JCCWRP Updates and Shabbos Message from Shalom Klein – January 19, 2015

Friends and Colleagues:

 

On Monday, I was a guest of Governor Bruce Rauner at the inauguration in Springfield. Many of you may recall that he visited West Rogers Park a month before the election for several hours for meetings with communal leadership and tours of our non-profit organizations. He also visited the abandoned movie theater/car wash at Devon and McCormick and agreed that this eyesore needed to be removed from the heart of our community.  Now that he is Governor, I have been in close communication with his senior staff and they have expressed support for our work and commitment to help us build bridges in local units of government.  Hopefully this will open additional doors that will enable us to address this problem, and will serve as a boost for many of our other initiatives.

 

Tuesday was filled with meetings at JUF with Emily Sweet of the Jewish Community Relations Council who we have been collaborating closely with on creating programming across the Jewish and east-Asian communities that call West Rogers Park home. I also met with John Lowenstein to start a dialogue with the Hillel at Loyola University about working on resources for students and faculty in East Rogers Park.

 

To wrap up the day on Tuesday, I presented to the semester’s first session of the UIC urban planning department’s commercial revitalization graduate seminar . Several of our lay leaders joined me in presenting the background of our neighborhood to the group of students who will be spending tens of hours this semester developing a plan to help us attract new businesses to the Devon and Touhy avenue corridors. Our former consultant, Michael Schubert, opened the door for an introduction at the college of urban planning and I am pleased to report that we have leveraged that relationship to bring more resources to the community.

 

On Thursday upon our initiative, a meeting was convened at Alderman Silverstein’s office, along with representatives of Agudath Israel, Chicago Rabbinical Council, Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council, to discuss the recent acts of vandalism that took place in West Rogers Park. Subsequent to the threatening graffiti that was smeared on many structures in the community, we collaborated with ADL and JCRC to request the above meeting.  With the recent tragedy in Paris, we also discussed the concern of possible local threats relating to the terror attacks in France.

 

Today we will be meeting at Alderman Silverstein’s office with a developer who has a plan to purchase the abandoned/blighted movie theatre and car wash at Devon and McCormick, and convert that site into a public storage facility.  The developer has other facilities which are attractive and well-designed.  The facility would require only five parking places, and that would open the possibility of the unused parking lot just behind the existing structures being redeveloped as a park to enhance the bike trail adjacent to it.  We hope that our participation will demonstrate community support for the immediate improvement of the site.

 

To further encourage cleanup of the Devon/McCormick site, this week we sent a letter to the top leadership of the metropolitan water reclamation district signed by 26 rabbis and co-signed by 350 members of the community, inviting them to a meeting on March 10th at 6pm at Congregation B’nei Reuven to explain why the property they control at this site has been allowed to become a symbol of decline at the gateway to our community.  We tried over the last six months to arrange a meeting with MWRD officials, to no avail.  Now we will schedule a public meeting of our own to which we will invite media, and offer MWRD leaders a platform.  If they come we will ask the tough questions and gain media coverage.  If they don’t come, that will become a story in itself.  It is MWRD policies that have led to the blight that gets worse day after day.  We await their response and will continue to mobilize the community in support of our advocacy on this issue which will not stop until something positive is done to resolve this problem.

 

On Friday I will be continuing our development plan by asking local organizations on our list for financial support for our work. We have made progress in mobilizing our community and with your help we are building a sustainable base to continue our critical work in the community.

 

 

Wishing you and your family a wonderful Shabbos.

 

Best,

 

Shalom Klein

Executive Director, Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park

JCCWRP Family Fun Day

What J Comm Can Do for You and and You Can Do for J Comm Drives JCCWRP Event

JCCWRP Family Event Features Fun for Kids, Neighborhood Advocacy, Mortgage Assistance and Enrichment Info For Moms and Dads

JCCWRP Family Fun Day JCCWRP Family Fun Day JCCWRP Family Fun Day JCCWRP Family Fun Day JCCWRP Family Fun Day

More than 400 WRP residents of all ages -but especially moms, dads and kids – enjoyed an afternoon of socializing and community building at Back-to-School Fun Day, Sunday, Aug. 31, on the grounds of the Bernard Horwich Center, sponsored by Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park and Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago.

 

Featuring free rides for children including a moonwalk and rock-climbing wall, musical entertainment, door prizes, and food for purchase from Great Chicago Food & Beverage, the event provided a bounty of information from participating exhibitors on services and opportunities available in the neighborhood.

 

“Our goal was to connect community members to valuable – and little known — resources,” said JCCWRP Executive Director Shalom Klein.

 

JCCWRP informed guests of its mission to strengthen and preserve West Rogers Park as Chicago’s flagship Jewish neighborhood, providing a vehicle for advocacy for better amenities in the parks and a new public library; revitalization of commercial streets, and alleviating eye soars, like the blighted area behind Lincoln Village.  To learn more about how community members can participate in efforts to become a force for positive change in the neighborhood, visit the JCCWRP website atwww.gowrp.org.

 

Among other highlights, Richard Trumbo, proprietor of Music House, located at 2925 W. Devon, delighted guests with a live mini-concert and answered questions from scores of parents about music lessons for kids  (www.musichouseinc.com).

 

Devon Bank representatives shared information about a program developed in partnership with JCCWRP, providing financial assistance to qualified buyers to encourage home ownership.  (Contact Irv Loundy, Senior VP, ILoundy@DevonBank.com.)

 

Jewish Child and Family Services staff explained the “safer schools” initiative, aimed to protect children from abuse in the day-school system.  (Information is available athttp://www.jcfs.org/node/677)

 

A volunteer for Ald. Debra Silverstein’s office advised neighbors on how to utilize her constituent services to report crime, potholes, graffiti, worn-out refuse cans, and more (visitwww.50thWardChicago.com).

 

Akiba Schechter Day School (www.akibaschechter.org), Council for Jewish Elderly (www.cje.net/), Sinai Health System (www.sinai.org), and HIAS(www.hias.org) also participated in the event.

 

Co-sponsors included Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, Devon Bank, Ald. Debra Silverstein and State Sen. Ira Silverstein.

JCCWRP Back To School

JCCWRP Back To School Family Fun Day

JCCWRP Back To School

Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park and Associated Talmud Torahs of Chicago Cordially Invite You to Attend A Family Event

11 a.m. – 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014
Bernard Horwich JCC, 3003 W. Touhy Ave.
Playground south of building (indoors if raining)

Free Rides for Children, ages 5 -13, including moon walk and rock-climbing wall
Complimentary Door Prizes, Musical Entertainment
Food for Purchase, Great Chicago Food & Beverage
Community Resources Fair–Includes day-school and home ownership-assistance information

Co-sponsored by: Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, Devon Bank, Alderman Debra Silverstein, State Senator Ira Silverstein

Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park is dedicated to sustaining a Jewish community in WRP for generations to come.

For more information, contact: Shalom Klein
Jewish Community Council of West Rogers Park
Email: sklein@gowrp.org

Alderman Debra Silverstein

I facilitated West Rogers Park's first ever Devon Merchants meeting this morning at Ted's Fresh Market

Shalom Klein and Howard Rieger
I was joined by Howard Rieger, former CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, in moderating the discussion of the business community
West Rogers Park' Devon Business Community
Dozens of business owners gathered together for the first ever meeting of the Devon Merchants, facilitated by the West Rogers Park Jewish Community Council