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Dec. 16, 2005
Space woes to be alleviated
Relocation by CJC will give centre a little more breathing room.
BAILA LAZARUS
The growing pains of the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
(JCC) have been alleviated for the meantime by a planned move by
Canadian Jewish Congress.
In October, the JCC was considering shuffling some of its resident
agencies around, and even asking some to leave, in order to accommodate
the space needs of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. That
shuffle would have affected organizations like the Canadian Friends
of the Hebrew University and, possibly, National Council of Jewish
Women, Habonim, Camp Miriam, Na'amat and Shalom B.C.
The issue of office space had come up when the JCC sent a letter
last year to each of its tenant organizations asking what their
future needs would be. At that time, Federation had indicated that
they would be needing more space. Since Federation was considered
an "anchor tenant," the centre was looking at all possibilities
to accommodate their needs.
But just a few weeks ago, Congress told the JCC that they, too,
had decided they needed more space and were going to look for it
outside of the community centre.
"We're looking to the future and we're looking for space that
will meet our needs over the long term," said Gerry Cuttler,
honorary general counsel of CJC.
With Congress out of the building, Federation will be able to use
CJC's offices and the other tenant organizations can stay where
they are.
"The domino effect is over with," said JCC executive director
Gerry Zipursky. "We're happy to say that our communal agency
families will be able to remain in the building and they'll enter
into some longer-term agreement so we don't have to see this situation
occur again."
Zipursky said that several months ago, the centre had asked Congress
to consider relocating their offices, but it wasn't something they
were able to act on at the time.
"We had encouraged Congress initially, considering the nature
of their work," he said, "where they're involved with
a lot of advocacy and high-profile, public issues, we thought it
would be a good idea – but for a number of reasons at that
time, they didn't see that happening."
Out of about 40 or 50 Jewish community agencies, groups and associations
in the Lower Mainland, only 10 have a formal presence in the JCC.
That doesn't include groups that might sub-lease or share office
space, but who don't have lease agreements with the centre.
Zipursky said the CJC decision came at a good time, just before
the winter holidays, so that people involved in the office shuffle
could now relax. He also added that there was no bad blood between
the centre and Congress that precipitated the move.
"They're the ones that approached us," he said. "It's
not like we said they have to leave, so we're pleased that it all
worked out."
As of press time, Congress had not finalized a new location for
their offices.
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, photographer and
illustrator living in Vancouver.
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