Lee and Dorothy Marsh arrived in Berkeley in 1961.
At first, they were too busy building up their electrical contracting business and getting settled to think about building a community.
Then, as a few years went by, Lee Marsh realized, “We didn’t have much in the way of Jewish connections. But I started thinking to myself, ‘Hey, how come all my friends are Jewish?'”
So the Marshes founded the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center — which is celebrating its 25th anniversary with “An Evening at the Kasbah,” honoring the Marshes on Saturday, June 25.
The evening will feature Middle Eastern music, food and a belly-dancing performance.
In their native Detroit, the Marshes had access to a wide-ranging network of organizations and services in the Jewish community. Berkeley in the ’60s did not quite have that. But they were influenced by the prevailing culture of the time. “Those were the days when you thought big,” Marsh explained.
Usually, once a federation decides a JCC should be built, it conducts a fund-raising drive and goes to its wealthiest donors. But this is Berkeley, a place where things are not always done the way they are done elsewhere.
“None of that was done here,” he said. “Our East Bay federation was a financially poor one, so we used our elbow grease, enthusiasm and youth.”
The Marshes’ main goal was to serve every Jew, no matter their affiliation. “The young people in Berkeley had very strong beliefs, and one of them was don’t become a part of the establishment,” he said. “I felt the best way is to serve the Jewish community without ideology limiting us.”
Lee Marsh served as the center’s first president, when it opened in 1980 in a rental storefront at a University Avenue co-op. They had a staff of one, and an annual budget of $9,000.
A few years later, it moved into the current space at 1414 Walnut St. It rented that property for several years, until it could afford to buy it, in 1987.
Nate Levine, now the executive director of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, served as executive director of the BRJCC for two years after it bought the building. It was extremely rewarding personally because he met his future wife, who worked there at the time.
But it also was professionally rewarding, he said.
“It was a very exciting group of people who were visionary, passionate leaders,” he said. “It was great fun to be there.”
Marsh recalled with great fondness the Berkeley Jewish Theatre that was founded by the BRJCC. (The theatre eventually had to fold when it ran out of money.)
“That was really the crown jewel of our JCC, I still remember many of the plays,” he said.
But other programs there are still going strong. The annual Berkeley Jewish Music Festival reaches people on both sides of the Bay, and in Marin, as well.
Joel Bashevkin, the BRJCC’s executive director, estimates that about 1,000 people use the facility each week, an especially impressive number since the facility has no gym.
The BRJCC has taken on responsibilities of running child-care services in Oakland, since the Piedmont-Oakland community center closed. Its board is working to become fully independent from the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay.
“This is a celebration of 25 years of the BRJCC, but it’s also a jumping off point to re-envision ourselves as the JCC in this part of the county,” he said.
BRJCC will celebrate its 25th anniversary with “An Evening at the Kasbah” honoring Lee and Dorothy Marsh at 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley. $60. Information: (510) 848-0237 or www.brjcc.org.