Last week, the news got out that the board of the Baltimore-area JCC were considering opening the Owings Mills location on Shabbos. Facing cutbacks due to the recession, the JCC feels that opening on Shabbos will help retain members who are canceling their JCC membership in favor of other establishments that provide fitness facilities open seven days a week. The planned Shabbos schedule would have the Owings Mills location open from 1PM to 6PM so as not to conflict with morning services, with no commercial transactions (food or membership). JCC staff would not be compelled to work on Saturdays. In addition, local synagogues would be able to utilize the location for afternoon programs, free of charge. There are no planned changes to the Park Heights JCC location, which will remain closed on Shabbos. Early indications are that the motion to open on Shabbos will be approved by the JCC board.
In 1997, a similar motion to open the Owings Mills location on Shabbos, was put before the JCC board, but was voted down by the Associated Board after a rally of 3,500 opposed the changes. A rally in support of the JCC remaining closed on Shabbos is scheduled for Sunday, May 17th at noon at Northwestern High School (6900 Park Heights Avenue), on the corner of Fallstaff Road.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Establishments that provide fitness facilities seven days a week are open Shabbos morning as well. If the motivation was purely financial, the JCC should open for the entire day on Shabbos. However, the JCC is obviously willing to accommodate the priorities of the Conservative and Reform temples — not adversely affecting their already weak attendance on Shabbos morning. But the priorities of the Orthodox are just not worthy of accommodation.
Who could forget R Frand’s riveting speech last time. The words still ring in my ears almost 12 years later.
I don’t see why this is a big deal? The people who are going are going to be mechalel shabbos anyway. The Associated/JCC never claimed to be under Orthodox jurisdiction. I think if we want to start a fight with the Associated it shouldn’t be about whether the JCC should be open on shabbos. It should be about getting more Associated money for the Day Schools. Just my opinion.
I don’t think anyone is starting a fight with the Associated. The rally is being advertised as a “communal rally to strengthen the observance of shabbos in our homes, community and communal institutions.” The ads don’t even mention the JCC. I wonder if they will even mention the JCC straight out at the rally? I think it’s more for us as individuals and families and that maybe by all of us showing how important shabbos is to us, other people will be influenced.
Ddd wrote:
“However, the JCC is obviously willing to accommodate the priorities of the Conservative and Reform temples — not adversely affecting their already weak attendance on Shabbos morning. But the priorities of the Orthodox are just not worthy of accommodation.”
Being closed Shabbos morning doesn’t cater to the priorities of the Reform and Conservative community….what good does it do them? And why is having the JCC closed on Shabbos an orthodox priority? It is advertised as a Jewish Community Center, not an Orthodox Jewish Community Center, and the religious Jews in Baltimore don’t have the final say on what other denominations should and shouldn’t do with their lives.
An important point that is missed and is always swept under the rug, is that the Jews that helped develop Owings Mills and the area around it, zoned it specifically, to prevent orthodox jews by moving in, by making it incredibly difficult for a shul to open there. It’s only natural, that the JCC in the area that excluded orthodox jews by design, should want to be open on shabbos.
James – what? I wasn’t aware that Owings Mills was zoned any differently than the rest of Baltimore county. In fact, I was under the impression that under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, it is illegal to zone land to exclude houses of worship.
(http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/housing/housing_rluipa.php)
If you can cite a specific source for your allegations of zoning discrimination, please do, as I am very interested in where it came from.
Live,
Owings Mills is different development than other parts of Baltimore County. (And Baltimore County is really diverse, as you know, you have semi-urban, rural and suburban all in one package, all the of the zoning in each area is different in creation and zone class) Its housing stock is spread apart, clustered together, and a nice walking distance away from commercial areas, or other areas in which a synagogue would be approved to be built in. This is different than other areas in Baltimore County, like Randalstown, just for one example, that have sites that are to use the stimulus package, “are dig ready”, that are within walking distance of a residential mass, that don’t need complex environmental reviews, and the such.
Plus, even in NW Baltimore, whenever given the chance, Baltimore County’s regulations on deference towards local associations, as per the Building of the Chabad Center on Smith Avenue in Baltimore County, have shown how just a few people can make building an orthodox synagogue an almost impossible task, needing tens of thousands of dollars just to get past the “obstructionist phase” of the building process.
Just look at the problems that Beth Tfillah had in their building of their former campus in Baltimore County, and it was not really within walking distance of anybody.
As a result, you’ll notice that when given the choice, Baltimore City is the preferential venue for a shul, since its zoning is much more friendly to the notion of shuls within walking distance.
Just because someone can craft a zoning model in a community thats not orthodox friendly, doesn’t mean that it violates RIUPULA. As I am sure you know, you can craft a cross the board ban on certain items, that mandates certain items, and as long as it doesn’t single out one specific religious group, or all religious groups, it will pass religious muster.
I know and all orthodox jews know, that we have no 1st amendment rights to be able to live as orthodox jews and to have everyone accomidate by law to our needs. But we do know, when we are not wanted, and when the “rules” are crafted in such a way, and most of the time legal, to make sure that we are not there. For example, a large company can decide that working on Saturday, is essential to its business, and all of its employess must work on the Jewish Sabbath. Even though, it may not be essential to its business, me as an observant Jew, will not be able to be employed there, as I will be forced to work on Shabbos. I can not sue them for discrimination, as I have no legal right to work for them. This happens all the time in various industries, and anyone that works outside the Jewish non profit world (and sometimes even in that world) knows, that there are prices that you pay for being and observant jew, and its one of the trade-offs. Owings Mills, being made non-condusive towards Orthodox Jews moving in, is one of those things. Its just a fact. There’s a reason why the Orthodox Jews didn’t move from Randalstown to Owings Mills along with their non observant neighbors who did.
Let them open on Shabbos all they want, just take the name “Jewish” off of the center – in a similar fashion to Jewish Convalescent Nursing Home who decided not to be kosher any more, so they dropped the Jewish identity all together.
Perhaps this should be considered for the Owings Mills facility and leave the Park Heights facility as the only JCC.
There was a rally yesterday protesting the proposed change in Owings Mills — were any of you present?
Dear LiveAndLetLive,
You are not very informed if you do not know why this is an Orthodox priority or why being closed on Shabbos morning caters to the priorities of the Reform and Conservative temples. Regarding why this is an Orthodox priority, if you really want to know, go listen at http://www.torah.org/shabbos/ . I cannot say it any better. You are correct that it is not an Orthodox Jewish Community Center. But neither is it a Conservative and Reform Community Center. If the motivations were truly financial — to compete with the health clubs, why wouldn’t the JCC open the whole day on Shabbos, just like the health clubs do? There is only one reason: The Reform and Conservative temples are already having attendance issues and they do not want more competition. You of all people must feel that the Reform and Conservative temples should “Live and Let Live”, rather than acting like they “have the final say on what” Jews “should and shouldn’t do with their lives.” Have you spoken out about the fact that the JCC is planning to remain closed on Shabbos morning, or are you being hypocritical? Is it OK for some denominations to tell people what they should and shouldn’t do with their lives? Is it OK for some denominations to insist that communal organizations (not individuals) respect their most important ideals?
Ddd
Andy has the right of it – if what the people on the JCC board are saying is true, the members they’re losing never really cared about the Jewish part of the JCC so much as the community center bit. You may as well just make it a sports club and skip the intermediate bits where it becomes totally not Jewish. I can think of ways that the JCC could split them off into a separate entity where being mechalal Shabbos would not be such an issue (eg, non-Jewish ownership), yet retain controlling interest so that they would still have access to it for Jewish organizations and the like.
I also liked someone else’s point that, if the JCC organization is being “forced” into compromising with non-Orthodox denominations, it’s not entirely unfair for the Orthodox to at least demand _some_ attention to their own desires. I am having a lot of trouble believing that being open for six hours on a Saturday is really going to solve the Owings Mills JCC’s problems.
Oh, and this isn’t, or shouldn’t be, about the Conservative movement. At least officially, the Conservative movement hasn’t started allowing their American members to drive to the gym on Shabbos (only to shul!). Their leadership should be fighting this, too, if they had any spine to them.