MONTREAL — YM-YWHA executive director Michael Crelinsten plans to meet next month in Atlanta with senior officials from the JCC Association (JCCA) to discuss how the Y can again become a member.
As of June, the Y will no longer be part of the association, the umbrella body for North American Jewish community centres. In the fall of 2008, the Y board narrowly decided, as a result of “financial pressures on the institution,” to no longer budget for the annual $62,500 association membership fee.
Membership is a condition for attending the annual JCC Maccabi Games (not to be confused with the quadrennial Maccabiah Games in Israel). Thus, for the first time in 28 years, the Y will not be sending a delegation of teens to the annual event, which takes place this August in Baltimore.
Last year, the Y was able to forestall its departure from the association and be part of the JCC Games, but only after two local “angels” came forward to cover the membership fee. This year, there was also an individual offer of money to help, but “nowhere near what we needed to raise,” Crelinsten said.
Thousands of North American Jewish teens converge in a JCC city for the Games. The Montreal Y hosted them in 2002 in what is considered one of the most memorable events in their history.
“Is there disappointment? On the part of some people, absolutely,” Crelinsten said. “There’s been a long history, and the organization made a very tough choice. [There were] financial pressures, and this is one of the consequences.”
Crelinsten said there is “no indication” that the Y intends to reconsider its decision to omit the JCCA fee from its budget. He said, however, that the Y is striking a committee to examine “how we can fundraise on a regular basis” each year to pay it.
“The JCCA, I think, feels badly as an organization that we’re not sending a delegation,” Crelinsten said, “but it feels badly, first and foremost, for the kids – as we do – because in the final analysis, the most important thing is that those kids are losing the experience.”
However, Crelinsten said he hopes the Y can be part of the JCCA again in 2011 and attend the Games.
He will meet with JCCA officials at the association’s biennial convention.
The JCCA says it has a membership of more than 350 JCCs, YM-YWHAs and camp sites in the United States and Canada.
