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May 21, 1999/6 Sivan 5759, Vol. 51, No.34
Supporters turn out for dedication of Jewish Community Campus
LENI REISS
Senior Contributing Editor
An overflow crowd of more than 100 well-wishers braved the afternoon heat on Thursday, May 13, to attend a dedication ceremony under a tent at the site of what is slated to be the home for the new Jewish Community Campus.
"Geographically, we are gigantic," Neil Hiller, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, said in his welcoming remarks. "This is a city in which Jews live everywhere. It is difficult for us to get together. But soon we will have a central gathering place."
"It's just a big, dusty desert lot now," Ron Bookbinder said about the field on the southwest corner of 40th Street and Shea Boulevard, "but it won't be long before it houses a gorgeous campus."
Bookbinder, chairman of the Campus Task Force, made special mention of Milt Friedman, Steve Hilton, Irv Shuman and Jay Goldman, four men who contributed a substantial amount of money toward purchase of the property. Their generosity "is what made this day possible," Bookbinder said.
Capital Campaign Chairman Lanny Lahr reported that $12.5 million has been pledged in the first weeks of the campaign by a total of 19 benefactors.
The general, communitywide campaign is scheduled to start shortly. "We need to raise a total of $25 million," Lahr noted.
Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza remarked to Jewish News that he could practically see his house from where he was standing mid-field.
"It's walking distance," he said, "and you can be sure my family will be center members. The swimming pool will be great for the babies, and we'll make good use of whatever programs there are for all of us. We see this JCC as a personal amenity."
Lauding the project, which she said will enhance "the best district in the city," District 3 Councilwoman Peggy Bilstein said: "This is a day we have been waiting for. Your dream is my dream."
Rabbi Barton Lee of Hillel at Arizona State University in Tempe noted that Jewish building in the desert goes back in history to the Torah.
"Moses and our people built sanctuaries," he said, "during desert wanderings, as places where God might dwell."
Lee proposed that, as descendants of those Israelites who wandered in the desert in biblical times, "we must strive here, in our desert, under the hot Arizona sun ... to turn this ground into a community campus which will be a dwelling place for God and a tent of meeting for our Jewish community."
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