JCC announces expansion plans

New facility to be built at Temple Israel

By Yaffi Spodek

Issue of Oct. 3, 2008

The Jewish Community Center of the Greater Five Towns has signed a letter of intent to purchase property at Temple Israel in Lawrence, firming up previously announced plans to construct a new 50,000 square foot headquarters for the community agency.

“Allowing us to share the Temple Israel property, a location that is so prominent and well-known to many inside and outside of our community, provides us with an ideal cornerstone location,” said Dr. Kenneth Berman, president of the board of directors of the JCC. “We all understand the need to provide our community with a state-of-the-art full-service JCC that will serve all members of the Five Towns.”

The JCC currently operates its programs at 15 sites throughout the community and the new facility will allow them to consolidate their activities under one roof. The building will include classrooms, a health club, gymnasium, pool, athletic center and large auditorium theater. Temple Israel is already home to the JCC’s early childhood program and a multi-sensory Snoezelen room for people with sensory disorders, but the Reform congregation functions completely independently from the JCC.

“We have a long-term lease there and we will continue to function there, as a separate entity from the Temple,” said Dr. Berman, explaining the logistics behind the 30,000 square feet that the JCC now occupies at the synagogue. “All our other programs will continue, even while the construction is taking place. Nothing will cease.”

The cost of construction for the new property — currently a vacant lot located on Central Avenue — will be in excess of $30 million. Construction is slated to begin in 2009 and the projected date for completion and an opening ceremony is in 2012.

“We have adequate funds to break ground now if we wanted to,” Dr. Berman told The Jewish Star. “But, we feel that we need 70 percent of the $30 million before we put a shovel in the ground to protect us, and that is our stated goal.”

The JCC is looking toward communal institutions and individual benefactors to contribute to their fundraising efforts and support them in this endeavor. Some have already donated enough to warrant the dedication of a wing or building with their name on it, but the JCC will not yet reveal their identities.

“We are depending upon the community at large to support us financially, emotionally, in spirit and in any other way they can because this benefits everyone in the community,” Dr. Berman emphasized.

“The Temple and the JCC worked together for the past few years to reach this agreement,” explained Garrett L. Gray, Temple Israel’s president. “We are very excited that the JCC’s dream of building a full-service community center will be coming to fruition to benefit the entire Five Towns community.”