Partnership for a Jewish Center

Innovative Plan Would Expand Jewish Cultural Experience
for Special Needs Community

Almost all parents juggle multiple schedules: team practices, music lessons, homework, family activities and plain old play time. That last one is often the easiest to manage. But imagine if social interaction was not joyful, but painful for your son. Or what if your daughter had physical challenges that kept her from participating in sports and games. And what if you had to add several hours of driving time to your routine just to find a program that could address your child’s special needs?

These are some of the ongoing challenges faced by the special needs population and their families. In the Durham-Chapel Hill area, there are relatively few social and recreational opportunities for the special needs population, and even fewer with a Jewish component. That started Lee and Elaine Marcus thinking.

“Through Lee’s work in the field of autism, we have been made aware of the gaps in services in the community in general and in the Jewish part of community life in particular,” says Elaine. (Lee Marcus is a consulting psychologist with TEACCH and former Clinical Director of the Chapel Hill TEACCH Center at UNC.) “We feel that the Jewish community can and should take a leadership role in filling some of these gaps.”

The Marcuses have made a major endowment gift to jump start the staffing and programming portions of this initiative. They have also made a pledge to the general building campaign for the new Jewish Center. In keeping with the mission and vision of the Partnership for a Jewish Center, the goal of this initiative is to provide social and recreational activities for special needs populations of the Durham and Chapel Hill communities in a welcoming Jewish cultural setting.

“There is a broad range of community needs so we will have to start by serving a smaller niche of the community at large,” says Lee. “But our ultimate goal is to develop quality programs and services that will reach from the youngest children to our elderly population, in ways that truly serve their special needs.”

The Special Needs Advisory Group welcomes anyone who would like to contribute their time or skills to bringing this important vision to life. Says Elaine: “Our goal is to have wonderful special needs programming in place the first day the doors of our JCC swing open.” If you would like to contribute to the success of this ambitious project, please contact the Durham/Chapel Hill Jewish Federation at (919) 489-5335.