By Shanna Fuld
The Bukharian Teen Lounge, a facility for young people funded by the JCCA, formerly known as the Jewish Child Care Agency, closed its doors in Forest Hills June 30 after the school year ended.
The teen lounge at 64-05 Yellowstone Blvd. was a place where many immigrant families were able to get help for their children, whether it was learning how to be a community leader through workshops or seeking counsel from mental health professionals. The lounge had a rotation of about 55 students per week who came in for college prep, Bukharian leadership workshops and recreational activities like cooking classes.
This year the JCCA board reviewed all of the 30-plus programs it ran in the greater New York area and Westchester. They decided the Bukharian teen lounge was one out of three programs under the JCCA that were not sustainable.
The other two programs, the Forest Hills Child Care Center and Family Child Care, have been closed for several months.
Sandy Katz, vice president of services for the Jewish Community, said the JCCA organization is 200 years old and though these programs are no longer offered in Queens, the JCCA plans to continue providing for needy, vulnerable and at-risk children for another 200 years.
The funding for the teen lounge came from a variety of sources. The lounge applied for grants, money from the state and the City Council as well as private donations, but the balance of the costs were subsidized by the JCCA.
“We decreased staff and costs to try to alleviate the financial burden,” Katz said. “Client need has decreased. The board had to look at this.”
Katz said the Bukharian community had been made up of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union about 15 to 20 years ago. But today’s teens are American-born and are finding less need for the lounge as they acclimate and use the city Department of Ed services and other sources found within their own Bukharian ranks to help themselves. While the lounge itself is closing, two of the programs offered there will still exist, taking form at New York City public schools as well as private Jewish day schools. These programs will keep its staff, like the counselors at “Partners in Caring” or the UJA funded Kew Garden Hills Youth program, run by Rabbi Jinian. Partners in Caring has been operating out of a variety of schools and community centers for three years.
“They’re meeting the needs of their own community now. We will still provide referrals for families who need assistance. We’re still here,” Katz said.
Rafael Nektalov is the editor-in-chief of the Bukharian Times and director of the Bukharian Congress in the United States and Canada. He also sat on the board of the Bukharian Teen Lounge. Nektalov said he as well as the community felt very appreciative of the lounge and that he wanted to thank Bella Zelkin, the director of emigre services, an influential leader who was phased out in the months approaching the lounge’s closing. He said the organization helped many immigrant families — both practicing and secular Jews — who came to the United States, where they had financial problems and lived without health insurance.
“We organized fund-raising for them. We did this because it was good for our community. They [the lounge] helped not only Jewish people, but many immigrant people from Central Asia and they never asked about their identities or who they were,” Nektalov said.
Katz said some of the students were sad to say goodbye to the lounge, but the most important part for them was seeing all of the successful adults and families who spent their teen years improving themselves at the Bukharian Teen Lounge.
