JCC Association of North America

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About JCC Association JCC Association is the continental umbrella organization for the Jewish Community Center Movement, which includes more than 350 JCCs, YM-YWHAs, and camp sites in the U.S. and Canada. JCC Association offers a wide range of services and resources to help its affiliates to provide educational, cultural, social, Jewish identity-building, and recreational programs for people of all ages and backgrounds. JCC Association supports the largest network of Jewish early childhood centers and Jewish summer camps in North America, and is also a U.S. government accredited agency for serving the religious and social needs of Jewish military personnel through JWB Jewish Chaplains Council. History of the JCC Movement The JCC Movement started in 1854 when the first Young Men's Hebrew Association opened its doors in Baltimore to provide support for Jewish immigrants, help ensure Jewish continuity, and to provide a place for celebration. Similar associations opened soon after, serving as libraries, cultural centers, and settlement houses. As immigration swelled in the late nineteenth century, YMHAs and Jewish Community Centers helped immigrants adapt to North American life by teaching them English, assisting their acculturation to new customs and mores, and helping them to participate fully in the civic responsibilities and opportunities of their new democratic home. The Council of Young Men's Hebrew & Kindred Associations was founded in 1913 to coordinate and promote the efforts of the independent centers. It was the first permanent body to which the individual centers could turn for networking, guidance, and support. Responding to the First World War, YMH&KA secured funds to enlist rabbis for service at military posts and called a conference of several Jewish bodies, giving birth to the Jewish Welfare Board (JWB) in 1917, which developed a comprehensive infrastructure for attending to the welfare of Jewish military personnel. JWB took over the responsibilities of YMH&KA when the two organizations merged shortly after the war. The new JWB continued to serve Jewish Americans in the armed forces both at home and abroad, and became the national association of JCCs and YM-YWHAs.