TheBurg

18 | theburg | 02.16 For Spector, the heart of the JCC is the Yeshiva, of which he was a president. "It brought kids and their parents into the building," he said. " e Yeshiva and its mission embody the JCC." LIke hoMe Alyce Spector, married to Morton for 65 years, grew up in Paxtang and took two buses to N. 3rd Street to Hebrew School at the JCC five days a week. She remembers basketball games, fraternity and sorority meetings and Broadway shows at the JCC. Always active, she was president of Young Judaea, a Zionist youth movement, a Hadassah member and president of the PTA at Yeshiva and of Israel Bonds, among other positions. She founded a program promoting tolerance and diversity in public schools through the federation. Spector has vivid memories of collecting money to settle immigrants in Israel. During the Six-Day War in 1967, "an emergency campaign raised the highest per capita contributions of any community in the country," she said. Lillian Rappaport heads the Hebrew High for public school students and the federation's Holocaust education programs. e latter include the annual "March of the Living" to Poland and Israel for teens and the "Reading of the Names" of Holocaust victims. e community also built a Holocaust Memorial in Riverfront Park. A Harrisburg native who returned after years in New York, Rappaport loved growing up in a small, close-knit community. One "profound memory" was the center. She took art, bowling and trampoline classes and attended the Yeshiva and after-school program. "After doing my homework, I went to the JCC," Rappaport said. "It had everything, but the activities were secondary. Everyone was there." e younger generation is represented by Emily Doctrow Freeburn. "My parents and I were born in the city, and three- quarters of my grandparents were raised here," she said. "Many of my aunts, uncles and cousins also chose to raise their families in Harrisburg." Freeburn considers herself "lucky" to have grown up in a tight-knit community where many people feel like family and the JCC feels "like home." She participates in the young adult leadership cohort, which helps train leaders, and serves on the board of the Silver Academy. "I feel like I spent my entire childhood at the JCC, between attending the ELC [Early Learning Center] and the Yeshiva Academy to after-school activities like swim team and basketball, to community/family activities such as the Purim Carnival," Freeburn said. "I would also go to the JCC to watch my dad play basketball or to hang out while my parents were in meetings." As an adult, she uses the gym, and her husband has participated in sports leagues. e couple is expecting a first child this month and is looking forward to raising a family at the JCC. "Because we all felt welcome at the JCC, we experienced a real sense of unity," concluded Frankston. "We were a community who joined together in joy and in sorrow." e Harrisburg Jewish Community Center is located at 3301 N. Front St., Harrisburg. For more information, call 717-236-9555 or visit www.jewishharrisburg.org.

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