Guest View: Save the JCC in Oak Park
(Guest View by Aaron Tobin, Jan. 7, 2015)
Jewish Community Center is considering closing the Oak Park center. This has saddened many people in the area, who are rallying behind this important part of the community.
A change.org petition has been started for people to show support for the Jewish Community 
Center in Oak Park. If you would like to sign the petition, it is online at https://www.change.org/p/the-jewish-federation-of-metro-detroit-please-save-the-oak-park-jewish-community-center?utm_campaign=responsive_friend_inviter_chat&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&recruiter=207126356.
There is a meeting on Monday, January 12th, 7PM at Oak Park JCC (JPM) Prentis Social Hall 15110 West 10 Mile Road, Oak Park, MI 48237.
The petition reads as follows:
“Dear Mr. Isner, Mr.Kaufman and Mr.Wolfe.
We urge you and The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit to not close the Oak Park JCC.
The Oak Park JCC is a vital part of Jewish life in Metro Detroit. It would be a huge loss to the community if you choose to close this indispensable community asset. Not only is this JCC rated one of the best in the United States based on customers satisfaction and services provided (far above the West Bloomfield JCC), but it is a center that truly binds the Jewish Community in this 
part of Metro Detroit, and also meets the greater needs of the diverse community enjoying the center together no matter what the persons religious background is.
Closing this JCC would harm the Jewish Community as a whole, and our senior citizens would be disproportionately negatively impacted by this closure. The two senior citizen apartment buildings at the JCC campus were built there so that the seniors could have the benefits the center and all of the programming and events that are provided for them. The Russian speaking community and the areas Holocaust survivors would be hurt to by the cancellation of programs held at the center for them.
Please consider that for the first time in the history of the Jewish community in metro Detroit, the community is no longer moving northeast but rather they are moving Southeast and East. 
The younger community is moving to Detroit, Royal Oak, Ferndale, Oak Park, Southfield, Huntington Woods, Pleasant Ridge, Berkley, Troy, Beverly Hills, etc. This positions Oak Parks vibrant JCC as the ideal location to service these families in nearby communities bordering Oak Park. To be sure, if the Oak Park JCC closes, these families would not be driving out to West Bloomfield to use those facilities, and you would effectively be closing the door to them having a JCC to call their own.
The Oak Park area Jewish community is resoundingly unified when we come to you now, and 
ask you to keep the Oak Park JCC open. Please listen to us, seek our advice, input and council, and confirm that we are an essential part of the Metro Detroit Jewish Community by keeping our JCC open.”
Please sign the petition at: https://www.change.org/p/the-jewish-federation-of-metro-detroit-please-save-the-oak-park-jewish-community-center?utm_campaign=responsive_friend_inviter_chat&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&recruiter=207126356
Previous story: http://oaklandcounty115.com/2015/01/05/oak-park-may-lose-jewish-community-center-meeting-jan-12/