1917 – JWB is organized to serve the religious and welfare needs of Jewish military personnel in World War I.
1921 – Merger with National Council of YMHAs and Kindred Associations, founded in 1913, makes JWB the national organization serving JCCs, Ys, and Jews in the U.S. military.
1922 – JWB begins intensive programming services to JCCs. A lecture bureau is established.
1925 – President Calvin Coolidge joins JWB leaders in laying a cornerstone at the Washington, D.C., JCC. That year, 47 new JCC buildings had opened since the end of World War I, bringing the total number to 120.
1932 – Day camp programming for JCCs is launched.
1935 – JWB and JCCs organize an American team for the Palestine Maccabiah.
1936 – JWB leads the fight to keep the U.S. out of the Nazi-controlled Berlin Olympics.
1940 – The U.S. War Department reaffirms JWB’s role as the official representative of Jews serving in the military.
1941 – JWB becomes a founding member of the USO.
1942 – JWB organizes a Jewish Community Center division that spurs service to the field.
1943 – JWB serves the military on five continents through its chaplains, field workers, community groups, and the USO.
1945 – Jewish chaplains aid liberated concentration camp survivors. At the war’s end, JWB serves 588 communities and 203 USO operations; 311 Jewish chaplains are on duty.
1946 – JWB takes the initiative in creating the World Federation of YMHAs; the JWB Circle is born.
1947 – A JWB survey calls for stressing Jewish goals and programs of JCCs. A new era is ushered in for the JCC Movement.
1948 – Louis Kraft goes to Israel during the Arab siege to set up the Jerusalem YMHA. Later, JCCs across North America become focal points of community celebrations hailing the birth of the State of Israel.
1951 – JWB spurs JCCs to implement expanded services to seniors.
1954 – The first book on JCC practice is published by the National Association of Jewish Center Workers and JWB.
1960 – JCCs assume a role in JWB financing with the adoption of the Fair Share Plan at the JWB Biennial.
1964 – Florence G. Heller is elected the first woman president of JWB, the first woman to head a national Jewish organization.
1967 – JWB mobilizes support for Israel during the Six-Day War.
1968 – JWB takes part in mass demonstrations of solidarity with Soviet Jews.
1972 – JCCs hold memorial services for the Jewish athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics.
1982 – JWB initiates the Commission on Maximizing Jewish Educational Effectiveness (COMJEE), and the first JCC Maccabi Games^®, a week-long, Olympic-style competition for Jewish teens, is held in Memphis, Tennessee.
1984 – The COMJEE report is released in September.
1990 – JWB is renamed Jewish Community Centers Association of North America (JCC Association).
2003 – Jewish chaplains participate in a memorial service at NASA headquarters for seven victims of the space shuttle Columbia disaster.
2006 – The first JCC Maccabi ArtsFest^®, a showcase of visual and performing arts for teens, is held in Baltimore, Maryland.
2011 – The first JCC Maccabi Games^® are held in Israel.
2017 – Doron Krakow is named president and CEO of JCC Association.
2018 – JCC Association hires Jennifer Mamlet as its first chief development officer.
2020 – During the COVID-19 pandemic, JCC Association suspends dues to support the field and embarks on major virtual outreach and online resource-sharing initiatives for its lay and professional communities.
2021 – With the pandemic continuing, ProCon Online attracts 3,200 JCC professionals to a three-day event.
2022 – JCC Maccabi^® celebrates its 40^th anniversary.
2023 – JCC Association launches the Martin Pear Israel Fellowship to build and nurture JCC professionals’ relationship to Israel.
2023 – In partnership with the Union for Reform Judaism and Jewish Federations of North America, JCC Association launches ElevatEd, a groundbreaking collaborative initiative intended to transform the field of early childhood Jewish education.
2023 – JCC Association names Carrie Darsky its inaugural chief talent officer.
2024 – Jennifer Mamlet, JCC Association’s executive vice president, is appointed acting president and CEO, the first female CEO, when Doron Krakow steps down.
2025 – JCC Association launches its Stakeholder Partnership initiative, a collaborative approach to strengthening the collective future of JCCs, JCC Camps, and the JCC Movement throughout North America.
2025 – Barak Hermann is named president and CEO of JCC Association.
2025 – JCC Association launches the inaugural JCC Maccabi Campus Games at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
2026 – JCC Association launches three Centers of Excellence: Jewish Peoplehood, Talent Development, and Innovation and Impact.
2026 – JCC Association sells the 99-year-old Jerusalem building at the corner of Hess Street and George Eliot Alley, which JWB Jewish Chaplains Council^® purchased in 1977 and most recently housed the Center for Israel Engagement. Designated a historic landmark, the building previously housed the French Consulate, the Polish Red Cross offices during World War II, and the official residence of the director of the nearby International YMCA.