Jewish Community Center

 The lack of facilities for early childhood education, camping, mass programming, physical education, and sports programs led many members to voice dissatisfaction with the Bryson Street Center. In early 1944, Clarence J. Strouss’s $25,000 donation towards a new Jewish Federation-Jewish Community Center Building led to a Building Fund Campaign. Banquets, fundraisers, and community functions occurred throughout the city in order to raise the funds necessary for a new and modern Jewish center. 

On 29 November 1951, the Federation purchased thirteen acres of property on Gypsy Lane for $30,000. A significant portion of the Jewish community assembled in July 1952 for the groundbreaking ceremony of the long-awaited Jewish Community Center. A large and excited crowd of Youngstown Jews, local dignitaries, and friends of the community met in May 1954 at 505 Gypsy Lane for the formal dedication of the new Jewish Community Center. 

On April 12, 1963 more than 200 hundred excited members of the local Jewish community gathered together on Gypsy lane to break ground for another project, a long-awaited Jewish Home for the Aged, Heritage Manor. On a cold and snowy Sunday in November 1981, a joint groundbreaking ceremony was held for the expansion of Heritage Manor and the Jewish Community Center.[1]

First Federation House and Jewish Community Center on Bryson Street, 1937. Acc. No. JA86-40C, MVHS Collections.

Jewish Times Groundbreaking illustration JCC. Acc. No. JA87-99, MVHS Collection

Temple Emanu-el planning the new JCC, Dedication Book page 28, Acc. No. JA87-56, MVHS Collection.

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society educates and promotes an interest in the history of the Mahoning Valley by collecting, preserving, and developing material representative of the people who have inhabited the region.

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