A Year of New Beginnings
By Barry Hantman
Exec. Director JCC
This is the text of Mr. Hantman’s speech which was given at
the Jewish Community Center's annual meeting
Page 3-THE NEWS-June/July, 1987
What I Want To Be
Remembered For-
A year of new beginnings!
Last year was a year when the
Jewish Community Center
began operations in this
wonderful new and existing
facility. And yet we should all
be aware that a Jewish Com
munity Center is more than
the sum of its rooms and
facilities. The JCC is a living
institution. Each year our pro
grams change and grow so
that we can better serve
families within our commu
nity. The major concern of the
Jewish Community Center is
the quality of life. The Center
should be committed towards
making life more enriching,
more rewarding and more
meaningful through produc
tive leisure time activities,
which wiU develop skills and
confidences, bring families
closer together and help peo
ple maximize their potential as
a citizen, an individual and a
Jew. In addition, The Jewish
Community Center can and
should be a common meeting
place for the community. It is
a place where all people — af
filiated or not, religious or not,
young or old, Jewish or non-
Jewish can become involved,
participate and make friends
and social relationships. This
three-tier approach towards
individuals, family and com
munity is what makes our JCC
unique.
The two most significant
events in the life of a Jewish
community center are the
building and opening of a new
facility and the hiring of a new
executive director. Each
event, in a true sense helps
determine the future direction
of the agency for a long time
to come. Well, as you all know,
we now have one of the finest,
most complete and com
prehensive facilities in the
country. As your new director,
I can promise you that I will
strive to help the JCC grow
and flourish through the
development of programs,
staff and leadership. We now
have a showcase facility —
together we will work to have
a showcase center. Our goal is
simple — but difficult to
achieve — and that is to have
the finest conununity center in
the country. We have a good
start. This past year has seen
the development of dozens and
dozens of new programs. Not
only comprehensive health
and physical education pro
grams, but also expanded of
ferings in camping, social ac
tivities, cultural arts and
much more. In fact, The
Charlotte JCC is and has been
known for its exceUence in its
health and physical education
programs. This next year and
in succeeding years we will
need to become more and more
involved with cultural arts
programs — music, dance, lec-
Letters to the Editor
A Dearth of Jewish Themes
The photography exhibit
held earlier this year at
Shalom Park, deserves our
highest accolades for its pro
fessional quality, variety and
beauty. However, I must ad
mit that I was personally
disappointed in the dearth of
Jewish subjects shown, since
the Visual Arts Committee
clearly requested Jewish
themes for its “First Annual
Local Photography Exhibit”.
This request may have been
overlooked since unfortunate
ly only one mailing went out
about the show.
I can understand that
everyone has not (as yet) had
the opportunity to visit Israel,
but there are limitless “Jewish
themes” right here just beg
ging to be photographed:
Shabbat and holiday celebra
tions, synagogues and Jewish
historical sites, life-cycle
events, Chai Groups and
Jewish youth activities,
retreats at Wildacres, etc.
I propose that in view of the
outstanding talent we are
blessed with in our commu
nity, that two annual
photography exhibits be
planned — one depicting
Jewish themes and the other
general subjects. That might
be a fairer way of including all
members of the “J”. It will
also act as a double incentive
for talented people to par
ticipate and offer added en
richment and pleasure to
everyone.
This letter is in no way to be
construed as criticism of the
V.A. Conunittee. Quite the
contrary, the committee mem
bers have shown great enter
prise and creativity in bring
ing a variety of exhibits to us.
However, they are often
limited by our participation.
As an added inspiration, I
recommend the book “Behold
a Great Image”, edited by
Sharon Stassfeld and Arthur
Kurzweil and published by the
Jewish Publication Society of
America. This book came
about as a result of a
photography contest on the
theme of the contemporary
Jewish experience. The con
test, open to amateur pho
tographers, was judged by
Roman Vishniac (distin
guished photographer) and
Susan Goodman (curator at
the Jewish Museum in NY). Of
the 1,000 entries from all over
the world, about 350 were
chosen to be mcluded in this
book.
Stanley and I are donating
a copy of this book to the new
“J” library for your perusal
and pleasure. May it inspire
many of our talented
photographers to enter the
next Jewish Photography Ex
hibit at the “J”.
— Elkie Tulman
W« »ncourage our rsadsrs' view
points. L«tt«rs should b« submit-
t«d typswrittsn and doubls-
sp«c«d and signed. Plaaas includs
your addraas and phona number.
We raaerve the right to edit.
tures, drama and also social
activities — whereby people
can come together, make
friends, socialize and pursue
some of the finer enjoyments
in life. I must tell you that we
are just beginning. In order to
accomplish these things we
will need more staff. We are a
people organization and if we
are to be successful we will
need more people to better and
more professionaUy serve peo
ple. All this takes funds, and
somehow, the board, the com
mittees, the staff, the presi
dent and myself wiU all have
to work together to make this
happen. And succeed we will.
I have been your executive
director for almost one year. I
have been most fortunate to
have the opportunity to come
to a wonderful community
such as Charlotte. The people
I have met and have worked
with have been dedicated, con
scientious and outstanding. I
look forward to the future with
anticipation. We are building
and will continue to build.
As I close my remarks, I
would like to thank The Foun
dation for their foresight,
work and leadership. I would
like to thank The Federation
for their cooperation and sup
port. I would like to thank the
board for their help, direction,
responsiveness and involve
ment. I would like to thank the
staff for their professionalism,
dedication and hard work.
And above all 1 would like to
thank Miles Levine for his
guidance, support, friendship
and leadership without whose
help our marvelous success
story would not have been.
For all this I say thank you.
This is a portion of Miles Levine’s address delivered at the
JCC annual meeting on Apr. 26, 1987. Miles served as JCC
president for two years.
When I first met Barry
Hantman and during one of
my first conversations with
him, he asked me the question,
“When you leave as President,
what do you want to be
remembered for?” I have
thought about that question
numerous times during the
last year and never really
knew how to address it nor did
I really have the time to ad
dress it. There were always so
many areas of the ‘J' that the
board was working on and the
transition was taking place so
fast there wasn’t time to in
stitute any one particular pro
gram or set one particular
goal. However, looking back
over the last few years and ex
amining where we are today, I
hope Larry Gerber and the
board will attempt to ac
complish the foUowing goals:
First, with regard to the
board itself, I would continue
the transformation of the
board’s role from that of an
operational board to a policy-
setting board. This has been
accomplished to a great extent
during the l^st years and in
large part has been due to the
board members and staff
working so well together in the
conmiittee structure and mak
ing day-to-day operational pro
gramming decisions at that
level rather than the board
level. But to take further steps
along these lines, I feel we still
need more board training. We
need to continue to send board
members to the JWB bien
nials; we need to have more
workshops as we first did two
years ago, and hopefully the
board training regional con
ference for Js in our region,
which we have discussed, will
become a reality in the fall.
With regard to the Center
membership, we must get the
entire membership involved in
membership recruitment. Al
though it may stiU be too ear
ly to tell this year what the ac
tual numbers may be, we know
after nine months that it is not
enough just to open up a new
facility. There must be a
positive effort to recruit new
members. Everyone of our cur-
See MILES LEVINE page 10
freensvon
^ Associates »Inc.
y Insurance
Specialists In
Personal and Business Life Insurance
Employee Benefits
125 Cottage Place • Charlotte, NC 28207 • (704) 376-7434
1
Good News!
COME TASTE WHAT CHARLOTTE HAS BEEN HISSING
BAGELS MADE FRESH
“N.Y. STYLE”
AND
A DEUCIOUS VARIETY OF FRESH MADE
CREAM CHEESE
BAGEL MENU
30 each
PLAIN SESAME
POPPY GARUC
ONION COMBO
SALT RYE
WHOLEWHEAT
PUMPER NICKLE
CINNAMON RAISIN -35 Each
BREAKFAST & LUNCH DAILY
NEWCOMER*S SPECIAL
FRESH GROUND CUP OF COFFEE
£ A BAGEL WITH CREAM CHEESE • $1.15
VARIETYOF
DEUCIOUS SANDWICHES AVAILABLE
EAT IN OR TAKE OUT
Introductory Special Coupon
BUY A DOZEN BAGELS AND GET A
1/2 Lb. of Cream Cheese “FREE”
TMt
■ACCL
«(
MM
N A ^ A
C IMiC^CMXNCC BLVO
The BAGEL WORKS
6177-A E. Independence Blvd.
535-0743
HCMJRS
Mon.-Fn. 6:W a.ni.-6:00 p.tn
Sal. k Sun. 7i)0 p.m
No* VaM wttti any otWr offar
UmM one per cwtoiw - «x|rir«s 7-I&47