SHERMAN CAMPUS

Since its creation in 1983, the Lipa Green Building for Jewish Community Services, located on Bathurst Street, just north of Sheppard Avenue, has proudly served the needs of Toronto’s Jewish community.  Today, as that community continues to grow and flourish, UJA Federation’s Tomorrow Campaign – an unprecedented, $400 million infrastructure project – is rebuilding and revitalizing Jewish centres of life across the Greater Toronto Area, keeping pace with our burgeoning community.   

Currently, the Tomorrow Campaign is mid-way through completion of the construction of two new floors at the base of the Lipa Green Building and the construction of the 40,000 square foot Gales Family Pavilion of the Prosserman Jewish Community Centre, both key components of the Sherman Campus. 

Due to its unique structure – the Lipa Green Building was elevated on stilts giving it the height of a seven-storey structure – the Tomorrow Campaign will be “filling in” the first two levels. The new River Level floor will house a state-of-the-art Conference Centre that will feature the beautiful Tamari Family Conference Hall, a formal boardroom, several meeting rooms and a fully equipped Teleconferencing Centre.  The Courtyard Level (First Floor) will be home to the new Jewish Family & Child (JF&CS), which has for decades provided counseling, education, prevention and protection for families and individuals throughout the Greater Toronto Area. In their new location, clients and visitors will use an independent Courtyard Level entrance, providing more dignified and private access to the services within. 

A number of agencies including JIAS (Jewish Immigrant Aid Services) Toronto and the Toronto Jewish Free Loan Cassa will become integral parts of the Lipa Green Building’s Community Services Wing. Space will also be dedicated to Israel Experience agencies such as Taglit Birthright Israel and the Israel Aliyah Centre, to name a few.  Meanwhile, the Gales Family Pavilion, scheduled to open at the beginning of July 2009, will enjoy a seamless transition of its daycare centre currently housed in the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre to its new, nine-classroom, 175 student, state-of-the-art Early Childhood Education Centre. As well, the Gales Family Pavilion will house an exciting seniors’ recreation centre with a relaxing lounge and activity room, a computer teaching lab, culinary arts studio, light fitness and dance studios, and multi purpose rooms providing a venue for the eclectic array of programs to be offered by the Prosserman JCC. The Koffler Centre of the Arts will also have several dedicated rooms for the continuation of their ceramics and painting programs on the campus. 

The steel for the bridge connecting the Lipa Green Building and Gales Family Pavilion is already in place. This important link is the first of many that will connect all of the buildings on Sherman Campus, creating one seamless space that can be readily – and pleasantly – traveled through good weather and bad. Upon completion, the new Lipa Green Building for Jewish Community Services and the Gales Family Pavilion will change the face of Jewish life for community members throughout the Greater Toronto Area.