Blog
Moving a Mountain
The Jewish Community Center movement includes more than 350 JCCs, YM–YWHAs, and camp sites in the United States and Canada, as well as 180 local JCCs in the Former Soviet Union, 70 in Latin America, 50 in Europe, and close to 500 smaller centers in Israel. Having just returned from the JCC Association Executive Conference, where I spent six […] Learn More ›
How Might We 2019?
After a recent meeting convened by JUF and the Associated Talmud Torahs, I walked to my car with a pocketful of business cards for schools interested in learning more about JCC Chicago and our program offerings. Turns out, most in attendance didn’t know we provide on-site after-school care and enrichment classes. “How might we work […] Learn More ›
The Untold Story of the J
Our preschool might look like the school a few streets over. The yellow busses for Apachi are just like your neighbor’s. The treadmills are the same at your health club. JCC Chicago isn’t here to look different, it’s here to make a difference. We introduce life-long friends. They learn Ha’motzei together. They spend their first […] Learn More ›
Being ‘BallotReady’
I was born in July of 2001, which makes me just a few months shy of having been able to vote in the 2018 midterms. Two of my best friends, however, were both eighteen and ready to exercise their civic duty. I heard the two of them talk about doing their research together and about […] Learn More ›
The Connection and Community We Crave: Here’s My Story
I just returned home from our first trip to Israel. I’m 45 years old and converted to Judaism at the age of 24. I was raised with Christmas, but without religion. I was shomer Shabbos for 11 years and have been just Jewish for the past six. My husband is born and bred West Rogers […] Learn More ›
My Family’s Breast Cancer Journey
The CDC reports that 1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jewish women has a BRCA gene mutation, which is the most widely known genetic factor that can lead to breast cancer. This is my family’s breast cancer journey. In 2003, eleven years after we lost my father to Mesothelioma, an asbestos related lung cancer, my mother was […] Learn More ›