L.A. STORIES : A Fit Place to Make a Few Friends
Looking for hard bodies, babes in thongs, hunks with 12-pack stomachs and biceps the size of Montana? Searching for a cardio workout that includes pulsating rock ‘n’ roll and steroid freaks slapping high fives? Don’t look here, then.
At the Westside Jewish Community Center gym, you’ll find trainers who hug you when you finish a particularly grueling set of abs and a cultural melting pot of members and staff who believe community and friendship are just as important as well-toned thighs.
“It’s the best-guarded secret in Los Angeles,” says Eli Sherman, 63, director of health and physical education for the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Los Angeles.
The gym, on Olympic Boulevard three blocks east of Fairfax Avenue, is a refuge for people of every age and cultural background looking for a way to burn off calories without having to worry about how they’re dressed or what kind of shape they’re in before they get there.
On any given day, you’ll find 80-year-old Holocaust survivors schmoozing in Yiddish as they maintain a leisurely pace on the treadmill, while on the other side of the room, young Russian and Iranian immigrants pump iron.
It’s an environment with its own pulse, packed with elderly members in the morning, a few, quiet strays in the early afternoon, then filling up again in the evenings with young professionals eager for an hour of blowing off steam.
Although the membership includes all races and religions, the gym observes the Jewish Sabbath by closing early on Fridays and opening late on Saturdays. It boasts state-of-the-art equipment, a steam and sauna room, basketball, racquetball and handball courts, and two pools that have regular hours for Orthodox women who may swim only in the company of other women.
Sherman, who has worked for the JCC for 40 years, heads an ongoing effort to maintain a family-friendly atmosphere. He admits part of this effort is selfish. He has always considered the gym his home away from home.
And indeed for longtime member Nate Gurvin, the gym is family and much more. “The gym makes you live longer,” says the 94-year-old Russian immigrant. When his wife died 19 years ago after 49 years of marriage, he became depressed and lonely. His son encouraged him to join the gym.
“He said it would be my second home, and it is my second home,” Gurvin says. He begins his mornings in the weight room. Then, to the music of Ed Ames, Eddie Fisher and Steve Lawrence, he lifts and bends and kicks in 83-year-old Klara Veres’ exercise class for arthritis sufferers. That finished, he marches downstairs to the pool, where, during an aquatic exercise class, he pauses to admire two well-toned women, at least 60 years his junior, as they emerge from the water.
But if the gym is a way for some to work out the aches and pains of old age, it is also an environment that fosters a sense of belonging for the young.
“I’ve made a lot of friends here,” says Damon Santiago, 24, the gym’s fitness coordinator. “When you come here, it’s like coming home.” Santiago has been a part of the JCC since he attended day care when he was 6. Later, he went to Camp Chai, a JCC-sponsored program, and during high school he worked as a lifeguard at the center’s two pools.
Whether he’s listening to the sometimes shattering stories of the World War II generation or playing with the children in day care, Santiago clearly loves his job. “I know everyone on a first-name basis,” he says, noting that the hallmark of the Westside JCC gym is the low turnover of its staff and the diversity of its members.
Jason Perec, 68, survived the Nazi invasion of his small Polish village by running into the forest, where he was later rescued by Russian soldiers. He lost his entire family and his friends to the Nazis, but today he finds hope and friendship at the gym. “I feel better and I am with my friends here,” he says.
There is 19-year old Meni Egosi, whose family left Israel four years ago. He attends Cal State Northridge as a psychology major. Unlike his older counterparts at the gym, Egosi sports a ponytail and breaks a sweat bodybuilding.
Molut Khadabi is 75 years old and from Iran. She and her friends have been coming to the gym for three months. She timidly tries the chest press and looks forward to swimming.
Bob Delaney, 54, works for a life insurance company and spouts off more O.J. Simpson jokes than the comedians at the Improv on a Saturday night. He comes regularly to the gym because “it’s a non-threatening place for people of any age. You can get as much help as you want and it has a very diverse group of people.”
What’s remarkable about this amalgam of humanity is the level of respect and tolerance practiced by its members. According to Santiago, the only bickering has been over the treadmill, for which there is sometimes a 10-minute wait.
“The goal of other gyms is to get you in there. They don’t care if you work out after that. You’re on your own,” Santiago says. But at the JCC, “there’s a better member-to-trainer relationship.”