By Cindy Mindell

After more than a decade as CEO of the Stamford Jewish Community Center (JCC) , Gary Lipman will become executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Jewish Community Center Association (JCCA), the international umbrella organization that serves the entire JCC movement.

“This is indeed an extraordinary accomplishment for Gary, and one for which we are immensely proud,” says JCC president Brian Kriftcher. “It has been our community’s tremendous privilege to have Gary at the helm.” Under Lipman’s leadership, Kriftcher says, the organization’s revenue growth nearly doubled. The JCC redeveloped its physical property, adding a miniature-golf course, a low ropes adventure challenge area, and a scenic walking path, and renovated its fitness and wellness facility. The JCC hosted the 2006 JCC Maccabi Games, which brought to the area more than 1,000 local volunteers, 250 local Jewish teenagers, and 1,200 Jewish athletes from around the world. In addition, the organization cultivated the first members of a new generation of lay leadership.
A native of Cincinnati, Lipman says that he practically grew up at the Cincinnati JCC through his teenage years. Lipman came to the Stamford JCC as CEO after serving from 1989 to 2000 as director of finance, director of marketing and communications, and associate executive director.
Lipman’s vision was to help create what he calls “a true center of Jewish life for the entire Stamford Jewish community,” building on the accomplishments of previous leadership, while securing the organization’s finances for future generations.
“One of the greatest joys about working in the JCC movement is the opportunity to watch people develop on their own personal Jewish journey,” he says. “To watch young children grow into proud teenagers; to watch new parents gain confidence in their own parenting experience; to watch families increase their own commitment to Jewish practice bit by bit, often taught by their children who learn about Judaism in our preschool, our afterschool programs, and our summer camp; to watch recently widowed seniors move from loneliness to companionship as they find a second home at the JCC.”
Lipman says that what he most wanted was to take an already impressive facility and make it a great one. “I’m not sure that we’re all the way there yet, but we sure have made progress over the last decade, he says. “I know that whoever succeeds me will continue to build on this legacy and whoever succeeds them will build on their legacy, and so on. For in today’s Jewish communal life, there is no more powerful vehicle for building a meaningful Jewish community than the JCC.”
In his new role, Lipman will be engaged in the JCC movement on a national and international level.
“My hope is that at least some of what I’ve been privileged to learn in Stamford will be applicable at JCCs throughout North America and that we can continue to use the JCC movement as a tool to connect Jews to the community, to engage them more deeply in Jewish life, to help them lead a healthier lifestyle,” he says. “JCCs have a responsibility to take leadership roles throughout their communities and through the development of better professionals and well-trained lay leadership, I’m confident that the future of the JCC movement has never been stronger.”
Lipman will assume his new position in early December. Kriftcher has appointed Robin Frederick, a Stamford JCC past president, to head the CEO search committee.

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