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(See The Washington Week For More Details)
JCC releases Witkes
Witkes' last day was scheduled to be Tuesday. A meeting with the senior permanent staff of the center was also scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. Witkes was hired in March 1995 under a three-year contract. A search committee for a new executive director has not yet been formed. Sheila Bellack, the center's director of cultural arts, has been appointed as the center's acting executive director. Witkes could not be reached for comment. The unanimous board vote came after several months of discussion about the future of the 25-year-old center. "The board believed that the challenges facing this center, or any Jewish community center, were best met by a chief executive officer who had a different set of skills and other qualifications," said Roz Jonas, the center's president. The center will honor the conditions in the remaining nine months of Witkes' contract to include monetary and other benefits, Jonas said. The JCC is the fourth largest Jewish community center in North America, with a membership of about 15,000. The center, said Jonas, is "entering a major renovation campaign and continuity of leadership is essential .... He [Witkes] is not the person who can lead the center forward." Witkes' termination comes before a soon-to-be-released Reorganization Task Force report headed by center vice-president Abbe Lowell. The task force, said Jonas, was comprised of board and staff representatives and was charged with looking at the structure of the center, from the board of directors to the front office. "The report will suggest that Michael Witkes, his mix of skills and the future of the center are not compatible," said Jonas. "We are on the brink of a major renovation campaign to the tune of several million dollars," said Jonas. "We face the same financial challenges that other agencies face." The center receives an allocation of about $800,000 from the United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Washington. The money is for safety-net programs run by the center, including senior feeding programs and programs for special needs, said Jonas. The center is also the recipient of funds from United Way. In the past few years, however, Jonas said funds designated for the center have been flat. Witkes began his term at the center in March 1995 after it was discovered that former executive director Lester Kaplan and three other center employees, over a period of nine years, had embezzled more than $1 million from center programs. Through a series of accounting audits it was revealed that Kaplan, in addition to other financial improprieties, had abused the center's credit cards and had an undisclosed ownership in a cleaning company contracted by the JCC. About $1 million of the funds taken from the center were returned, according to Andrew Stern, the center's former president. Kaplan pled guilty to seven separate felony counts and was sentenced to serve seven years in the Maryland penal system. He served a little over one year before being released. Stern and Jonas headed the search committee under which Witkes was hired. Before coming to the center, he had been executive director the Sephardic Community Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was unanimously approved by the JCC board in December 1994 but did not move to Washington until March 1995. When he was hired, said Jonas, "we were looking for a new executive director to replace Lester Kaplan. At that time, what the center thought and received was right on target." A press release issued on Dec. 22, 1994 noted that "Mike is a personable, bright, energetic, creative [ctr]mensch[ctx]. He is also an observant and highly ethical Jew, who, according to his carefully checked references, may also walk on water. We are confident that in Mike Witkes and Elaine Mann [the center's former assistant executive director] we have what this agency deserves the best." When Witkes was hired, center leadership "was looking for someone with a solid communal background and professional credibility in the field of Jewish communal service," said Jonas. Witkes, said Jonas, "restored confidence in the center and once again made the JCC a major player in the Jewish community .... He restored confidence and I give him a lot of credit." When the committee selected Witkes, said Stern, "we were looking for someone who was honest and open. We think we found someone who was stable, honest and a hard-working professional who was dedicated to the [Jewish communal] movement." But, Stern noted, Witkes came from "an insular community .... The search
committee did not see it as that different from this community."
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