Home is Where the J Is
What does a “J” story look like if you grow up in an area without a JCC?
It looks a lot like Hoffman Estates, IL, my hometown—a place not really known as a beacon of Jewish community life. Sure, there was one temple and the token 15 Jewish kids in a high school of 2400. But the idea that the JCC had any impact on me growing up, well, is simply a lie.
It wasn’t until I got married and had kids that I had the opportunity to “touch the J” so to speak as my kids attended Early Childhood programs and Apachi J Camp. But years come and go. My kids now attend a Jewish Day School and though some of their lifelong friends came from their early days at the J, it was always more of “their story” and not really mine.
In 2009, I was asked to join the JCC Chicago Board of Directors. I took advantage of the opportunity because I thought I could apply some of my management consulting skills (as well as my unused master’s degree in public administration) to a non-profit that does important community work. However, it took another few years before I could actually say that I was truly “touched” by the J. You see in 2015, when the JCC’s CEO, Alan Sataloff, suggested I take the family for a “look-see” to the opening ceremonies of the Maccabi Games in Milwaukee (to see if we ought to consider doing the same for Chicago) – I wasn’t the one who had the a-ha moment – but my son sure did.
My 12-year old son at the time thought it seemed “pretty cool” and said he’d like to try out for the soccer team when he turned 13.
My son is not an ultra-elite soccer player by any measure but he is a great athlete and ended up trying out and joining the Maccabi U14 Chicago soccer team last year. It was a great experience for him but not in the ways that anyone might imagine. I would have thought that the experience was great because of the new friends he made, the buttons he traded or his complete freedom from his family. Ironically what made the experience so great for him was something so completely irrelevant to me – the athletic abilities of his teammates and his wonderful coach. Quite simply, he was so impressed that this many Jews could all be this good at a sport that he loves to play!
That experience for him really had an impact on me. It made me realize that the J can be so many things to so many people. A legacy gift ensures the continuity of our community – that in 5, 10 or 15 years, we’ll still be fielding great athletes who want to connect with other great athletes, meeting our lifelong friends in camp or in pre-school and touching as many people as we can, in whatever way they so choose to connect.
I also want to be part of the team that helps re-imagine what the J can become, particularly in the city, as we find ways to expand programming, refresh our physical footprint and maybe, just maybe, feel a little like “home.”
Lisa Reisman has served on the JCC Chicago Board of Directors since 2009. She lives in Chicago with her husband and three children. In her day job, Lisa and her husband, Jason Busch, run Azul Partners, a media/research organization dedicated to the field of procurement and supply chain management.