Philadelphia Youth Basketball announced that it will repurpose a 100,000-square-foot industrial building in Philadelphia’s Nicetown neighborhood to be named The Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center after its lead donor.
Horwitz, 76, the Philadelphia real estate developer behind Campus Apartments and a Philadelphia 76ers superfan, is contributing $5 million as part of a $25 million capital campaign.
The facility, which will become PYB’s new home, will feature seven basketball courts, five classrooms, a health and wellness oasis, a financial literacy workshop, a civic dialogue arena, a healthy food commissary and a retail shop, a youth leadership and multimedia lab, a Philadelphia Basketball Hall of Fame, conferencing pods and administrative space for PYB staff.
“PYB’s coach-mentors and staff team leaders are top-notch and have devoted themselves to creating opportunities for kids to achieve academically and intellectually, socially and emotionally, athletically and civically,” Horwitz said. “Our center will be an absolute game changer at a time when our city and thousands of young people need a safe and positive place to learn and develop.”
PYB, which was founded in 2015 as a youth and community development organization, will break ground on the center late this year and will open its doors 12-14 months later. It will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.
PYB uses basketball as a tool to surround young people with culturally relatable coach-mentors who come from the same neighborhoods and circumstances that they do to help young people find voice, value and visibility as they navigate their formative years.
Its six core programs are a middle school partnership, collegiate summer camp series, the female-based HoopHers, an older youth program called I Am Because We Are, learning pods and a leadership development academy.
KleinLife Awarded $50K Grant for Holocaust Survivor Support
The Jewish Federations of North America’s Center on Aging And Trauma awarded KleinLife a $50,000 grant to be paid over two years for Holocaust survivor support services.
The award follows a 2018 grant of $150,000 that allowed KleinLife to establish its Revive program. Kleinlife serves 220 Holocaust survivors from the former Soviet Union with a variety of health, wellness, nutrition and socialization services that focus on improving participants’ physical, psychological, social and spiritual wellness.
KleinLife said in a news release that in a recent Revive program evaluation, 86% of participants said they experienced an improvement in physical wellness and 93% said they had improved their psychological wellness.
KleinLife Hosts Virtual Dance Program for Holocaust Remembrance Day
“Maybe Even Higher,” a virtual dance program inspired by children’s artwork from the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czech Republic during World War II, will be shown at 2 p.m. on Jan. 27 by KleinLife as part of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Philadelphia dance company The Artist House will perform the original choreography for the program, which is set to Johannes Brahms’ waltzes.
“The show is dedicated to Jewish and other artists who refused to shed their humanity and life’s work in the face of extermination and found dignity and humor in theater in the pits of hell,” dance company Artistic Director Asya Zlatina said.
The four-part program will be presented in English and Russian.
To view the program, register and receive a Zoom link from Mariya Keselman-Mekler, KleinLife’s counseling and program manager and certified art therapist at 215-698-7300, ext. 185, or by emailing [email protected].
Atlantic Seaboard NCSY and Jewish Future Pledge’s Youth initiative Jewish Future Pledge announced a video/essay competition called the Jewish Future Contest.
Although the contest is open to teens across the United States, the focus is on high school students in the Greater Philadelphia area.
The contest kicked off recently when NCSY gathered 35 teen leaders from regional high schools to hear from Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia board co-chair David Adelman, who is the CEO of Campus Apartments. He described how he got where he is and how each of them could embody philanthropic principles and give back to the Jewish community.
“The businessperson in me looks at philanthropy as — is there a problem I am invested in, and can I help solve it? Certainly money is one way to do that, and another is time. … I encourage all young people to find something you are passionate about and get involved. Bring your ideas. We may learn from you and be able to change something to make it better.”
Teens can enter the content by either writing or videoing themselves answering the following question: What would you do for the future of the Jewish people?
First prize will receive $1,000, second will receive $500 and third will receive $250. The submission deadline is March 30, with winners announced on April 20.
To enter, visit atlanticseaboard.ncsy.org/Jewish-future-contest.
JFCS Dental Fund Named in Honor of Longtime Employee Joanne Lippert
A Jewish Family and Children’s Service dental fund for older adults is being renamed in honor of Joanne Lippert, a longtime JFCS employee who died in July.
An anonymous donor contributed money for the Joanne Lippert Memorial Dental Fund. That same donor helped fund the program in 2008, working with Lippert to ensure elderly residents received proper dental treatment.
Lippert established a partnership with Albert Einstein Medical Center Dental Medicine along with her husband, Dr. Rick Titlebaum, an endodontist and faculty member at Einstein’s I.B. Bender Division of Endodontics.
“Joanne advocated for the elderly, provided food assistance to those who were hungry, offered a financial bridge when someone was in a crisis, and accommodated access to dental care for patients who lacked the means or even guidance on how to start the process,” Titlebaum said.
Over the years, JFCS expanded its partnerships to include private dentists and Penn Dental Medicine.
“Joanne was a remarkable woman and clinician with a kind heart who gave tirelessly of her time here at JFCS to support vulnerable members of our community,” said Pia Eisenberg, a JFCS senior vice president.
