Position Paper

Requesting that the leadership of the Jewish Community Federation create a process to more fully engage the community in deciding on the location of the Federation’s Headquarters.

Introduction
We are a group of Jewish citizens who are concerned about the process currently in place for deciding on the location of the future headquarters of the Jewish Community Federation.

We are asking the Federation Board of Trustees to avoid making a hasty decision that will affect the Jewish community and the City of Cleveland for decades to come. We encourage the Board, the Building Committee, and the ad hoc committee to undertake a more complete study of the available alternatives and to look at best practices from other regions. In addition, given the magnitude of this decision, we ask them to create an open process that engages the community and encourages the participation of everyone who has a stake in the ultimate decision. In so doing, they will ensure that all elements of our community respect whatever decision ultimately is made.

The following summarizes the thinking of our group.

Background
In 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Cuyahoga County lost 13,304 people between July, 2006, and July, 2007. Since 2000, almost 100,000 people have left the county; no county in the US has lost more people in this century.

Northeast Ohio continues to struggle under the burden of staggering job losses that have substantially weakened the state’s economy. This reality requires that major decisions by the Jewish community be made only after careful consideration of how they align with the efforts of others seeking to reverse these unacceptable trends.

Our community is not immune from these trends. The Jewish population in Northeast Ohio is not growing and is composed of many older people, raising the uncomfortable prospect of substantial population loss.

How we coordinate our efforts with those of other organizations to make the region more attractive to larger numbers of people has to be one of our highest priorities. A failure of greater Cleveland to grow may well mean that Jewish Cleveland also will not grow—or worse.

The Cleveland Jewish Community Federation has outgrown its headquarters and needs more space. The location of a new headquarters, or the expansion of the existing building, creates an opportunity to excite, engage, and energize the Jewish community and, in the process, to help rebuild and revitalize Northeast Ohio.

The Case for Cleveland
The Federation’s location in downtown Cleveland makes a crucial statement that the Jewish community is an integral part of the fabric of life in Cleveland, believes in Cleveland’s future and plays a significant role in the advancement of the entire community. To abandon that role by moving physically out of Cleveland’s core is to abandon symbolically our community’s long-standing commitment to the quality of life of our fellow citizens and to the diversity provided by an urban location. Such a move would weaken long standing and important relationships and could lose us the respect of institutions, religious groups, charitable organizations, foundations and agencies who maintain a significant downtown presence. Currently, the headquarters of the Protestant, Catholic and Jewish communities are all downtown, in spite of the fact that all three groups have significant memberships and facilities in the suburbs.

Think about it…

To make our region attractive to author Richard Florida’s “creative class,” substantial resources are being invested to build diverse, dynamic and true mixed-use urban neighborhoods. These sorts of neighborhoods can only exist in close proximity to the core city. Cities like Portland, Oregon, Denver, Colorado, and Austin, Texas have seen major regeneration over the past few decades as a result of their ability to attract this highly mobile demographic. Their success has been due in large part to their ability to create an exciting urban core. Until recently, Cleveland has been largely unsuccessful in developing this sort of core and therefore has not generated much interest from the creative class. Jewish and non-Jewish young Clevelanders alike have set out for cities like New York and Chicago in search of a lifestyle they find more attractive. However, we are at the beginning of a Renaissance in downtown Cleveland, fueled in large measure by a renewed desire for urban living and the creativity, vision, and dollars from many Jewish developers. If our community were to decide to move away, what message would that send to others considering a commitment to downtown Cleveland?

Many in our community have been working to solve the challenge of regenerating our core city and attracting the creative class. There are now 5175 apartments and condominiums downtown and there will be 6500, with 11,000 residents by 2012. More are being planned to attract both younger and older people who wish to walk to work in the city or are simply purchasing condos with a beautiful lake view. More than $5 billion worth of development projects are underway which, taken together, are building the sort of infrastructure that will bring more professionals, including more Jewish professionals, to Cleveland.

Look what’s in the pipeline

Projects like Scott Wolstein’s East Bank of the Flats, Bob Stark’s proposed Warehouse District project, the Maron’s East 4th Street, Doug Price’s 668 Building and Ameritrust redevelopment, Nathan Zaremba’s Avenue District, CSU’s College Town, the Cleveland Clinic’s Heart Center, University Hospital’s Cancer Center, Zaremba/Maron’s Uptown, anchored by MOCA and the Cleveland Institute of Art, and the new convention center and Medical Mart are creating an environment where the creative class and others who simply want to live in an urban environment can and will obtain high-paying jobs, shop, enjoy restaurants and entertainment, and live in architecturally interesting homes.

Many of these projects are clustered around Euclid Avenue, Cleveland’s historic main street, which, starting in the fall of 2008, will be home to a state of the art public transportation system. Collectively, these projects will create the backbone of a lifestyle that will attract the creative class. This lifestyle is all about being able to live, work, and play in urban core areas. Shouldn’t the JCF be part of the solution and not contribute to an exodus from downtown Cleveland?

A new and exciting facility in downtown Cleveland would make a strong statement about our commitment to the future of the city and could become a true center of Jewish activity. To leave Cleveland at a time when so many Jewish business leaders and entrepreneurs have invested their energies and resources in efforts to rebuild and strengthen the city would be a betrayal of the efforts of many of our own constituents. The recent Cleveland Jewish News poll, while not scientific, reported that roughly half those polled supported staying in Cleveland. One can only speculate whether the other half, once the issues have been fully aired, might change their mind.

Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of life is being there. Our presence in Cleveland has demonstrated our good citizenship and our understanding that as the core city flourishes or fades, our lives and the viability of our Jewish community are affected one way or the other. Perception is often more important than reality. Negative press cannot be overcome by simply providing monetary support for city projects and activities. As indicated in the attached Plain Dealer editorial, we are concerned about the hue and outcry that may be forthcoming from the general community should the decision be made to move out of Cleveland.

Convenience/Demographics
Those who wish to relocate the JCF building to the suburbs appear to base their case on the issue of convenience, stating that we live on the east side and that the staff often finds itself on the east side. First, in response, not all Jews live on the east side. Jews live in Cleveland and in the west side suburbs, and they also need to be acknowledged and engaged in this process. Do we leave them with feelings of abandonment if we move the headquarters east?

Moreover, the term “convenience” is a double-edged sword. Clearly, the great majority of Jewish people live in the eastern suburbs. However, that ignores the fact that many of us work in downtown Cleveland, in law firms and other businesses, and that will certainly continue. Indeed, if the Renaissance in this city comes to further fruition, that will become even more prevalent. Has the convenience of downtown workers been addressed? How do they feel about attending, during the working day, each and every meeting on the east side? Look at the number of people at every meeting who work in downtown offices or places like University Circle (which is also seeing a Renaissance) – Has their convenience been taken into account, particularly since most meetings are during the working day? This issue needs to be recognized and fully analyzed.

Isolation
Does it truly serve the purposes of Jewish Cleveland for us to remove ourselves physically from our friends and neighbors in the Greater Cleveland community. History has proven the risks of isolation, and those of us on the ad hoc committee believe this issue merits further discussion.

This is too important a decision and too many people do not support a move.

The process for making a decision of this magnitude must be transparent and participatory.

Where our headquarters is located is a decision with implications for the next several decades and for future generations. When organizations permit citizen participation in decisions that affect a community’s future, they are far more likely to gain the long-term goodwill of their constituents. The great opportunity before the Jewish community is to energize its members in the largest physical decision it will make in this half of the 21st century.

When Northeast Ohio’s leaders and leading institutions wanted to chart a process for economic revitalization, they initiated a conversation that attracted more than 20,000 participants. How?

The Fund For Our Economic Future, a regional organization funded by every major foundation in Northeast Ohio, was charged with developing a regional economic plan and getting people to support it. They turned to America Speaks (a consulting company known for creating public process) to engage citizens in the decision making process. The initiative, labeled Voices and Choices, engaged people from all walks of life in the discussion and convinced residents that their opinion mattered. What was the result? The result was an immediate upsurge in regional and inter-city cooperation as well as new plans for tax base sharing to build the region. And, for the first time, people actually believed they were vested in a process that valued their inputs.

Engagement means listening to your constituents and supporters and, in the process, expanding your base of volunteers and donors. Current donors and active members of the Jewish community are engaged – and they are its greatest recruiters – while less involved members of our community watch, listen, and speak to their friends about what is no doubt the most important decision the Federation will make for many years to come in terms of its physical presence.

Understanding the motivations of young adults, those both engaged and not currently engaged in the Jewish community, should be an important initial step in any process. Reaching out to those living in Cleveland and those who currently living somewhere else is critical to ascertain what is important to them for the future. A key question for our survival is how to retain and attract the next generation of Jewish leaders and how to motivate our sons and daughters who have moved away to return to our community. Without a strong and vibrant downtown, do we have any real prospect of bringing our diaspora home?

We also should take advantage of the opportunity to inform our community about the urban dynamic that is changing Northeast Ohio and creating a “new Jewish community” here. We can rely upon experts from Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve University to help us. We can also consider involving such nationally respected organizations as The Brookings Institution. And, we can and should look to the experiences of our sister communities across the US that may have thought about their locations and the re-engagement of their community member.

We should also engage the Cleveland Jewish News to use its resources to help distribute information and engage the community. This could be a great opportunity for citizen journalism using the Internet for ongoing discussion. Combining The Jewish News with citizen journalism could also help invigorate The Jewish News and broaden its market.

Engagement also underscores the value and importance of this decision in the context of the Federation’s strategic plan and the synergy of this decision with other Federation initiatives involving institutions – both Jewish and non-Jewish – that provide services to our community.

In Conclusion
The question of where to establish our physical presence presents us a once in a generation opportunity to reach out to those who are only tangentially engaged in our community and involve them in a process that, if handled properly, could deepen their commitment to the goals to which we are devoted. Whether we are inclusive in our decision making, or proceed on the path we currently are on, will determine for many years to come how the Federation is perceived in the Cleveland Jewish community, and beyond. And perhaps most importantly, how effectively will we be able to grow and attract the next generation of leaders and donors.