San Rafael Jewish center branches out to southern Marin

The 75-year-old organization renovated a Mill Valley office building to accommodate families in the area with activities and child care.

The Osher Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael has expanded to southern Marin.

The JCC’s new location, at 36 Tiburon Blvd. in Mill Valley, is meant to be more convenient for residents of Mill Valley, Tiburon, Belvedere, Strawberry, Sausalito and Marin City. The center has been around for 75 years, and based at its current location for decades.

The new extension aims to bring cultural events, community connection and early child care to the area. After significant renovations to a former office building, the satellite location has preschool classrooms, a natural playground for children and a community gathering space.

The new campus is a “pandemic success story,” said Judy Wolff-Bolton, chief executive officer of the JCC.

Previously, the center operated a preschool out of a space rented from Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon. During the pandemic, Kol Shofar decided to start its own preschool, which the JCC supported. Wolff-Bolton said the JCC wanted to have a presence in southern Marin that would accommodate all ages and community members for around 20 years.

“It allowed an opportunity in the middle of the pandemic for us to say this is the time that we need to have a JCC presence in southern Marin that is more than a preschool, and that would be welcoming of everyone, including the entire community, to participate in as well as our Jewish and mixed-heritage families that are in the area,” Wolff-Bolton said.

Tamar Lai, the JCC’s early childhood education director, said establishing the preschool in southern Marin has allowed the organization to meet the needs of families that have sought early childhood education near their homes.

“The opening of a JCC site in southern Marin has been a longstanding goal, and this expansion allows us to extend our reach to more individuals within the Marin community,” Lai said.

The expansion also helps serve the center’s mission of sustaining Jewish culture, building community and cross-cultural understanding, and enriching lives, said Wolff-Bolton.

She said that in a time of increasing antisemitism, people seek the kind of cross-cultural, multigenerational, and community building space the center provides. She said people are looking for ways to come together in safe environments.

“It’s the right time for us to be there, to be a really welcoming haven for Jewish families and members and neighbors,” Wolff-Bolton said. “We are a living, breathing microcosm of our world where people are learning about different cultures.”

The community space will be used for programs for southern Marin families, such as midweek musical matinees, music and movement classes for infants, and cultural gatherings like Friday Shabbat Shmooze, a free event with live music, Wolff-Bolton said.

“We’re still finishing up some of the construction and renovation,” Wolff-Bolton said. “So we want to get that stuff done, and that work is supposed to be done over the next two months.”

The community building opened in the beginning of April with a series of cultural and community events like a senior strength class, baby development classes, and tours of the campus, Wolff-Bolton said. The preschool has operated since October.

Wolff-Bolton that said beginning in June, she hopes to have three or four community and cultural events a month that are open to everybody, all beginning after 4 p.m. on weekdays.

The south campus will not have the aquatic and fitness programs that typically draw membership, Wolff-Bolton said, but it will have events for the entire community, for both members and nonmembers.

Tiburon resident Jon Welner said he and his family have been members of the JCC since 2000.

“We joined the JCC for community,” said Welner, a member of the Town Council. “All of our children went to the JCC preschool, followed by elementary school and middle school at Brandeis Marin. Our family is always on the campus for one reason or another.”

He said the center has heard members say for years that they wish the JCC was closer to them.

“And now it is,” Welner said. “We are so pleased to now be able to provide a beautiful preschool and gathering space for the Jewish community in southern Marin.”