About the JCC

The first Jewish Community Centre in Toronto was the Y.M.-Y.W.H.A. (Young Men’s/Young Women’s Hebrew Association), which was established in 1930 and augmented Jewish life in Toronto through fitness, educational, cultural, and community-based programming in the downtown core at their Brunswick Street and Bloor St. and Spadina (“Y”) locations. As the Toronto Jewish community continued to grow and began to move further north, the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre (BJCC) was built in 1961 on what was then an empty ravine at the intersection of Bathurst St. and Sheppard Ave. The beloved BJCC was home to Toronto’s growing Jewish community for almost 50 years, boasting multiple athletic spaces, a tennis and racket club, an Early Childhood Centre and Camp Fundale, which evolved into Centre Camp in 1989. In 1975, the BJCC was expanded with a new cultural and physical education wing including the Leah Posluns Theatre and The Murray Koffler Centre of the Arts.

Over the years, the BJCC built a strong sense of community and was a second home to many. With deep foresight, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto rejuvenated this community institution through its Tomorrow Campaign, and built a newer, more advanced, and larger complex on the same site, which is now the 27-acre Sherman Campus.

Construction of the Gales Family Pavilion was completed in 2010 which included a boutique health and fitness centre, arts and culture programming, and an Early Childhood Education Centre. The groundbreaking for the expanded home of the Prosserman JCC on Sherman Campus took place in October 2017, with the official (delayed due to the pandemic) opening in the Fall of 2021. Our expanded centre includes the 105,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art Sheff Family Building, which houses the 300+ seat Leah Posluns Theatre, Cynamon/Sokolowski Sports Complex (state-of-the-art fitness centre, indoor running track, three outdoor sports courts, two steam rooms and two saunas, four program rooms, a full-size gymnasium, four group fitness studios, two indoor saltwater pools, an outdoor saltwater pool and splash pad), the David and Esther Freiman Early Childhood Education Centre, and is the future home to the new Jewish Museum of Canada and the renewed Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre and a 300-seat multi-purpose theatre.