September 19, 2024

Shalom Chaverim (Dear Friends),

This week it is my privilege to be visiting the “Second City,” Chicago, along with Levis JCC Board Chair Steve Clarfield, Board and Executive Committee member Mark Gotlieb and Board member and National JCC Association (JCCA) Board member Shirley Solomon. We have been attending the JCCA J Summit 2024, a national biennial gathering of 170 Jewish Community Centers in North America. We are among the approximately 350 participants (including both lay and professional leadership) coming together to learn, network, share, and acquire tools and ideas to guide JCC communities to new heights. It has been a wonderful few days of connecting, learning, and planning for our Adolph & Rose Levis Jewish Community Center’s bright future.

After a 6-year hiatus, it has been extremely important for our JCC system to reconvene in person to reaffirm our commitment to each other as a national network of communities. With all that is going on in our world—the war Israel is fighting against Hamas, rising antisemitism, numerous protests against Israel (particularly on college campuses)—it is wonderful to have the opportunity to come together as a system and share best practices. A surprise personal highlight of this conference was leading a “One Table Shabbat Dinner” alongside Phyllis Tabachnick, the daughter of Hy Tabachnick, who was a colleague in the early days of my career and truly a legend in the field of Jewish communal work. Hy passed away earlier this year; may his memory be for a blessing always.

This week's Torah portion is Ki Tavo (When You Come) in it, Moses tells the people that "only today, forty years after our birth as a people, have you attained a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear.” Coming together with both our lay and professional colleagues throughout North America amplifies our ability as a JCC system to attain a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear. Together may we go from strength to strength.

Light Shabbat Candles on Friday night at 7:00 pm
Shabbat ends Saturday night at 7:52 pm

Shabbat Shalom
Am Yisrael Chai!

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Marty