H eadlines
JCCs Remain Relevant Via Unique Business Models
L OCA L
JARRAD SAFFREN | JE STAFF
IN 2022, Jewish Community
Centers remain what they
have always been: community
centers. Or, as several local JCC
leaders explained, whatever
their communities need them
to be.

The only difference is,
nowadays, JCCs do not need
to provide safe spaces for
Jewish residents who aren’t
always accepted in the broader
community. Luckily, Jews
today don’t face that kind of
discrimination. But that doesn’t mean they
don’t need their old, reliable
community centers. In four
regions of the Philadelphia area,
at least, they very much do.

On the Pennsylvania
side, the Kaiserman JCC in
Wynnewood and KleinLife in
Northeast Philadelphia, which
is not technically a JCC but
serves a similar function, help
nearby residents of all ages. In
New Jersey, Cherry Hill’s Katz
JCC and Margate’s Milton &
Betty Katz JCC do the same.

Each organization, though,
has a business model that is
slightly unique compared to
the others. After all, different
populations in the region have
different needs.

The Kaiserman JCC largely
serves a Main Line area with
wealthy families, so it caters its
programming to core family
needs. Kaiserman’s most successful
programs are its summer camp,
Camp Kef, and its preschool,
The Robert J. Wilf Preschool.

Kef welcomed between 450
and 465 kids last summer, and
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Beyond those two needs,
Kaiserman leaders are still
figuring out what else their
families might want. In 2022,
CEO Alan Scher, who started
there last July, is in the process
of meeting with more than 100
members. So far, the Wynnewood JCC
is working in fitness classes
for older adults, cultural
events like Chanukah parties
and local partnerships like
a spring plan to host games
and practices with the Lower
Merion Little League.

Scher has worked at five
JCCs across the country. When
he was just starting out, he
called Brian Schreiber, the
CEO of the JCC of Greater
Pittsburgh, for advice.

“He said, ‘The JCC in
Pittsburgh keeps families in
Pittsburgh,’” Scher recalled.

You could apply that same
statement to the community
centers in South Jersey.

Both the Katz JCC in
Cherry Hill and the Milton
& Betty Katz JCC in Margate
are similar to Kaiserman: They
focus on the families in their
region. The Cherry Hill commu-
nity center serves about 300
students in its preschool, the
Sari Isdaner Early Childhood
Center, and almost 2,000 in its
summer camp, the JCC Camps
at Medford.

Unlike Kaiserman leaders,
though, who are reevaluating
their workout space, Katz JCC
leaders call fitness and wellness
their “heart and soul,” said
Bryan Lentine, the facility’s
sports and leagues director.

Katz has a workout room,
pools, group classes, adult
leagues, youth leagues and pickle-
ball, among other offerings. The
fitness room is “crowded all the
time,” Lentine said.

“The generations who have
been here in the past are loyal
to the facility,” he added.

“Their parents went here, and
JEWISH EXPONENT
A senior program at the Milton & Betty Katz JCC in Margate
Courtesy of the Milton & Betty Katz JCC in Margate
now their kids come here.”
The Margate JCC takes
a similar approach but to a
longer geographical area. Most
of the Cherry Hill facility’s
regulars come from Cherry
Hill, Voorhees and Marlton.

But the Margate organization
draws people from as far south
as Cape May, according to
CEO Marg Rosenblatt.

Rosenblatt’s institution also
sees its largest demand during
the summer months when
vacationers come down the
shore. She described her JCC’s
summer camp, the Camp By
The Sea, as “huge.”
But with the Margate area’s
recent uptick in year-round
residents, Rosenblatt’s
preschool, the Early Childhood
Education Center, is up to more
than 130 students.

The shore also has fewer
gyms around, according to
Rosenblatt. So in the summer,
the Milton & Betty Katz JCC
welcomes more than 5,000
people to its 4,500-square-foot
fitness area.

“It becomes a family place,”
Rosenblatt said. “Parents
drop their kids off and then
workout.” KleinLife in Northeast
Philly, like its JCC contempo-
raries, is also a family place.

It’s just not serving wealthier
suburbanites and/or shore
vacationers. Andre Krug, KleinLife’s
president and CEO, describes
his organization’s mission as
“social services” for seniors,
immigrants and children.

Northeast Philly has the
largest senior and immigrant
populations in the city, according
to Krug. It also has a lot of young
families who have been gentri-
fied out of Center City. Most
of the seniors, too, bring in less
than $24,000 a year.

So, KleinLife’s biggest
program is not preschool or
summer camp or fitness: It’s
lunch. In 2021, the organi-
zation delivered and served,
via grab-and-go due to the
pandemic, 90,000 meals to
area residents.

But Krug and his team
do still offer traditional JCC
services as well, like fitness
programs for seniors, after-
school programs for kids and
a summer camp for kids. The
CEO estimates that between
600 and 700 people enter his
building per day, though that
number is down from about
2,000 before the pandemic.

“We’re never closed,” he
said. l
jsaffren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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