when the board met, then-chairman Edward H. Kaplan
and Allan Finkelstein, JCC Association president, announced
a five-year $12 million capital campaign, Meeting the Challenge:
Securing Jewish Futures, with Gary Jacobs of San Diego serving
as campaign chair. The campaign was designed to meet three
essential needs: a new center for teen services, a general
JCC Association endowment, and the relocation of the offices.
The inaugural campaign gift was a challenge grant of $2 million
from Seth Merrin and Anne Heyman towards the new Merrin Center
for Teen Services. The Merrin family was joined in issuing
challenges by Ed and Irene Kaplan and Jerri-Ann and Gary Jacobs,
who each contributed $1 million. The Kaplan gift went to the
endowment, and a portion of the Jacobs gift was allocated
to defray capital costs associated with the move–design,
construction and furnishings–and a portion towards the
Merrin Center endowment. These and other major gifts, bringing
the total to $6 million, completed Phase I of the current
campaign, said Fani Magnus Monson, vice-president of development.
Phase II is beginning, with a goal to raise the next $6 million.
The minimum gift is $10,000 and multiple naming opportunities
are still available, said Magnus Monson.
In a letter announcing the campaign in September 2005, Kaplan
and Finkelstein wrote:
This is a time of extraordinary achievement and opportunity
at JCC Association…as we plan for the next several decades,
we understand that we must strengthen our endowment to meet
the ongoing costs of the exciting programs we have been developing
and providing to the JCC Movement. If we are truly Inspiring
Jewish Journeys, we must be certain that those journeys continue
into the future.
Calling the $12 million goal ambitious,
but realistic, they cited the success of the previous capital
drive, Beyond2000 Endowment Campaign, which expanded the endowment,
and the New Initiatives Fund, established by Kaplan and other
visionary donors. That fund has seeded programming innovations,
such as JCC Maccabi ArtsFest®, the week-long festival
that brings teens together with professional artists in different
disciplines for mentoring, exhibitions and performances. This
summer ArtsFest will be hosted by JCCs in Boca Raton, FL and
Deal Park, NJ. The fund has also enhanced opportunities for
professional development for JCC executives and middle managers
through the Mandel Center for Excellence in Leadership and
Management and for day camp directors through a special program,
Lekhu Lakhem: Jewish and Educational Journeys, in the Mandel
Center for Jewish Education. It also provided sophisticated
tools for marketing planning, research and brand development
and administration.
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JCC Association
is the leadership network of, and central agency for the Jewish
Community Center Movement, which is comprised of 350 JCC,
YM-YWHA and camp sites in the U. S. and Canada. JCC Association
offers a wide range of services and resources to strengthen
the capacity of its affiliates to provide educational, cultural,
social, Jewish identity-building, and recreational programs
to enhance the lives of North American Jews of all ages and
backgrounds. Additionally, the movement fosters and strengthens
connections between North American Jews and Israel as well
as with world Jewry. JCC Association is also the U.S. government
accredited agency for serving the religious and social needs
of Jewish military personnel, their families, and patients
in VA hospitals through JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.
Miriam
Rinn
Communications Manager
JCC Association
15 E. 26 St., NY, NY 10010
212-786-5092
fax: 212-481-4174
send an e-mail
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