Jewish Community Center opens first piece of its Rockridge campus

The Jewish Community Center of the East Bay opened the first piece of its new Rockridge campus in late August, when the early childhood education center began classes at 5957 Chabot Road in Oakland.

The rest of the East Bay Jewish Community Campus follows. The JCC has set the full grand opening for early 2027, and it is moving there from its longtime Berkeley home on Walnut Street. Some Berkeley programs will keep running through the 2026-27 school year.

The site is a three-acre property between College and Claremont avenues, on the block that held the Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream headquarters, with about 84,000 square feet of building. It is two blocks from Rockridge BART.

The new early childhood center includes the Kitat Yam dual-language classroom, taught in Hebrew and English. The JCC's chief education officer, Yafit Shriki Megidish, has said the room is staffed by two teachers, one fluent in each language, so that children from Hebrew-speaking families and children with no Hebrew at home learn alongside each other.

When the campus is finished it is meant to hold a performance and event space seating more than 200, a commercial kosher teaching and catering kitchen, a kosher cafe, a health and wellness studio, a library, adult learning classrooms, a teen center, and a courtyard with a meadow, a reflection garden and a ball court.

The second and third floors are laid out as offices for up to 20 Jewish organizations that would work on site, among them Camp Tawonga, Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay, Jewish LearningWorks and JCRC Bay Area. JCC staff take the fourth floor.

The project is budgeted at $125 million. Founding donors Moses Libitzky and Nathan Petrowsky bought the property in December 2019.

The JCC has not announced a date within early 2027 for the grand opening. Enrollment and program details for the early childhood center are posted on the organization's campus page.