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The Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center in Bridgewater opened in 2000 with a small preschool. But the Blaustein Early Childhood Center now has the capacity to serve 144 students, one of several ways in which the JCC has grown over the past year.

On June 2, the JCC held a dedication for its expansion to a $1.8 million second building, which has yet to be named. The building houses the Blaustein Center, as well as a second floor, which will be the future home of programming space. A new group fitness studio, in the former site of three early childhood classrooms, was also part of the expansion.

The Blaustein Center opened on time for the school year last September, and the fitness studio was ready for use last November, but the JCC decided to hold the dedication this month so the event could take place on the same day as their joint annual meeting with the Jewish Federation of Somerset, Hunterdon, and Warren Counties.

Susan Greenbaum Ferbank, executive director of the JCC, said that the center's operating budget has increased from $1.8 million in 2000 to $3.9 million this year. The JCC started off with 36,000 square feet of area, but is currently at 46,000 with the expanded preschool and will reach 56,000 when the second floor is complete.

"This does not happen without vision," Ferbank told a crowd of about 80 people outside the new building. "It does not happen without blood and sweat, and lots and lots of money."

JCC Camp Ruach also reflects the center's growth, with 500 children slated to attend the camp's upcoming third summer, Ferbank added, while the center donates $150,000 in scholarships each year to families who can't afford membership, school tuition, or camp tuition.

"We hope that everything we are doing in our present is fulfilling our mission in this community," Ferbank said. "We hope to build a community for all of the futures of our children and their children."

Doron Steger, a past president at the JCC, explained that the center's original board members made a critical decision to build a swimming pool for the opening in 2000, despite the high cost for that feature. The JCC swim team now has 200 members and won a state championship this year, Steger noted.

Steger kept that success in mind when the board weighed the option of expanding the JCC. Naysayers were again wary that the idea would prove to be too expensive, but "the if-you-build-it-they-will-come folks had a different idea," Steger said. A larger risk than high construction costs, Steger said, was the prospect that not enough local children would have been able to start their lives off with a Jewish education without the expansion of the Blaustein Center.

Still, Steger stressed that the JCC's expansion is nowhere near complete, as teen rooms, meeting rooms, and arts and crafts centers will be key additions on the second floor. The pool's capacity should also eventually be increased, Steger said.

Rabbi Mendy Herson, of Chabad of Somerset, Hunterdon, and Union Counties, spoke about the evolution of the local Jewish community since he moved to Basking Ridge in 1992. Herson was immediately impressed with the Jewish leaders he met upon his arrival, but said that the JCC filled what he previously thought was a large void in the fulfillment of the community's material needs.

"The creation of this JCC created a body for the Jewish soul," Herson said in his remarks. "There are no effective souls without a body."

The JCC's significant expansion despite the ongoing economic recession sends a strong message that the organization is committed to the community no matter what the cost may be, Herson said.

"This goes toward creating a sense of permanence in the Jewish community here," Herson said. "Everybody is struggling [financially], but we are going to finish this here and dedicate it because it's is a priority to people. We will work to make sure there is a future in this area."

The JCC also presented a new publication called "History of the Jews of Somerville and Environs 1864-2008," a compilation of interviews from community members who talked about their lifelong memories in the area. Al Levine, Avis Weeks, Lynn Levine, and Nancy Gorell edited the work.

"We could have written a historical novel or a TV series, but none of those things seemed like a good idea," Al Levine said, explaining the editors' opinion that personal memories were a more powerful tool for understanding the history of Jews in the region.