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In 1947, after years of renting and borrowing other groups' meeting halls, swimming pools and art studios, 75 Marin Jewish families said, enough already. It's time for a place of our own.

The families raised $25,000 and bought their first community center, a Victorian house in San Rafael. The center made their move to the verdant hills of Marin official, along with their commitment to building a Jewish life there.

This week the 8,000-member Marin Jewish Community Center, which has since moved to a complex near the Marin Civic Center, celebrates its 50th birthday.

Tomorrow night, actor Theodore Bikel and others will mark the celebration with a musical review at the Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael.

"The center is just as important today as it was 50 years ago," said Ron Mogel, the center's executive director. "This is a meeting place regardless of whether you are affiliated or not, Conservative, Orthodox or Reform. The JCC is the best vehicle to connect with the entire range of Jewish experience outside the synagogue."

Today the San Rafael MJCC boasts 67,000 square feet of meeting rooms, gyms, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a theater, a nursery school, a senior lounge and a cafe. The Brandeis Hillel Elementary School, Congregation Rodef Shalom and the offices of sundry Jewish agencies share the complex.

"There's been a renaissance of Jewish life in Marin as a result of the success of this campus," said Mogel.

Fifty years ago, Marin's Jews were outsiders in a provincial bedroom community.

Founding member Esther Goldbaum's family was one of the first to arrive, having moved to San Anselmo in 1930. Goldbaum remembers too well the icy reception she received from local Presbyterians, most of whom had strong ties to the town's seminary.

"I was never invited to a birthday party with girls my age or to other social events," she recalled.

As more Jewish families arrived in the area, they formed a close kinship, eventually starting a Sunday school for their children. A handful of San Francisco Jews built summer homes in Marin and spent vacations there.

By 1946, Jews were "getting ourselves together as an identity in Marin County," Goldbaum said. B'nai B'rith and Hadassah groups had been meeting regularly for some time, but finding a consistent gathering-place was no easy task.

"We were thrown out of several buildings for leaving behind a dirty cup — for being Jewish. We got sick of it, and finally decided we needed a place of our own," Goldbaum said.

Irv Newman, who now lives in Petaluma, became the MJCC's first director in 1950. There wasn't enough money to hire a rabbi, but Newman made sure kids received spiritual and cultural guidance through the center's day camps, youth groups, nursery school and art classes.

"There were good artists in the area. A prominent sculptor taught children's art," Newman said, adding that adults indulged in bridge classes, dances, book talks and political education groups, all of which met at the center.

"We had an art exhibition, Jewish music, Jewish book month and workshops on the holidays," he recalled.

Board members hoping to start new projects but who did not have sufficient funds "would be directed to people in the community [who did]. There were people in the community that were not members but would support us," Newman said.

The center is now the hub of Jewish activity in Marin. Jewish families moving to the area deliberately seek homes in the surrounding neighborhood, Mogel said.

"The founders built their center as a hope for Jewish continuity right after World War II, at a time when the survival of the Jewish people was at risk," he added.

"I think they can be proud that their dream is very much alive and well."

"Songs of Our Fathers" is at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 22 at the Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, Avenue of the Flags and Civic Center Drive, San Rafael. Performers are Theodore Bikel, mandolinist David Grisman, comedienne Sherry Glaser, Congregation Emanu-El Cantor Roslyn Barak and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Tickets: $20-$100. Information: (415) 479-3500.