To Marianne Lubar, chair of the Milwaukee Jewish Historical Society, the Jewish Community Capital Campaign will mean that the volunteer archivists won’t have to be expelled from the Helfaer Building boardroom when others need it.
To B. Devorah Shmotkin, director of the Children’s Lubavitch Living and Learning Center, it will mean not having to turn parents away or put them on a waiting list.
To Margaret Meyers, co-director and general studies principal at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, it means small tutoring groups won’t have to meet any longer “tucked into a corner of the hallway.”
To Jennifer Friedman, Wisconsin regional director of the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, it will mean creation of a badly needed “teen-friendly” space, which will become “the teen hangout” of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
And those are just a few of the benefits expected by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and its 10 partner agencies in what MJF executive vice president Richard H. Meyer called the “most ambitious” undertaking the Milwaukee Jewish community has ever attempted.
“What this is about is building the infrastructure to serve the Jewish community for our next generation,” said Stephen L. Chernof, co-chair with Judy Segall Guten of the Jewish Community Capital Campaign Steering Committee. “We’re in the process of creating something that everyone in the Jewish community will be proud of for decades to come.”
Moreover, said Guten, the construction and renovations that will take place at MJF-owned properties — the Karl Jewish Community Campus, Hillel Foundation, near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, and the Helfaer Community Services Building, on Prospect Avenue — should result in more efficient and attractive operations.
“There will be new air conditioning and internal systems and floor plans that make sense,” Guten said. “With these improvements and additions, there will be efficiencies that we simply don’t have now.”
In fact, “This project is great because it challenges us all to think directly and clearly about the linkage between facilities and needs,” said Meyer.
The project also preserves the continuity of commitment between generations of the community, according to Capital Campaign Cabinet co-chairs Robert L. Habush, Sheldon Lubar and Stephen Marcus.
“Somebody spent money and spent time so that my generation had the benefit,” said Marcus. “It is now up to our generation to renew those facilities and make them available to the next generation.”
“It’s a necessary thing if we’re going to keep the community together,” Lubar said.
“This is a way of saying that tomorrow will be as wonderful as today. It won’t be less,” said Habush. “In order for us to be able to say that with honesty, we have to make this capital campaign a success.”
Moreover, with the lead gifts coming in, federation president David J. Lubar said, “Every indication is that this Jewish Community Capital Campaign could very well be the largest, most successful campaign in the history of the Milwaukee Jewish community.”
The amounts of the lead gifts will be announced at the federation’s annual meeting and groundbreaking, scheduled for Wednesday, June 22, 5 p.m., at the Karl Campus.
Helfaer Building
In various ways the projects for each individual agency are likely to have effects that benefit other agencies, particularly those that share spaces in the same buildings.
For example, the plans regarding the Milwaukee Jewish Historical Society not only will include dedicated space for the volunteers to work on the archives in the Helfaer Building.
They also include creation of a Jewish Heritage Museum in that building that will display both permanent and touring exhibits, which Marianne Lubar said, would be open to the Jewish and general communities.
And this operation will have benefits for another agency in the building, the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations.
Said Paula Simon, executive director of the MJCCR, the museum and its exhibits could help bring school groups and others from the general community to the Helfaer Building, providing the council with “a phenomenal opportunity for us to interact with people in our space,” thereby assisting the council’s work in community relations. “Currently there is no way for us to do that.”
More efficient operations are also the goal of the planned renovations and reconfigurations of the federation’s offices. At present, said Meyer, various departments are “separated by floors” in the Helfaer Building, which hinders the MJF’s ability to “provide many additional administrative, support and management services” to the community.
Karl Campus South
Many of the most dramatic and visible changes will be to the Karl Jewish Community Campus, affecting the work of the six agencies headquartered there.
The south building there houses the JCC and BBYO, and will also house the Coalition for Jewish Learning, the federation’s education program.
The center, according to its president, Jay Roth, “will get additional space to allow us to provide programs we couldn’t do before.” There will be “a new community hall that will allow us to host new cultural events,” expanded areas devoted to Jewish education, a new nursery school wing and parenting center area, he said.
Above all, “the vision of the center is to provide these services and create a Jewish neighborhood” where “the community can come and meet and socialize.”
Moving CJL from the campus’ north building to the south “will mean big changes for our department and how we operate,” said CJL executive director Steven Baruch, Ph.D.
For one, “we hope to have more engagement with parents, synagogue schools and the community at large,” he said. “Our library is an underutilized resource. By having it in a more central location and open longer, we hope it will be utilized far more.”
The CJL Creativity Center will also be located near the JCC’s Parenting Center, which “will make it far more available to parents,” said Baruch. Overall, “by being in the JCC, there are opportunities for synergy and partnership with the JCC; and this is a partnership that produced the Day of Discovery; so I’m really excited by ways we can work together to do other great projects.”
Karl Campus North
The north building on the Karl Campus houses the CLLLC, plus Hillel Academy and Milwaukee Jewish Day School.
Shmotkin is principal of the Hillel Academy as well as director of the CLLLC, both of which will reap great benefits from the project.
CLLLC, she said, “for some time now has been experiencing great overcrowding in existing classrooms” and therefore “has not been able to meet the demands” for its services.
The expansion, she said, will create four new classrooms, expansion of outdoor play areas and additional office space, including space for the special needs coordinator. She said the program currently is licensed for 105 children; the expansion will enable it to be licensed for up to 145.
Hillel Academy “will be reaping the benefits of larger shared space” with MJDS, which will include renovating the lunchroom and a new gym, said Shmotkin. Hillel also will have its own chapel that can also be a space for guest speakers, she said.
In addition, all the classrooms and hallways will be renovated. Finally, Shmotkin added, “[I]ncluded in all the plans for the building is a new study of security needs that will be updated and forward-thinking.”
Meyers of MJDS said that in addition to rooms for small tutoring groups to meet, the plans call for creating a chapel for MJDS and “a wonderful new front office near the entrance of the building.”
Hillel Foundation located near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus will also reap the benefits of the community project.
Ultimately, the capital campaign “will result in a new facility for Hillel Foundation that will greatly enhance our ability to serve the needs and desires of our students,” according to executive director Heidi Rattner.
Stacey and Daniel Kohl are co-chairs for the federation’s annual meeting and groundbreaking ceremony. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. in the JCC gymnasium and the groundbreaking, set for 6 p.m., will take place on the campus’ west lawn.
The event will include hors d’oeuvres, dietary laws observed. Cost is $18. For more information or to register, call 414-390-5723 or e-mail shellys@milwaukeejewis h.org.
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