June 5, 2006
Welcome to the Taube-Koret Campus for Jewish Life newsletter! The Campus is an exciting development project on the South Peninsula involving two premier Bay Area Jewish organizations—the Palo Alto JCC and the Jewish Home of San Francisco, with support of the Jewish Community Federation. We hope you will enjoy reading the latest updates about the Campus and other news important to our community. For more information, visit our website at www.campusforjewishlife.org.
Milestone Announcement
Tom Dine
Jewish Community Endowment Fund Awards $10 Million Grant
to the Taube-Koret Campus for Jewish Life
The Taube-Koret Campus for Jewish Life has been awarded a $10,000,000 grant from the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties. The grant is the largest to a capital project to be awarded in the San Francisco Federation Endowment Fund’s history.
“The Taube-Koret Campus for Jewish Life will be the cornerstone of a dynamic, growing, diverse Jewish community that will welcome and enhance the entire community,” said Federation CEO Thomas Dine. “For that reason, building the Campus is a top priority for the entire Federation.”
The Federation gift brings the total raised through the Campus capital campaign to $85 million. The $150 million campaign supports the purchase of the 8.5-acre site as well as construction of the new Oshman Family Jewish Community Center and senior residences being developed in affiliation with the Jewish Home of San Francisco. The 340,000-square-foot Campus is the first in the nation to fully integrate 193 units of independent and assisted living with Jewish Community Center facilities, as well as offices for Federation and other nonprofits providing essential local services.
The Federation-sponsored 2004 Jewish Community Study, the first comprehensive demographic analysis of the Jewish community from Sonoma to Sunnyvale in two decades, reported more than 72,000 Jews in the South Peninsula area, out of a total 228,000 in the West Bay Area. The South Peninsula’s increase of 248% during the past 20 years represented the fastest rate of Jewish population growth in the region. An estimated 13% of South Peninsula Jewish households are of Israeli origin.
“This generous gift abundantly demonstrates the San Francisco Federation’s commitment to, and confidence in, the Oshman Family JCC – and the vitality and growth of the Jewish Community in our neighborhood,” said JCC President Steven Bauman.
The Campus is in the process of completing required approvals from the City of Palo Alto and is scheduled to make a formal appearance before the Palo Alto Planning and Transportation Commission on June 28, 2006. A draft Environmental Impact Report for the project was published in February 2006. Construction could begin in early 2007 and is expected to take two years to complete.
Jewish Home Chairman David Friedman sees the Federation grant as affirmation of the Jewish Home’s vision for the future. “The Federation grant is especially meaningful as an endorsement of how the Home is expanding geriatric services throughout the Bay Area,” he said.
For more about the grant and Campus progress, see the recent press coverage in J Weekly and the San Jose Mercury News.
We have worked closely with Federation since the Campus idea was first conceived in 2001.This investment recognizes the centrality of the project to the rapid growth of the South Peninsula Jewish community. We hope Federation’s commitment will inspire others to join us in making the Taube-Koret Campus for Jewish Life a reality.
Carol Saal, Vice President and Fundraising Chair