Deal JCC closes its athletic facilities
Announcement cites a 'severe financial crisis'
Faced with a “severe financial crisis,” The Ruth Hyman Jewish Community Center in Deal is closing its fitness area and two gyms, until further notice.
The JCC Board announced the closure in an April 10 email to members. The notice said that the Yeshiva at the Jersey Shore and the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, both housed at the JCC, will continue to operate.
Members will be able to pick up personal items from their lockers on Sunday, April 15 from 9 AM until 12 PM.
The JCC filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 5. TD Bank initiated foreclosure on the facility last spring and a Monmouth County Sheriff’s sale of the property was scheduled for the end of October and then postponed. Chapter 11 bankruptcy permits the JCC, including the Performing Arts Center, to remain open while it reconfigures its finances.
The JCC shuttered its preschool in December.
Administrators have held talks with officials of the Deal Sephardic Network, which represents interests in Deal's Syrian-Jewish community, about rescuing the troubled center.
“The process continues to be slow. I’m sorry, but at this time we don’t have any updates,” Jeffrey Saka of Deal, president of the Network’s board of directors and a leading player in the negotiations with the JCC, told NJJN last week, before the closure of the athletic facilities was announced.
comments