JCC Blog

Supporting the J Community

Helping everyone to participate in our programs

Each year the JCC provides over $543,000 in need‐based scholarships for children, teens and adults to participate in JCC Early Childhood, Inclusion activities, JCC Maccabi Games and ArtsFest, J Camps, and J Membership. These programs reflect how the “J” connects families, supports individuals and helps build a stronger community. Funding for these scholarships comes from The Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore as well as fundraising events like J Live at the Gordon, Chanukah Hot Chocolate 5K, the Baltimore Jewish Hall of Fame and the Community Block Party.

Celebrating Jewish Holidays with Our ECEC Children

How do you begin to teach preschool children about the Jewish holidays?

In the Fall of 2017, members of the JCC’s Early Childhood Education Center team assembled a beautiful document providing answers to that question.  Over the course of six months, they developed a resource guide for fellow JCC teachers entitled: Chageinu: Our Celebrations!: An Early Childhood Education Curricular Resource for Teaching Holidays.

The principal authors behind Chageinu were Judy Bickford, Assistant Director of the Meyerhoff ECEC, Staci Katz, Early Childhood Educator (who conceived the idea), and Rabbi Jessy Dressin.

According to Judy, “In creating this text, we wanted to develop a dynamic, growing document. We published it in the form a notebook, so everything is removable. We can add to it as the need arises, or we can subtract...

A Passion for Dance, Kindness, and Respect

Many in the Jewish Community already know JCC staff member Sara Rubinstein. Sara was recently awarded the Darrell D. Friedman Institute’s Neely Tal Snyder Community Impact Award, for her work improving the lives of people with disabilities both here at the J and within the Jewish community.

What many don’t know about Sara is her career trajectory, and what led her to do this incredibly important work as a champion for people with diverse needs and advocate for inclusion.

A participant in dance programs since kindergarten, Sara’s “first love” was, and remains, dance, with musical theatre a strong second. 

Through high school, Sara was convinced she would someday become a dance...

JCC & Parisi® Launch High School Pre-Season Performance Training Bootcamp

The JCC of Greater Baltimore is thrilled to be launching a new partnership with the Parisi® Speed School powered by LifeBridge Health and Fitness, bringing high-school athletes from across the region a pre-season performance bootcamp.

The JCC/Parisi® program is designed for high-school athletes who want to reach peak performance at team tryouts rather than during the athletics season.

Athletes who participate will see improvement in their running technique, strength, cardiovascular endurance, footwork and plyometrics, and explosiveness. The bootcamp will also focus on injury prevention, conditioning, and mobility...