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he guys at the Omaha JCC called it the “Round Table.” After working out every day at the health club, after their shvitz in the steam room, after their whirlpools and their showers, 12 men gathered around a table in the foyer above the indoor swimming pool to have coffee and shmooze. They chatted about their workouts, their businesses, their families, their lives. My father-in-law, Abe Kukawka (may he rest in peace), was a member of the Round Table. My wife Susie and I had given him a JCC membership when he retired, and he took to the health club like a duck to water. A Holocaust survivor with only a few friends among the small immigrant community in Omaha, Abe built relationships with his friends of the Round Table, relationships that gave him a sense of belonging that sustained him for 35 years.
It’s all about relationships The heart of the JCC Movement is the word “community” and the heart of a community is a network of relationships that give each member much more than nice facilities and a calendar of programs. People may join a JCC for the excellent programming, but they will stay for the deep and caring relationships they create with other human beings. JCCs, like all Jewish institutions, are facing many challenges. In most communities, there are multiple options for acquiring the services that JCCs provide. Need a preschool? In my town, there are plenty of excellent choices. A health club? I can join an extraordinarily equipped fitness center that is open 24/7 year round. A Judaica library? Who needs a library when I can access almost any book or resource for “doing Jewish” online. Even Jewish cultural programming can be found at our local universities, synagogues and other Jewish organizations. Moreover, if the relationship between the individual and the institution is transactional – “I pay you membership dues and you give me access to programs and facilities” – what happens when I don’t need the programs or facilities any longer? If all I have is a fee-for-service relationship, I drop out, I move on.
Relational Judaism What, then, is the value-added of membership in a JCC? It must be the relationships we build among the members and with the staff, relationships with others who care about each other and for each other. This is the goal of what I have called a “Relational Judaism.” To create a relational community in all of our Jewish institutions will require a huge paradigm shift in our approach to engaging people with the Jewish experience. We will need to put people first, before
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