At the last two annual meetings of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, I made presentations about the JCC’s future. I shared our vision for the JCC and the Karl Jewish Community Campus based on plans that we had submitted with the Milwaukee Jewish Federation to the Village of Whitefish Bay, and that we hoped would be approved.
Now those plans and that vision are on hold. It is unfortunate that the village chose to reject the final compromise that they themselves had imposed on us on March 24, a compromise that we reluctantly agreed to and worked hard to comply with. That compromise would not have addressed all of the JCC’s issues — but it would have gone a long way toward doing so. Instead, on May 5, the village imposed an even more restrictive plan that would not meet the JCC’s service and logistical needs.
So now we are in a difficult situation. There are no easy answers until our situation is resolved with Whitefish Bay. Any final resolution must address our needs based on all of the studies and information that have been provided to the village and verified by their own consultants and staff.
At times like these, it is important to step back and reflect on where we are and where we are going. At a board of directors meeting earlier this year, I suggested that board members read the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins (HarperCollins, 2001).
As Collins points out, good is not enough: Good is the “enemy of the great.” And the JCC’s aspiration, regardless of its facilities or other needs, should be to provide “great services to the community.” For us, too, good is not enough.
But I was equally impressed by another part of the book, in which the author discusses the “Stockdale Paradox.” The paradox is as follows: “You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
This paradox comes from the experience of Admiral Jim Stockdale, the highest-ranking prisoner of war in what became known as Vietnam’s “Hanoi Hilton.” He survived there for nearly eight years, while also playing a critical leadership role in helping other prisoners of war to survive. He did so based on the paradox: He made all of the men who were prisoners of war understand the brutal facts of reality and imprisonment, but at the same time urged them to never give up the belief that they would some- day be free.
Though the JCC’s situation is obviously not as harsh, we can apply the Stockdale Paradox to it. The brutal facts, so to speak, are that we do not yet have the facility that would allow us to provide all of the programs we believe the Jewish community needs and is entitled to. Our plans, when approved, will allow us the membership units and the quality of facility to address those needs.
But in the interim, we need to do the best we can. Our goal is to be “great,” but we will need to be so within the confines of the limitations under which we work. That means we will have to work much harder, and we may need to make some difficult choices; we will have to prioritize our services and determine what is doable and what is not doable.
Still, we must remain focused on our vision and keep the endgame in sight. The decisions being made by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation regarding the Village of Whitefish Bay [see related story, page 1] are correct not only for the JCC, but also for the Karl Jewish Community Campus and the entire community. No institution in the 21st century can survive in facilities that were basically built and designed at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. And to have such a restrictive proposal and inadequate and illogical space and parking imposed on us is not only wrong, but also impedes our right as a Jewish community to thrive and survive in space that we own.
In “Good to Great,” Collins talks about hardiness research — studies conducted by the International Committee for the Study of Victimization. These studies examine people who have suffered through serious adversity: prisoners of war, accident victims and others. The research found that people generally fell into three categories: those who were permanently dispirited by their experience; those who managed to attain normalcy in their lives; and those who used the experience as a defining event that made them stronger.
We need to see our experience in Whitefish Bay, as unfortunate and frustrating as it may be at times, as something that we can build on to make our community stronger. In the short term, we need to strive to overcome the adversity created by the village board’s recent decisions; in the long term, we need to have faith in the endgame and that we will, with justice on our side, get what we need to be great.
Jay R. Roth is president of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center.
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