A longtime leader in the Jewish community and a Bay Area native will soon be the new director at the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center in Walnut Creek.
Jamie Hyams, 46, of Pleasanton, will begin the job full time Jan. 1. She’ll be at the helm when the organization decides if it will go ahead with a $35 million capital campaign for a new building.
“I’m so excited that I get to come back and work in the community in which I live,” she said. “There aren’t a lot of Jews on this side of the hill, so when this opportunity came about, it was fantastic. It’s in my backyard.”
Hyams wants to bring back Havdallah Beneath the Stars, a successful community program that fizzled out a few years ago. She’d like to start a kosher version of the popular make-and-take meal service, where busy parents can spend an afternoon at the JCC preparing a dozen dishes, freeze them and use them at home as needed.
She envisions starting a monthly golf program and a drop-in cycling class. She wants the JCC to offer more adult education opportunities.
She praised existing programs such as the preschool, book and film festival, respite care and summer camps. She’s proud of how the CCJCC serves the preschool-aged and senior members, but she’d like for the organization to do more to appeal to “the middle” — for instance, young and old families, young couples and singles.
“I see the JCC becoming the hub of the Jewish community,” she said. “A connecting hub between synagogues, the federation and people. I see it as the gateway, another entry point in community, from which people can become part of our family and then find a broader role in the Jewish community.”
Her colleagues have faith in her ideas.
“Jamie is a creative force — she enlivens Judaism for people in a way that is compelling,” said Valerie Jonas, regional director for Contra Costa, Tri-Valley and Tri-City regions of the Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay.
Hyams worked in the Bay Area Jewish community for 24 years before departing for a job at the Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center. She stayed one year. But her heart and soul wasn’t in it like when she worked for the Jewish community, she said. She said she learned a “tremendous amount” from the experience, and thinks it will be valuable as she returns to her roots.
“I care about the performing arts center, but my real passion is the Jewish community,” she said. “I think everybody recognizes that.”
Hyams’ Jewish communal work includes time at the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay (where she was a colleague of Jonas’), South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in Sunnyvale, Atid Jewish Day School in Fremont, Hillel Foundation at Stanford and Lehrhaus Judaica. She and her husband have two sons, ages 12 and 16.
Jonas, who served on the selection committee responsible for choosing the new JCC director, described Hyams as dynamic, flexible and said she has “the all-important ability to really listen to people.” She said Hyams is good at bringing people together around a common goal, which will be increasingly important as the Contra Costa Jewish community changes and grows.
“I see what our future can be, and I can feel the steps to get there,” Hyams said. “It’s wonderful to be at beginning of something. I like to start things, carry them through to completion, making it real. I love that.”