Thank You!

The Chai5 Art Auction Has Ended

The Chai 5 auction is now complete and we have successfully raised over $3,000 thanks to everyone’s generosity! Winners and artists are all invited to our Chai 5 Artists reception Sunday, Nov. 4 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. to enjoy cake and champagne. Afterwards winners can take home their hamsas. We will also be announcing the winners of the Top Three awards.

Please, RSVP to info@jccdenver.org.

About the Chai 5 Art Project

The Robert E. Loup Jewish Community Center (JCC) announces the Chai 5 Art Project in celebration of its 90^th anniversary. The Chai 5 Art Project includes an open call for artists to decorate a Hamsa, an exhibit opening reception and birthday party  at the JCC, 350 S. Dahlia St. in Denver, and a corresponding art exhibit (Oct. 9 – Dec. 1), also at the JCC.

The year, 2012, marks the Robert E. Loup JCC’s 90th anniversary as a Denver institution.  Established in 1922, the Jewish Community Center of Denver first opened as the Louise Guldman Center and then moved to East Alameda and Dahlia Streets in 1962, the Center’s current site, in order to accommodate its ever growing programs.

The JCC offers social, recreational and educational programs to the community at large. Its amenities include the newly renovated Sports & Fitness Center, a Qualistar rated Early Childhood Center, Camp Shai, a popular summer day camp, programs for young Jewish families, teens and seniors and the Mizel Arts and Culture Center (MACC), which focuses on arts and cultural programming for both children and adults.

The Chai 5 Art Project will not only commemorate this momentous occasion but will also allow community members to actively participate in the celebration by designing their own Hamsas.  The inspiration for this project begins with the word Chai, a Hebrew symbol translated as ‘life’ and pronounced like the word ‘high’.  The letters in Chai, from a numerological viewpoint, add up to 18 and for this reason 18 and multiples of 18 are considered Jewish sacred numbers. 18 times 5 equal 90, thus, Chai 5.

The JCC has chosen to represent Chai 5 with a Hamsa or hand, because of its symbolism within the Jewish, as well as Middle Eastern communities as a lucky symbol and because of its contemporary reference to the phrase, ‘high five’.  In addition, the JCC has designed a special 90^th anniversary JCC logo which incorporates the Hamsa imagery.