STOUGHTON, MA -- A group trying to save the Striar Jewish Community Center building in Stoughton, MA, was told that plans are still in effect to sell or close the building, according to the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, MA.
Last month, the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston (JCCGB) announced it was closing the Striar JCC and transitioning its services to the Old Colony YMCA of Brockton, MA.
The group Save the JCC met with representatives of the JCCGB and Combined Jewish Philanthropies—a nonprofit agency which owns the Striar building—over the weekend. David Starr, a Striar member who founded Save the JCC, said his group was told the building would either be sold to the Y in March or closed at the end of June if the sale does not go through, according to the newspaper. Save the JCC is not considering a lawsuit.
“If we fight, then we’re going to lose, and if we scare the Y, we’ll lose the [Combined Jewish Philanthropies] a lot of money,” Starr told the Patriot Ledger.
Starr says he and other Striar members plan to negotiate with the Y ownership as to what programs they’d like to have retained with the transfer to the Old Colony YMCA.
Gil Preuss, a spokesperson for Combined Jewish Philanthropies, told the newspaper that his organization lost about $900,000 last year. He also says that JCCs throughout the country have been struggling to survive. Part of the reason is that many Jewish families with small children do not live near a JCC, Preuss says.