At first glance, the current home of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and its future home have little in common. Nestled in the Presidio and surrounded by eucalyptus trees, a lake, and bales of hay, the current location has a rustic charm that offers nary a hint of the huge “Jewish public square” envisioned for the future.
The current location, which the JCC of S.F. has leased for a two-year interim period while its new home is being built, is divided into a series of buildings evocative of the Presidio’s piquant army units. The 30,000-square-foot complex, part of the city’s former public health hospital site, has separate units for children’s activities and Club 18, the teen facility. (The JCC’s senior program and kosher nutrition program operate out of the Montefiore Senior Center on Walnut Street, and the sports and fitness facility has been disbanded until the new one re-opens in two years.)
Nate Levine, the executive director of the JCC of S.F., was sufficiently impressed with the temporary site to have considered it for the permanent location. Its tranquility is a big plus. Traffic, unless one counts mothers pushing baby strollers, packs of nursery school kids and errant squirrels, is nonexistent. There is a baseball field for recreation, hiking trails for educational purposes and a lake for relaxation. And on a clear day, one can see forever — or at least past Twin Peaks.
So why build the new JCC at the old California Street location? The question can be answered in part by the bugaboo that confronts all businesses in the city — parking. Levine said that the primary leitmotif for the new center will be accessibility, whether it is in the form of actual parking spaces or of outreach to the Jewish community and beyond. The Presidio location is so pristine, in fact, that automobiles are discouraged as a method of transportation.
The planned new building, which has already raised more than $70 million, is among the largest financial undertakings in the history of the country’s Jewish community centers, according to Levine. The new center will encompass approximately 130,000 square feet, about twice the size of the old one, which is currently being razed.
Not coincidentally, for an entity that Levine sees as the hub of a vibrant Jewish neighborhood, the new JCC will provide three levels of underground parking. A glass-enclosed atrium will enable all guests to be privy to three floors of Jewish life — encompassing everything from a split-level, basketball court and full-scale fitness center, to an entire floor of classrooms for adult Jewish education, children’s learning centers and a theater with retractable seats. It also will feature an extensive multimedia archive and library, along with a wellness center dedicated to rehabilitating sports injuries and working with the health problems of an aging population.
Recognizing that the moving costs associated with transporting elm trees and a lake probably are prohibitive, Levine hopes to duplicate the haimish qualities of the Presidio location at the future site. Here at the Presidio, with the sun streaming in through bay windows, elderly Russians practice their salutations while pre-school kids cook French toast and learn their multiplication tables right next door.
Two years from now, those groups might not be located next door to each other, but they will be located in the same building, alongside a thirtysomething studying Torah for the first time, a teen working out issues with her peers, a Pilates enthusiast, and perhaps a local performance company that has rented the space for an evening of African dance.
“The old JCC was a place where the very wealthy could mingle with the people that had very little money,” said Levine. “That’s the type of integrated Jewish community that we envision: a place where both Jews and non-Jews can learn about Jewish culture.”
The scope of the proposed project is so grand that Levine, who said the JCC’s membership has remained steady, quipped he felt “that the entire weight of the Jewish community rests upon placing each electrical socket correctly.”
On the plus side, Levine can count on some temporary solitude, because weeping willow trees and squirrels never kvetch.