Blog

This is a quick behind the scenes look at how we and others are welcoming new models to provide programs to our communities. Even with what sometimes feel like seismic shifts in regards to pivoting programming to a virtual platform, as they say, “the show must go on.” 

If there’s one thing everyone in the world can agree on right now, it’s that it has been a crazy year so far. Whatever our backgrounds, politics, or locations, we’ve all been affected in a variety of ways by the pandemic.

The Jewish Community Centers Association of North America (JCCA) prides itself on bringjng together JCC’s “in a unified movement.” But what is it that makes JCC’s a movement?

Since mid-March, I have been working from home… just a half-mile from the J, but physically cut off from the building where I work and where I grew up. I have missed seeing my friends, colleagues, and members that make the J feel like an extension of my home...

Listen to your body and focus on wellness right now. I am always fascinated at how people respond to challenges. There are optimists, pessimists, different personalities, and all of the conditions of human fabric that make our life at times so beautiful, and so tragic.

While the MJCC has been closed, I have missed the members and my coworkers immensely and I did not expect to long for the community the way I did during the first few weeks of quarantine. 

Last week, I went camping in the forests of our beautiful Oregon. With social distancing still in effect, it was a trip I took alone. Yet although I wasn't able to spend time with family or friends as I usually do, I found I wasn't lonely.

June is my favorite month, and this year, I am even more excited that we have hit the midway point in the year. We are inching closer towards our building reopening and my countdown is on! 

There is a meme circulating social media that questions the notion that “we need art more than ever” during these difficult times with an image of a man with an exaggerated grimace on his face. I found the meme funny because of its truth, but it also prompted me to rethink “art”...