Kaiserman JCC Celebrates Upgrades, Looks Ahead

Over the past year plus, the Kaiserman JCC has completed a $1 million renovation of its gymnasium and opened a second preschool at Temple Brith Achim in King of Prussia. It’s been a good year for the Wynnewood-based institution.

So, on Dec. 18, it will celebrate with a ribbon-cutting at its annual meeting. Pennsylvania state Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, who secured the $500,000 state grant that paid for half the gym renovation, will cut the ribbon at the JCC, which sits in her 17th Senatorial District.

“The JCC does a lot of incredible work in my community,” Cappelletti said a couple of years ago upon securing the grant. “They reach all across Montgomery County into Delaware County and Philadelphia County and Southeastern Pennsylvania.”

Next year, JCC leaders will work to expand that role even more. In May, Kaiserman will host the Mini & Junior JCC Maccabi Games, featuring more than 1,000 athletes from as far north as Toronto and as far south as Washington, D.C. It will also begin the second phase of a capital campaign that started with the gym renovation and other upgrades.

CEO Alan Scher said Kaiserman wants to add more swimming, fitness and wellness classes. He described that as “a huge need in our community in Lower Merion.”

“I’m proud that we’ve really established our place in the larger landscape in a way that’s additive,” Scher said.

Prior to the upgrades, the Kaiserman JCC gym needed new LED lighting, basketball backboards, a scoreboard, floors, a roof and an HVAC system. The installation of the HVAC system has been delayed to January due to an issue with the transformer, but once that’s complete, the project will be, too.

The Philly JCC Early Learning Center at Temple Brith Achim opened in the fall of 2024, but it gained momentum in 2025. The school now has six classrooms, and it serves a part of the Main Line, the King of Prussia area, that Kaiserman doesn’t usually serve.

“There are new families moving to this area, to Malvern, to Phoenixville, to Wayne, to King of Prussia, and they want Jewish experiences,” said Cantor Tifani Coyot, Brith Achim’s new spiritual leader. “It’s providing a huge service to Jewish families in the area.”

It’s helping the synagogue, too.

“We have people from the preschool who have now started to join the synagogue. When their kids graduate, they are going to want to stay around and join our kindergarten program,” Coyot said.

The two institutions are also discussing a transportation arrangement to bring King of Prussia-area families to Camp Kef at the JCC.

“We see ourselves as a regional institution,” Scher said.

Camp Kef has been welcoming more than 500 kids annually. Kaiserman’s in-house preschool, the Philly JCC Early Learning Center at Robert J. Wilf, had a waitlist of 50 kids before the JCC opened its second location at Brith Achim.

When Scher started in the summer of 2021, Kaiserman had barely survived the COVID pandemic. The CEO’s predecessor, Amy Krulik, had to raise funds from benefactors and secure state and federal aid just to pay employees and keep the lights on.

Now, at the end of 2025, the JCC wants to show that it’s thriving. That’s what the Mini & Junior JCC Maccabi Games will say to the community, according to Scher.

“The JCC is back,” he said.

Kaiserman last hosted the Mini & Junior JCC Maccabi Games in 2019. It last hosted the national JCC Maccabi Games in 2011. Scher hopes that the junior games can be a stepping stone to the bigger games. He said the JCC is exploring the possibility of hosting the JCC Maccabi Games, for athletes in the 13-17 age range, in 2027.

“We’re using this as an intentional tool,” Scher said. “The JCC Maccabi Games is one of the most impactful structures of Jewish life. This program now has 40-plus years of data. It engages a demographic that doesn’t typically participate in other formal structures of Jewish life. These are young people who may not have a deep, robust connection. We see that this experience has a profound effect on them.”

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