Friday, October 5, 2012

Jewish Community Center (YMHA-YWHA)



Arthur L. Finkle
The YMHA (Young Men's Hebrew Association) was first organized in 1854 in Baltimore to provide help for Jewish immigrants. A YWHA (Young Women's Hebrew Association) was established as an annex to the YMHA in New York in 1888. This same New York YMHA and YWHA continues to  operate together as the 92nd Street Y

In 1917 these organizations were combined into a Jewish Welfare Board, and were later renamed Jewish Community Centers (or JCCs), though some retain the YWHA or YMHA designation.  Today there are more than 135 JCCs with more than 350 sites throughout North America.  Jewish Community Centers together serve more than 1 million members and more than 1 million additional users.  JCCs are the largest provider of Jewish early childhood services with more than 60,000 participants and the largest system of day camps serving more than 100,000 participants.

The late Francis B. Lee, in his "History of Trenton,” published in 1895, gives a brief account of the body which then had its headquarters at 26 West State Street:

"For a year the Young Men's Hebrew Club has been in existence, having a membership of about thirty. The club rooms are located at 26 East State Street, and are furnished with much taste. One of the distinguished features of the club is the library and reading room, which with the social features renders its membership par­ticularly enjoyable. The following are the officers and committee: President, Samuel Kahn; Vice-President, Eph. Fuld ; Treasurer, Abe Seigel; Secretary, Jacob Berman; Financial Secretary, David Mandel; Sergeant-at-Arms, Dan Block;

The first independent YWHA was set up in 1902.  In 1907, The The State Gazette, published a ‘social’ the Gibb's Dancing Academy, Taylor Opera House Building. Those in charge of this affair were: Solomon Wolberg, Herman Mallowitz and Benjamin Fineberg.

.In 1917 these eary Jewish organizations were developed an association called the Jewish Welfare Board which today is known as the Jewish Community Center Association of North Ameirca,.  While most affiliated organizations are known as Jewish Community Centers, a few, especially in the metropolitan New York area retain the YWHA or YMHA designation. 
In Mercer county, a permanent institution, the The Young Men's Hebrew Association began on December 5, 1909. At the home of William Haveson (South Broad Street), officer of the association were voted:.
Joseph Stone, president;
David Josephson, vice-president;
Charles Gpinsky, secretary;
Joseph Bulitsky, treasurer; and
board of governors: William Haveson, Herman Haveson, and ''Barney Lavine,.

The charter members are: Charles Gilinsky, Harry Levinson, Joseph Stone, David Josephson, M. Appelstein, William Haveson, Barney Lavine, Joseph Bulitsky, L. Fromkin, Herman Haveson, Samuel Swernofsky and Isaac Bulitsky. The fee for charter members was $1.00 and dues, fifteen cents a week.

The next several meeting were spend in figuring out how to secure money to open up. At the sixth meeting ,the committee paid a deposit on rooms owned by Dr. William Julian on South Broad Street.

The committee provided furnishings and a fund for a library was instituted. Harry Rosenberg was appointed librarian. The secret password was "Amicus."

The officers of the Young Men's Hebrew Association had a way of keeping discipline by imposing severe fines. At a meeting held on April 3rd, the following disorderly youths forfeited their means for securing a seat in the gallery at the Trent by donating ten cents each to the treasury: George Freeman, Joseph Bulitsky, Isaac Bulitsky, Michael Applestein, Barney Lavine and Harry Levinson.

It the Spring, the membership finding that its quarters were too small, acquired the front part of the building.

The first baseball game recorded was the “Y” playing the Adelphi Club. Players were Lavinson, catcher, Sutnick, pitcher; Applestein, first base; Lavine, second base; Freeman, shortstop; J. Bulitsky, third base; Budson, left field; Haveson, center field; and Glazier, substitute. The club also fielded a basketball tam.

In 1915, Rabbi Samuel Thurman, Har Sinai, discussed the desirability of merging several organizations into the new “Y.” In 1916, the Audax Club (Herman Malkowitz), the Adelphi Club .(Philip. Vine), the Young Judea Club (Mr. Jaffey) agreed to merge with the “Y.”

The Adelphi Club on an excursion to be held by that body: Lavinson, catcher
Sutnick, pitcher; Applestein, first base; Lavine, second base; Freeman, short stop; Bulitsky, third base; Budson, left field; Haveson, centre field; and Glazier, substitute. The club was also active in basketball.
The second election of officers brought:

Herman Mallowitz, president
Samuel Swernofsky, vice-president
Louis Fromkin, secre­tary
William Haveson, treasurer

State Gazette, 1907; Harry Podmore, 1926

In the New area, many retained the designation (or simply the term "Y" like the 92nd Street Y still does today) into the 1990s.

Basketball: The Jewish Melding with German Jews and the General Community
American Jews were quite aware of the cultural difference in the new country. Initially baseball was the number one sport. Then basketball became the great leveler. Indeed, Jewish basketball served as an expression of Jewish ethnic identity, an important part of modern American Jewish culture and vital to the growth and development of America’s basketball culture.

The Community Centers (YMHAS’s) accented basketball leagues. With such early training, when Jews entered higher education on the late 1930’s and 1940’s, basketball was a Jewish game, at least on the East Coast.

The JCC experience was also one the barrier breakdown between the German and Russian Jews.

Indeed, in 1938, the National Invitation Tournament championship game focused of two super-stars as Temple, with All-American Mike (Meyer) Bloom leading the way, defeated Colorado (All-Star and future Justice Byron ‘Whizzer’ White), 60-38 by playing “a brand of basketball that never has been surpassed in Madison Square Garden.”

It certainly was not easy for a Jew to play in competitive sports. Often razzed with religious epitaphs. One significant episode occurred in New York City where the University of Wyoming played CCNY, on December 27, 1946. Although the Wyoming later apologized in part, . CCNY Coach Nat Holman’s archives revealed that the offending coach actually stated that, “those New York Jews and Niggers are getting away with everything.” However, the press focused on Shelton’s use of the word ‘Jew’ and no other correspondence or report confirmed this account.  See Sclar.

Before the YMHA was built in 1917, baseball was the preferred sport. In the early 1900’s, there was a League in South Trenton consisting of the Union Athletic Club, Station Tigers, Little Potatoes, Pittances, Fall St. Tigers and Young Boys’ Hebrew Association. A decade later, a driving force, Max Bash, formed the Hebrew Baseball League consisting of Aubrey Cay, Club, Elysians, Young Judea and the YMHA.
Sol Weinstein remembers playing a type of baseball game in which a ragged tennis ball was bounced and the batter fisted the ball. See Sol Weinstein
Basketball became such a big hit in the Trenton Jewish community that they played under lights in the 1920’s.
Initially involved with the Jewish Welfare Board, those active in casework were:   Fanny Budson, Fanny Golden, Eva Haveson , Mamie Peitzman. Fanny Popkin of the Traveler’s Aid Society helped with difficult location issues.




One of the greatest Jewish players in history, Meyer Bloom learned his skills in the YMHA basketball league.  At a towering 6 ft., ,6 inches, Bloom was an All-America forward at Temple University, and led the Owls to the NIT (National Invitational Tournament) championship in 1938; it was the first-ever postseason tournament (the NCAA tournament began the following year). He then played professionally in the ABL (American Basketball League), becoming one of the league's best players and a two-time MVP. The American Basketball league contained the Trenton Tigers a professional team from 1946 to 1950.  In the 1946/47 season, the team made it to the championship playoffs where they were to meet the 
Baltimore Bullets. Trenton was declared champion when Baltimore decided to quit the playoffs to play in the World Professional Basketball Tournament.
Some of the great Jewish players for the Tigers were Norm Drucker played college basketball at City College of New York (CCNY) and later NBA referee fir 24-yearS; Jack "Dutch" Garfinkel (born June 13, 1918),  Thomas Jefferson High School in Brooklyn and then nearby St. John's University, and Ben Goldfaden who also made to the pros for a short time.

A winner at every level of competition during his basketball career, Bloom was a three-time all-state performer at Trenton High School in New Jersey, leading his team to a 41-game winning streak and three consecutive state titles (1932-34). He then played college ball at Temple University and became one of the best players in the country. In 1936 as a sophomore, he made an immediate impact in his varsity debut. Early in the season, he scored a last-second basket to propel the Owls to a 44-43 win over Georgetown, and finished with a game-high 23 points (New York Times, December 19, 1935).

Described as one of the best centers in recent history by New York writers, Bloom led Temple to a 34-31 upset over the defending national champions, NYU (New York University). Bloom, who scored nine points in the game, was praised as, "a standout in all departments of play." (New York Times, February 9, 1936). That season, he helped lead Temple to an overall record of 18-6, and they were considered among the nation's best. The following year, with Temple's 17-6 record Bloom helped them remain among the nation's elite teams.

In 1938, Bloom had an outstanding season and was named Madison Square Garden first team All-America, NEA second team, and Converse third team All-America. That year, he led the Temple team to a 23-2 record and into the first-ever National Invitational Tournament. 

After graduating from Temple, Bloom played professionally in the American Basketball League, one of the top professional leagues at the time. A proficient scorer, he began his career in 1938 with the Philadelphia Sphas (the nickname stood for the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association), one of the greatest professional teams in the first half of the twentieth century. Bloom then moved to the Washington Brewers in 1939.
In 1940, Bloom joined his third professional team in three seasons as he played for the Baltimore Clippers. In 1941 he hopped to the Trenton Tigers, where he remained for the next four seasons and developed into one of the league’s best players. In 1941-42, Bloom was among the league leaders in points (136 for a 6.8 average, seventh in the league) but Trenton missed the playoffs.

Bloom was so good that he scored 25% of Trenton's points that season. Still, the Tigers finished with an overall record of 15-11 and missed the playoffs. In 1944-45, he was again league MVP.

The next season, Bloom moved to the Baltimore Bullets, a new franchise in the ABL. He was again in the top ten in scoring and helped the Bullets defeat Philadelphia in the playoff to win the championship.
In 1946-47, Bloom remained among the league leaders, finishing second in scoring. The Bullets won the Southern Division (the ABL expanding to ten teams that year) with a league-best 31-3 record.

In 1947, Bloom was a member of the Bullets when the team was 'called up' from the ABL to the Basketball Association of America (forerunner of the NBA). The BAA began in 1946, but four teams had folded after the first season and the league needed additional competition. Bloom, who had a deadly set-shot and a nose for defense, became a crowd favorite at a time when the NBA needed stars. Midway through the season, he was sent to the Boston Celtics. In 1948-49, Bloom played for the Minneapolis Lakers (a team that jumped from the NBL to the NBA that year) and then joined the Stags late in that season




Tal Brody ( Basketball in Israel) was born August 30, 1943, in Trenton, New Jersey. Son of Max and Shirley Brody traces  his roots to Israel where both his father and grandfather worked in the 1920s, working as an engineer Both his father and his grandfather lived in what was then Palestine for 10 years.

Brody is an American-Israeli former basketball player, and current Goodwill Ambassador of Israel, who lives in Israel. Brody was drafted # 12 in the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft, but chose to pass up an NBA career to instead play basketball in Israel. He played on national basketball teams of both the United States and Israel, and served in the armies of both countries.

A New Jersey All Star basketball player in high school, Brody led his team to an undefeated state championship in 1958. Before that, he regularly played in the YMHA basketball league. In college (University of Illinois), he was a high-scoring, slick-passing All American. That year, he was drafted 12th in the NBA draft. 

Before the NBA season started, he traveled to Israel where he led the U.S. basketball team to a gold medal in the 1965 Maccabiah Games.
Convinced by Moshe Dayan and others to return to Israel to help Israel’s basketball team, he passed up a lucrative NBA career. He became captain of the Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team, was voted Israeli Sportsman of the Year in 1967, and was a member of the European All Star Team.

Brody’s basketball career culminated in 1977, when he led tiny Israel's basketball team to the European Cup Basketball Championship. Along the way, his team defeated the heavily favored Soviet Red Army team (CSKA Moscow). Brody's famous remark upon beating the Soviets "We are on the map! And we are staying on the map not only in sports, but in everything." became a part of Israeli culture.

In 1979 he was awarded the country's highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize. He was named the University of Illinois "Man of the Year" and inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and inducted into the U.S. National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
After he retired as a player, Brody continued with Maccabi Tel Aviv as an assistant coach and served on the team's Board of Directors until 2007.
Brody was featured in a 2008 documentary entitled The Jewish Basketball Hall of Fame, Volume 1, produced by Yisrael Lifschutz. He was also featured in a book by the title: A Voice Called; Stories of Jewish Heroism, by Yossi Katz, which was published in 2010.

He is now retired from a successful business career in importing/exporting sporting goods and spends his time with his wife in Israel.

With the moving of the Jewish population to the western part of Trenton, the Jewish Community Center (as the “Y”) was later known, built a wonderful facility on Lower Ferry road in 1955.

World famous architect, Architect Kahn designed the bath houses. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.



It is neither in Trenton, New Jersey, nor is it a bath house, but the so-called "Trenton Bath House" commands attention from architectural historians around the world. Designed as part of a larger plan (never executed) for the Jewish Community Center of the Delaware Valley, the "bath house" opened in 1955 and served as the entrance and changing area for patrons of an outdoor swimming pool.

From a design perspective, the bath house actually appears as a simple cruciform -- four square concrete block rooms or areas, surrounding an open atrium. Each of the rooms is topped by a simple, wooden rectangular pyramid. At the corner of each room there is a large, open rectangular column that supports the roof. However, closer inspection reveals that in addition to the pure design elegance, Kahn also clarified his thinking about the utilitarian purposes of the various spaces, and it was in this building that he first articulated his notion of spaces serving and spaces served.

Kahn often spoke of this project as a turning point in his design philosophy, "From this came a generative force which is recognizable in every building which I have done since."



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