Our Turn to Think Boldly

Earlier this week, I met with one of our JCC Board members and Michael McKillip, Senior Director of Impact and Infrastructure at United Way of Central Indiana, to discuss potential funding opportunities for our facility.

Since 2016, our JCC has received more than $500,000 in facility funding from United Way of Central Indiana, made possible through the generosity of Lilly Endowment Inc. In fact, through this partnership, the JCC has been one of the top three recipients of facilities maintenance funding for more than a decade. This extraordinary support speaks to the important role our JCC plays in our community and the responsibility we have to care for this special place.

As our meeting ended, we thanked Michael for his partnership. His response was simple: “There is no other place in the City of Indianapolis like the JCC.”

His words were a wonderful compliment, but they also carried a responsibility. If there is no other place like the JCC, then the experience of being here should be unlike anywhere else.

Just a few days later, my colleague Jewish Community Relations Council Executive Director David Sklar sent me a photograph of a newspaper article published on September 16, 1926. One hundred years ago this week, our community announced the creation of the Indianapolis Jewish Community Center.

The people who created our JCC were bold. So were the leaders who later built and expanded our campus. At the time, there was nothing else like it. JCC professionals from across North America came to Indianapolis to learn from what our community had built.

We should be proud of our history, but honoring it requires more than admiration. It requires us to move forward with the same courage and ambition.

Our strategic plan reflects a shared vision for the JCC’s future: strengthening Jewish life and belonging, improving the experience of everyone who walks through our doors, expanding our role in health and wellness, and creating new opportunities to sustain our mission. Bringing this vision to life will require collaboration across our community because what comes next will not be built by any one person or organization. We will build it together.

One hundred years ago, our community imagined something that did not yet exist. Now it is our turn to think just as boldly about what comes next.

There is no other place in Indianapolis like the JCC. It is both an extraordinary compliment and an important responsibility. I am grateful to everyone who helped build this community and to each of you who continues to make it what it is today.

What a privilege it is to carry this work forward together.

Shabbat Shalom,

Sam Dubrinsky