The San Fernando Valley has for decades drawn Jewish expatriates from Israel who have established neighborhoods, set up synagogues, opened restaurants and delved into civic life.
Now an estimated 250,000 Israeli-born residents from across Southern California will be able to flock to the nation’s first Israeli-American community center, in Woodland Hills.
The new IAC Shepher Community Center, scheduled to open this spring, will preserve a modernist building designed by noted Los Angeles architect John Lautner, once slated for demolition. A grand preview for city officials and VIPs will take place Sunday.
“This center will be the first of its kind, providing a vibrant hub for our local Israeli-American community and a bridge connecting Israel to Southern California,” said Miri Shepher, chair of the IAC Los Angeles Council, in a statement. “Creating a physical gathering space will advance the IAC’s mission to engage and unite Israeli-Americans — and contribute to the broader Jewish community.
“We are hopeful that it will be the first center of many around the country.”
The Israeli-American Council center at 6530 Winnetka Ave. is intended to serve as a cultural replacement for the many Jewish community centers that have shut their doors across the region, officials say. It will also serve as a site for a planned future headquarters, with space for other non-profit groups.
The 11,000-square-foot building, once home to the AbilityFirst Paul Weston Work Center, is meant to act as a local Jewish political and community hub, featuring a basketball court, gym, Israeli dance classes, Hebrew film screenings, well-baby classes, senior programs and more.
The facility will provide leadership training, with programs on public diplomacy and pro-Israel advocacy, officials say, equipping young Jews in a fight against the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel. The movement, launched by Palestinians a decade ago, calls for greater Palestinian rights.
The IAC, founded eight years ago in Woodland Hills to unite 500,000 Israeli-Americans across the nation, has submitted plans to build a 30,000-square-foot national headquarters next to its historic Lautner building.
The $5.5 million nonprofit now has nine regional offices across the nation.
By opening its community center, the Israeli-American Council warded off the wrecking ball for a Lautner commercial building noted for its open interior and glass-fronted, pie-shaped wings.
Built in 1979 as a Crippled Children’s Society Rehabilitation Center, the building by the Los Angeles River was to be replaced by an assisted living facility until advocates in 2014 rallied for its preservation.
It is expected to be open by spring.
“We are building something that will be much more than a community center,” said Erez Goldman, regional director of the IAC Los Angeles. “It will be the center of the community.”
