Jewish Center to Stay in Fairfax District

Officials of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles announced at a community meeting Tuesday night that they will not sell the center in the Fairfax district to a private high school.

The future of the Westside Jewish Community Center, which has served the neighborhood for 43 years, had been in doubt since a private high school offered to purchase the center and turn it into a school campus.

The $4-million purchase offer would have cleared the way to open a new community center a few miles to the west.

But the offer outraged many longtime residents, who gathered hundreds of signatures for a petition and fought the sale.

“We decided not to the sell the center because of the community response and because of the many conversations we’ve had with community leaders over the past few weeks,” said David Aaronson, president of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles.