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May 25, 2001/Sivan 3, 5761, Vol. 53, No.34
Community breaks ground
BARRY COHEN
Editor
A decade-long dream came true on a very warm Sunday morning, May 20, with the groundbreaking for the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus in Scottsdale.
A gathering of about 1,200 witnessed the event, armed with sunhats, fans and bottled water, much of it supplied by the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
"Today we celebrate passion. Today we celebrate commitment. Today we celebrate vision, and today we affirm our dedication to create a strong, inclusive, exciting Jewish community for ourselves, our parents, our children and our children's children," Ron Bookbinder, chairman of the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus Task Force, told the crowd.
Bookbinder presented Bill Levine, who donated the 30-acre site at the southeast corner of Scottsdale Road and Sweetwater Avenue, with the mezuzah removed from the doorpost of the Jewish Community Center at Maryland and 17th avenues when it closed its doors five years ago. At the new campus opening in the fall 2002, Bookbinder said, he wants Levine to dedicate the building with the same mezuzah.
Levine, who came to the Valley in 1960, said his donation was a gift not from him but from his children and grandchildren. "(I) want to thank the community for giving me and my family the opportunity to make this gift and to honor Ina," he said. Ina Levine, Bill Levine's late wife, passed away in 1999.
Levine said he also wanted to give something back to the community that has been good to his family.
Levine stressed the importance of every gift in the communitywide effort to construct the new campus and urged everyone to keep an open mind. "Be tolerant. It may not have everything that everybody may want, but it will be an outstanding facility for a wide range of people," he said.
Other speakers included George Weisz, executive assistant to Arizona Gov. Jane Hull; Mary Manross, mayor of the City of Scottsdale; Lanny Lahr, federation president and the campus capital campaign chairman; and Steve Hilton, campus design chairman.
The program included singing from the combined student choirs of The King David School, Phoenix Hebrew Academy and Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, and a prayer of thanks from community rabbis.
Weisz read a proclamation from Hull, which stated in part: "This beautiful campus will be a place of enrichment, where one can teach or learn, study or play, paint or swim, dance or socialize, and provide the opportunity for tzedakah: a place where one can hear the laughter of our children and the wisdom of our seniors."
Manross said the campus would be "a place where relationships will be built through spirit, mind and body. ... We as a community need these kinds of places to call home. We need these kinds of facilities for our children, for our families and for our friends."
"This is a new beginning, an opportunity to expand the infrastructure of community services and programs," said Art Paikowsky, federation executive vice president, in a telephone conversation. "Hopefully this will bring together people who have not connected to the community."
At the groundbreaking, Lahr acknowledged the 1,100 financial contributors, then said: "We're going to build a building, but now we have to breathe life into this facility by infusing it with family and friends in a venue where people can enjoy the richness of Jewish life."
Hilton alluded to previous false starts to construct a community center, at 96th Street and Shea Boulevard; Scottsdale Ranch; Scottsdale and Bell roads; and 40th Street and Shea Boulevard.
"This is the best location to serve the entire community, architecture that is fresh and timeless, functionality that came from careful planning," he said of the present site.
Following the groundbreaking, participants expressed what drew them to the groundbreaking.
Richard Grossman was there with his family, including his 5- and 3-year-old daughters. "We're here for the spirit, the community, to say we were here from the beginning, and to see the enthusiasm that everyone has," he said.
Grossman said his family goes to the YMCA for day care, the health club and gymnastics programs, but looks forward to joining the campus.
"Everything we're doing off campus and in a non-Jewish environment, we're going to be able to integrate and bring back in (to a Jewish setting)," he added.
Steve and Ruth Shapiro, who moved to the Valley nearly three years ago from New York, said the campus is vital in building their Jewish identity. "It's important for Jewish people to stick together," remarked Ruth Shapiro.
Sylvia Richman, attending with her husband Richie, had witnessed the groundbreaking of the center at Maryland Avenue, nearly 40 years ago. Richman, who was director of the center's preschool and early education department at the Maryland Avenue location for over 20 years, said she saw many of her former pre-schoolers at Sunday's groundbreaking with their children.
She also worked as a music teacher when the center was located at 16th Street and Camelback Road, prior to its move to Maryland Avenue. The Richmans said that although they live in Central Phoenix, they look forward to taking advantage of the new campus.
The facility will be home to the following organizations: Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, Bureau of Jewish Education, Council for Jews with Special Needs, Phoenix Hebrew Academy and the Jewish Community Foundation.
In the future, the campus also will house the Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School and The King David School.
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