West Bloomfield and Oak Park Jewish Community Centers Combine

The Berman Center for the Performing Arts is part of the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. (Photo via Creative Commons)

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The Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield will remain open and serve as the spiritual center for Jews in Oak Park, where a facility will be shuttered to stop a $1 million annual loss.

The boards of the Jewish Community Center and the combined boards of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and United Jewish Foundation voted last week shut down the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park in August unless a donor steps forward to close the budget gap.

“This action will eliminate at least $800,000 in annual loss and would be a critical step – along with ongoing changes at the West Bloomfield facility – towards ensuring that the organization can continue serving our Jewish community,” the Jewish Federation said in an open letter to the Jewish community.

The Oak Park Jewish Center opened in the 1950s and has since been an anchor in the community. It increasingly draws young Jewish people, together, supporters who have rallied to keep it open have argued.

At a meeting Monday, some of the estimated 60 to 80 people attending argued the governing boards voted to close the Oak Park facility because it serves more of a working class area than does the West Bloomfield Jewish Center.

“A lot of people have donated blood, sweat and tears to make sure there’s a Jewish Community Center here, and we don’t want to see that abandoned,” said Aaron Tobin of Oak Park, one of the organizers of the effort to keep the center open.

“The community is resoundingly disappointed. ... Some are totally outraged. Some have a real anger towards the Federation. ... They’re telling a large portion of the community: you no longer count, you’re no longer important. You don’t deserve a Jewish Community center.”

The decision affects not just Oak Park residents, Tobin said, but also Jews in Southfield, Huntington Woods, Royal Oak, Ferndale areas.

Ted Cohen, chief marketing officer of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, told the Free Press that leaders understand the closing of the Jewish Center is an emotional issue for Oak Park residents. In an open letter, he said the federation is looking into ways the Oak Park building can remain open.

“Our hope is to maintain an inclusive community facility that continues to serve the Jewish population in the area with programming by the JCC and other Jewish community organizations,” Cohen said.

» Read more on the Detroit Free Press