Pandemic forces JCC to make ‘tough decisions’

KINGSTON — Gary Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer of the Friedman Jewish Community Center, said JCCs nationwide are experiencing business difficulties as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing executives to make hard decisions about a path forward.

“At the Friedman Jewish Community Center, the community and people we serve are the heart and soul of everything we do,” Bernstein said. “Our dedicated staff that work every day to bring our mission to life play critical roles in our success. Sadly, this pandemic has hit so many people, businesses and non-profits like ours very hard.”

Bernstein said many JCCs rely heavily on tuition, program and membership fees for the bulk of their revenue.

“When we suspended our on-site operations to support efforts at social distancing, our revenue stalled,” Bernstein said. “In recent days we have examined options for our staff, our community, and our JCC that will position us to weather this crisis”.

Bernstein reports that those discussions have led us to some very difficult decisions. These decisions, as painful as they were, protects our ability to reopen as a sustainable organization when this crisis ends, with the goal of reopening our building and resuming the services to our community that make the Friedman JCC a treasured communal institution. We hope and pray everyone stays healthy in the meantime”.

“We had to shut down our child care and our Early Learning Center,” Bernstein said. “We felt we couldn’t ask our parents to pay tuition for services they weren’t receiving. That meant we would have to furlough our teachers, our faculty.”

Bernstein said the JCC is continuing to provide heaklth care benefits for the furloughed employees and when the crisis is over, all will return to work.

“This was a gut-wrenching decision,” Bernstein said.